A Glimpse Of Empire

This is the story of a young anglo irish beauty’s visit to delhi for the 1911 royal durbar, whre a new king george v, is to be proclaimed emperor to reinforce the loyalty to crown of india’s ruling princes. For a fortnight of relentless ceremony, unheard of extravagance and imposing military spectacle, in the setting of a vast tented city complete with its own farms, railway, telegraph and post offices, lilah wingfield meets many of the most remarkable colonial characters of the day, including some of the foremost indian princes, vying to stage the most lavish display to prove teir devotion to the raj. as the tenst are dismantled, lilah travels through india to the dangerous khyber pass on the afghan border, to rajasthan, to the gory sites of the mutiny and the stay with india’s only female ruler, the begum of bhopal. her diary shows her deepening awareness of the ambivalence of certain maharajahs towards british rule even while she is being entertained royally in their lakeside palaces. her irish upbringing gives her an instinctive feeling for the mixture of their longing for independence and an affection for the mother country.