Context: British Empire & Indian Immigration
The British Empire and India
Tanika Gupta’s The Empress (2013) is set in Victorian Britain during the height of the British Empire. By the mid-nineteenth century, India was Britain’s most valuable colony — often called the “jewel in the crown.” The play dramatises the real experiences of Indian people who came to Britain as workers, servants, and political activists, exploring how they were treated in a society that profited enormously from their labour while viewing them as racially inferior.
Understanding this historical context is essential for the Edexcel exam. AO3 requires you to show how the play’s meaning is shaped by the context in which it was written and set. Gupta wrote The Empress in 2013, but set it between 1887 and 1901 to draw parallels between Victorian racism and modern attitudes towards immigration.
In 1876, Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India — the title that gives the play its name. This was a political act designed to tighten Britain’s control over India after the 1857 rebellion. The title symbolises the power imbalance at the heart of the play.
Ayahs: Indian Nannies in Britain
One of the most important groups in the play is the ayahs — Indian women employed as nursemaids by British families travelling between India and England. Ayahs were hired for the voyage to care for British children, but many were abandoned in London once they arrived. Without money, language skills, or legal rights, they were left destitute in a foreign country. Gupta based this on real historical records from the Ayahs’ Home, a shelter established in the East End of London in 1891 to help stranded Indian women.
The real Ayahs’ Home opened at Jewry Street in Aldgate, east London. The London City Mission ran it and moved it to Hackney in 1900. It provided temporary shelter for Indian women who had been brought to England and then abandoned by their employers. Records show that hundreds of women passed through the home. Gupta uses this as a central location in the play, making the audience confront the human cost of Empire. The ayahs’ vulnerability highlights the power imbalance between British employers and Indian servants — they could be discarded like unwanted luggage once they were no longer useful.
Lascars: Indian Sailors
The play also features lascars — Indian sailors who crewed British merchant ships. Lascars made up a significant proportion of the British merchant navy by the 1880s, yet they were paid far less than white sailors, housed in the worst quarters, and had no legal protection if they were abandoned at port. Many ended up destitute in London’s docklands. Gupta uses the character of Hari to represent their exploitation.
Gupta draws on real historical sources — the Ayahs’ Home records, lascar testimonies, and the political career of Dadabhai Naoroji — to create a play that is both a historical drama and a commentary on modern immigration and racism. A strong answer explains how Gupta uses historical context to make a contemporary argument.
Racism in Victorian Britain
Victorian Britain presented a contradiction. The Empire was celebrated as a civilising mission, yet Indian people who came to Britain were treated with suspicion, contempt, and open racism. Scientific racism — the idea that white Europeans were biologically superior — was widely accepted in the Victorian era. This ideology underpinned the entire colonial project and is reflected in the attitudes of characters like Susan Matthews and Lady Sarah in the play.
Queen Victoria appears on stage in The Empress as a speaking character, mostly in her scenes with Abdul Karim. She is the ultimate symbol of imperial power — warm towards her Munshi, yet blind to the suffering of her Indian subjects. The title “Empress of India” was granted by the Royal Titles Act of 1876, partly at the urging of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, to consolidate British authority after the 1857 Indian rebellion. For the characters in the play, Victoria represents both the promise and the betrayal of Empire: a ruler who claims to protect all her subjects but whose system exploits and abandons them.
Gupta’s choice to put Victoria on stage is deliberate. The audience watches her comfort at Windsor while Rani is left destitute at the docks — a structural choice that reinforces the play’s themes of inequality and absence of justice.
Why Gupta Wrote The Empress
Tanika Gupta is a British-Bengali playwright whose work frequently explores the experiences of South Asian communities in Britain. She wrote The Empress because she felt that the stories of Indian people in Victorian Britain had been erased from history. The play was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and first performed in 2013. Gupta wanted to show that immigration is not a modern phenomenon — Indian people have been part of British society for centuries, yet their contributions have been overlooked and their suffering ignored.
This authorial intent is directly relevant to AO3 (context). Gupta is not just writing a historical play — she is making an argument about how Britain remembers (and forgets) its imperial past. A strong answer connects Gupta’s choices as a playwright to her broader political purpose.