*Recently discovered journals reveal the luxurious yet isolated lives of European women in Bengal during the early days of British rule*
By Historical News Team | Sanskrit Saga
Long before air conditioning, modern transportation, or digital communication, British women in 18th century Calcutta lived lives of extraordinary luxury and idleness—all made possible by armies of Indian servants and the growing wealth of the East India Company.
A remarkable journal kept by Mrs. Sherwood, who interviewed long-time Calcutta resident Mrs. Shoolbred in 1805, provides a rare glimpse into the daily routines of these colonial women, revealing a lifestyle that would be unrecognizable to most modern Indians or Britons.
## Dawn: The Day Begins with Servants
“A lady is called some time before sunrise,” Mrs. Sherwood recorded, “and her ayah brings her every article of dress, completely clean, fresh from the dhoby.”
This morning ritual set the tone for the entire day—the British woman would not dress herself, nor would she exert herself in any meaningful way. Instead, she was “enveloped over her morning wrapper in a splendid Cashmere shawl” and then “carried out to take the air, either in a carriage or open palanquin.”
The early morning air was considered healthful, but after this brief outing, the lady would return home, “take some coffee,” and then go back to bed for “an hour or two” of additional sleep—a luxury that would have been unimaginable for the Indian women who served her.
## Mid-Morning: Elaborate Toilette and Social Breakfast
The real day began with an elaborate dressing ritual that the British woman herself took no part in. As Mrs. Sherwood noted, “She is roused before the family breakfast-hour, in sufficient time to go through a somewhat elaborate toilet; not that she uses the smallest exertion herself, but goes through every process of bathing, hairdressing, and so on under the hands of one or two black women.”
Once properly attired, she would proceed to a breakfast that was essentially a social event, “set out in the most elegant style, and where many gentlemen soon drop in.” This meal was “a public one” that continued for some time with “much polite conversation.”
## Afternoon: Leisure and Tiffin
The hours between breakfast and the midday meal (tiffin) were filled with light activities: “She reads a little, does a little fancy work, receives or writes a few notes, or receives some lady visitor.”
What’s particularly striking is what these women did not do. They did not manage their households—servants did that. They did not raise their children—ayahs did that. And they certainly did not cook or clean.
Most tellingly, Mrs. Sherwood observed that the typical British woman “knows a good deal of the gossip of the Europeans, but little of the ways and habits of the natives”—despite living in the heart of Bengal.
Tiffin itself was another elaborate social meal, “set out with the same display as breakfast,” where “much wine and pale ale is drunk.” After this midday feast, the lady would retire to her rooms, remove her formal clothing, and rest “till the heat of the day is past, and the sun low.”
## Evening: Social Display and Entertainment
As the day cooled, the British woman would undergo yet another “elaborate process of dressing, with an entire change of every article of wearing apparel” before taking her carriage to “the course”—the main promenade where Calcutta’s elite gathered to see and be seen.
This social ritual allowed her to meet “all the great people of Calcutta” and provided “the opportunity of smiling on her female friends and receiving the bows and compliments of the gentlemen.”
The day would conclude with dinner with her husband, followed by “a ball or assembly, for which a last and still more magnificent toilet must be made.”
## A Different Reality for Working Britons
Not all British residents lived such pampered lives. Robert Clive, a senior official, described Calcutta as “one of the most wicked Places in the Universe,” where corruption and excess were rampant.
For junior clerks known as “writers,” life consisted of hard work recording the East India Company’s activities. Doctors like Tysoe Saul Hancock struggled in difficult conditions, describing the Sunderbunds (mangrove forests) as “a more dismal place” than imagination could form, “entirely covered with jungles so thick that you cannot see ten feet into them.”
## The Legacy of Colonial Lifestyles
These accounts reveal the stark contrasts that defined colonial society—not just between British and Indian residents, but between different classes of British colonizers themselves.
The lifestyle of elite British women in Calcutta represented a peculiar bubble of European society transplanted onto Indian soil, where extreme luxury was made possible by an abundance of servants and the wealth extracted from the region.
This social arrangement would have lasting consequences for both India and Britain, shaping attitudes and relationships that would endure well beyond the colonial period itself.
*Image: A historical scene depicting a British woman in 18th century Calcutta being dressed by her Indian ayahs while preparing for a social breakfast, with a view of colonial architecture visible through the windows.*
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