The Jewel in the Crown

The Jewel in the Crown is a 1984 British television serial about the final days of the British Raj in India during and after World War II, based on British author Paul Scott's Raj Quartet novels. Granada Television produced the series for the ITV network. Plot The serial opens in the midst of World War II in the fictional Indian city of Mayapore, against the backdrop of the last years of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement. Hari Kumar is a young Indian man who was educated at Chillingborough, a British public school; he identifies as English rather than Indian. The bankruptcy of his father, a formerly successful businessman, forces him to return to India to live with his aunt. Working as a journalist, Kumar now has a lower social status in India, and lives between two worlds, British and Indian. Numerous Anglo-Indians discriminate against him, and he is held in some suspicion by Indian independence activists. During this time, violent anti-British demonstrations take place in the city. Hari becomes romantically involved with Daphne Manners, a young British woman who shows an egalitarian attitude to Indians. One night, after Hari and Daphne make love in the public Bibighar Gardens, a group of Indian men attack them. Hari is beaten and Daphne is gang-raped. Ronald Merrick, a young lower-middle-class Englishman, is the intelligent, hardworking local Indian Police superintendent. He once professed romantic interest in Daphne, who politely but firmly rebuffed him. He arrests Hari for her rape, holding him in the local jail. Hari is beaten and sexually humiliated. Merrick resents Hari's privileged education and disdains Daphne's preference for him. When Daphne refuses to cooperate with the investigation, the police do not prosecute Hari for rape. But Hari and other young, educated Indians are jailed without trial under the security regulations adopted to suppress the Indian independence movement. Word that Hari was tortured outrages the Indian community. Merrick is transferred from Mayapore to a smaller, less important town in the province.