The Secret Garden | Objects, Setting & Important Places

The Secret Garden Objects/Places

India

British interests in India were so extensive that Queen Victoria crowned herself "Empress of India" in 1876, and India remained under British rule until 1947. England believed that its mission was to help the primitive people of India, who were incapable of governing themselves, to become civilized. The English thought themselves superior in every way to Indians. They believed even their climate to be superior to the hot, fertile tropics. The English loved their gardens, which in England were clipped and pruned into straight borders and specific shapes. Everything grew wildly, uncontrollably in India.

England's class system at the time was very rigid, and the English carried their sense of class wherever they went. Mary would have been dressed in the kinds of clothes children wore in England, which were probably too tight and heavy for the Indian climate. No wonder Mary was always too hot and tired to run...
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