Indian Summers
- TV-14
- 2015
- 2 Seasons
-
7.3 (3,613)
Indian Summers is a British drama that centers on a group of socialites who spend at least part of their summers in the Himalayas during the Raj. The British Raj was in place between 1858 and 1947 when Britain was still ruling over most of the subcontinents as well as the British Crown in India. Indian Summers is set beginning in the early 1930's during the final decades of the Raj. The city where the socialites in Indian Summers are spending their time is called Simla, which is located in Northern India and in 1864 was dubbed British India's summer capital. A summer capital is a location that is used primarily for administrative political purposes during extended periods of hot weather. Simla is also fertile ground for tourism as it's located just beneath the Himalayas, has numerous temples, palaces, research institutions and colleges. One thing that makes Indian Summers stand out as a British television show is that they give an almost equal amount of screen time to both women and those of diverse races that they do to the primary roles. Up to this point, British television has been notorious for honing the spotlight mainly onto the primary roles without giving much sense of truly humanizing the subordinate characters. And since it takes place during the last of the Raj, it also shows the country's residents beginning to sense that independence and freedom are now well on their way. Another thing that makes Indian Summers stand out is the fact that there aren't any obvious heroes or villains. However, there is Julie Walters' character, Cynthia Coffin who is the matriarch of Simla and a conniving racist.
