This work investigates how the presence of Indians in Britain between 1870 and 1915 shaped the British metropolitan imagination and influenced the cultural landscape of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Elleke Boehmer, a professor of World Literature in English, utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to analyze how intercultural contact was documented and interpreted. By examining a diverse array of literary texts, the author argues that India occupied a central, albeit complex, position in the British consciousness long before the mass migrations of the mid-twentieth century.

Scholars in postcolonial studies frequently cite this text for its nuanced reading of early colonial interactions and its focus on the metropolitan center. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which is intended for an audience familiar with literary theory and imperial history.