The book follows the huge British expansion into the Indian territory of Assam during the nineteenth century and the impact of colonial policymaking upon the population of both the hill areas and the Brahmaputra plain. British industrial activity in the region, based on the highly lucrative tea trade and the identification of rich mineral resources, inexorably moved capital, labour, enterprise, trade and transportation into the hands of outsiders and made a dramatic change to Assam’s demographic profile. Caroline Keen paints a vivid picture of the lives of both Indians and Europeans in the remote north-east of the subcontinent, drawing on contemporary journals and other narratives.