The British in India, first as adventurers, then as traders and finally as rulers through the India Office in London and the Viceroy's Government in India, oversaw all aspects of Indian life - district administrations, law, police, army, trade, education and culture and relations with princely states and foreign powers.

And yet a sense of alienation among the British always remained. The end came quickly with Indian independence in 1947, and the British left a bitterly divided sub-continent. This is not a blow-by-blow historical account but a narrative social and cultural history which explores the British-Indian relationship at all levels.