3 Review(s)

British India generated the largest imperial archive in the world. From the stacks of administrative reports, minutes, instruction manuals, memoirs, letters, reports, cook-books and travelogues the British left behind, this engaging volume uncovers the minutae of their social life, leisure and relaxation—the obverse side of the usual picture of the English steadfastly battling heat and fatigue as they ruled India. Days of the Raj reproduces first-hand accounts of home-sickness, club culture, mountaineering, Christmas and station parties, and also records British responses to nautch girls and the zenana, mountains and the Ganga, fairs and festivals, elephants and mosquitoes and the monsoon. The celebrated stock characters of the Raj—from the surly khansamah to the errant syce, from the griffin to the district magistrate's shopaholic wife—are all here. Pramod Nayar has put together a fascinating account of the lighter side of colonial life in India. This volume provides a vivid and entertaining snapshot of the Raj at play.