During the 18th century the British gained control of India through the instrument of the East India Company. The Mughal Empire that dominated India was divided by tensions between Muslim, Hindu and Sikh interests— tensions that were deliberately exacerbated by political rivalry between the Portuguese, French, Dutch and English merchant colonists who were all attempting to gain commercial control of India. The English increased their power until the capture of Delhi in 1803, effectively completing their dominance.

Maria’s letters from her fiance Edward show the stages of colonization: first wonder and shock at the exotic foreign-ness, followed by a desire to make it familiar. Through a protectively selective memory warp, “Home” itself becomes foreign to him and a new, sanitized “better than the real thing” home is carved into the foreign country. A parallel is drawn in the 1999 plot where the “re-development” of Ellen’s house into a “themed” spa provides a present day version of a colonial urge to sanitize dangerous social history analogous to Edward’s colonization of India. Phil, who is ignorant about cultural history but intelligently versed in urban myths, cheerfully acknowledges that the theming of culture is “shite”, even though he makes his living from it. Like most people, he doesn’t question his own easy complicity in the “disneyfication” of the world; despite his distaste for it, he accepts its inevitability. Indeed, the “theming of the world” is one of the fastest growth indicators in the entertainment and leisure industry, whether hotels, restaurants, museum-galleries or theme parks.