The wife of Field Marshal Sir George Nugent (1757-1849), Lady Nugent could travel extensively and meticulously observed the ways the British imagined themselves in the Empire. Her journal, a significant historical treatise of that time, provides an insider's account of the varying notions of citizenships established by the British colonial rule.

In 1811, Maria Nugent accompanied her husband, General George Nugent, on his posting as commander-in-chief in India. After a dizzying six months at the head of Calcutta society, she embarked on a 14-month tour of northern India, traveling to the very edge of the imperial frontier. Lady Nugent's journal offers windows into the rarely glimpsed domestic worlds of both colonial households in British India and the zenanas of north India's most powerful Indianrulers.