The neo-classical architecture, elaborate gate, and dramtic gardens and avenues invoked the imperial connection with Rome. There were two other Presidencies, one at Madras and the other at Bombay. Saguna takes place near Bombay.
Under the East India Company, the peasants, who made up the bulk of the Indian population, paid very high taxes that were collected by the company and formed around 80 to 90 percent of all taxes collected.
From the 1820s, more and more British women came to India to accompany their husbands, while every year numerous single British women arrived to make matches with colonial officers and administrators. The married women often participated in missionary work, along the lines described in Saguna. Their growing presence in India altered British social life and introduced a minor moral revolution. Before their arrival, British men dined together and enjoyed local entertainments, many keeping Indian women as mistresses. These practices diminished greatly with the arrival and growing presence of British women, who brought with them the "Victorian morality" of their day.