India 1868; The Hot Season. Stifling barrackrooms and soul-destroying
boredom. The foot soldier was no part of the opulence that was the
British Raj. From eight in the morning to five at night- unless parading
for church on Sunday or chastising erring tribesmen on the North-West
Frontier- the army locked its soldiers in huts to fester. This is the
story of the men who made Imperial India possible. They belonged to the
underside of Victoria's Jewel in the Crown. Britain totally controlled
the sub-continent not through enlightened government, but by force or
arms. The Great Mutiny was put down, as were all other rebellions, by
men just like those who lay in waiting in the stifling heat of the
barrackrooms of Aliwal Lines. While historically accurate, this book
does contain material that the modern reader might find distasteful.