The extraordinary pomp and ceremony that marked the Raj usually held the spotlight on the haughty Viceroys of British India, often overshadowing their equally stately wives who played a crucial role in sustaining the aura of the

empire. The vicereines were for all protocol purposes vice-queens in the rigid hierarchy of imperial Britain. Yet, the story of their lives, travails and triumphs has rarely been the focus of scholarly attention.
American writers Penny and Roger Beaumont have attempted to fill that gap in Raj literature by focusing on the extraordinary lives of the women who stood by their viceregal husbands over the 90 years the British crown directly administered India. The result is a meticulously researched book titled Invisible Empresses of the Raj, which opens a fascinating window to the more mundane aspects of viceregal life.
The book was originally published under the title Imperial Divas: The Vicereines of India in London in September 2010 by Haus Publishing. The Indian edition, which Jaico brought out this year, is a welcome step considering that the hardcover UK edition costs £20 while the Indian paperback can be had for just `395.
While Raj aficionados will find the book compelling, the average Indian reader will be fascinated by the book’s insider view on how India was ruled. A total of 20 viceroys of varying backgrounds and sensibilities served during the period 1858 to 1947 when India was directly ruled by the British crown. Some of them left a lasting impression on the country while others simply carried on, but almost everyone acknowledged the assignment as being the most important of their careers.
A viceregal stint was usually the precursor to social and political elevation back in Britain and it was of the utmost importance that a viceroy did not trip up on any administrative or ceremonial stumbling block. The vicereine’s role in ceremonial matters was critical. Although vicereines lacked formal authority, the book illustrates how “most showed substantial skill in managing their many responsibilities and imposing their will while playing the role of a symbolic queen” and how “vicereines exercised more power during that tenure than the wives of most Presidents and Prime Ministers, and even the consorts of most European sovereigns…”
Lord Wellesley’s dictum that “India must be ruled from a palace, and not a counting house; with the ideals of a prince, not those of a retail dealer in muslin and indigo” had set the tone for a grandiose British presence in India. The vicereines, whose selection had to pass royal muster, were part of the elaborate state structure built over the years by the rulers of British India to impress, awe and ultimately establish their superiority over their subjects who far outnumbered them. The British were convinced that Indians would not respect them unless they displayed the same kind of extravagance and magnificence that had marked Mughal rule.
While rarely interfering in statecraft, the vicereines were more than statuesque figureheads and were required to instil an image of aristocratic perfection in the minds of their Indian subjects. This posed no great challenge as “most vicereines were upper class British women imbued with a sense of duty, with their primary focus on husband and family. Most came from prominent, usually aristocratic families, with their fathers, brothers and/or sons in politics, the diplomatic service, or the military. Often their own family’s rank, relationships, and wealth aided their husband’s career.”
Despite the outward pomp, life in India was neither easy nor safe. “On the personal level,” the authors write, “the viceregal family, like all Britons in India, faced the risks of disease, accidents and violence.” Memories of the 1857 uprising continued to haunt the British for many decades in India as did the constant fear of illness.
The Indian climate in particular did not suit the British at all and many vicereines suffered horribly from “female difficulties” aggravated by the weather. “Each of them in letters, diaries or memoirs recalled occasions when a samurai-like spirit of doing their duty prevailed over personal desire, or common sense, as they ground their way through a long dinner party or state reception, struggling to smile through their pain.”
The book does not lack detail; if anything, it suffers from too much of it and a tendency to become pedagogic at times. Yet, the authors can only be commended for attempting to tell a story without prejudice and having produced a book that will entertain, bemuse and leave the reader more than a little sympathetic to the powerful women for whom India meant so much.
For every vicereine India was an overwhelming experience and the final journey back to Britain a wrenching experience. Leave taking was often a devastating moment as India’s last vicereine, Lady Edwina Mountbatten, wrote: “The heat increases… the hot wind has commenced and scorching dust storms are upon us. But I love Delhi like this and India and the Indians and my heart aches at the thought of leaving them so soon.”
As the authors look back at the divas of India’s imperial past, they cannot but conclude that “the saga of the vicereines, however thin and pathetic it may seem through lenses ground in hindsight, stands as something more than a small monument to the spirit of women caught up in elaborate and very durable webs of power and culture.”

The author is an independent security and political risk consultant