The India of the later nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth was an amazing place to be in. Apart from the riches that it had, it had a kind of people who were blessed with faith in God and in humankind. The stories that were written and told in this era reflect this faith. What was most fascinating about the India in this time was that the land was little explored and the forests seemed to contain riches not only material but spiritual. The smiling sage had the knowledge that could change lives positively and offer them intimate contact with providence. Even kings respected these sages and feared them as they did God Himself. India’s varied landscaped had something to suit virtually every taste. Its rivers, seas and mountains could attract the greatest explorers, philanthropists and plunderers.

No wonder the interest of the trader European got converted into interest more political. The British that were here long enough to consider this country a second home had now experienced a kind of trust in this land that they may have experienced in no other country before. Indians were not aggressive by nature, had the potential to give them wisdom of India's ancient past and of course everything that could make England get more and more rich. Hence they streamed into India with their families. This coming together of the two cultures could be as free of hostility as it could be packed with belligerence. The great Mahatma was a product of this country and had imbibed in his brilliance the wisdom of thousands of years of high thinking and serious spirituality that came down from the epics of India, The Ramayana and The Mahabharata, Buddhism and of course he was no fool to exclude the Bible. He was one mahatma that got noticed, there may have been thousands that perished unseen unknown.

The co-existence of the British and the Indians was by no means a result merely of Eastern wisdom but equally it resulted from the great colonialist vision of the British. They carried their England with them to India and more than impressed the simpler natives with their explorative adventures and their superior technology. Interactions of this kind gave rise to complications of a social nature between the two cultures and between individuals of each culture. From these complications rose stories not only of simple Indian and British families but of Maharajas and Viceroys. Raj novels are rich sources of this fascinating period and must be read to keep up the awareness of how things shaped in this very extraordinary period of British India. THE TAILOR’S NEEDLE is the last Raj novel that has at its base this bicultural experience.