British India, as a result of history, geopolitics and its unique status within the Empire, controlled a chain of overseas agencies that stretched from southern Persia to eastern Africa. This book examines how, as the relative importance of British interests steadily eclipsed those of India throughout the region, Indian sub-imperial impulses clashed with the relentlessly advancing metropole. The nature of the struggle over political control between Britain and Indian reveals differences in perception and approach during a period of profound change in Anglo-Indian relations.

ROBERT J. BLYTH is Curator of Imperial and Maritime History at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.