India and the subcontinent stimulated the curiosity of the British who came to India as traders. Each aspect of life in India - its people, customs, geography, climate, fauna and flora - was documented by British travelers, traders, administrators, soldiers to make sense to the European mind. As they 'discovered' India and occupied it, they also attempted to 'civilise' the natives.
The present volumes focus on select aspects of the imperial archives: the accounts of "discovery" and exploration - fauna and flora, geography, climate - the people of the subcontinent, English domesticity and social life in the subcontinent, the wars and skirmishes - including the "Mutiny" of 1857-58 - and the "civilisational mission".
Volume 4 Rebellions and Wars is a collection of accounts of a very different British life in India: as prisoners, under siege and in conditions of war. The British ascendancy in India did not proceed smoothly, and colonisation was always a militarised zone of interest, action and process.