ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the Company and Crown's unwillingness to provide for the men's social wants was not simply a reflection of a particular imparted understanding of the composition of the European soldier. It examines the leisure activities open to the men in this period of time in order to form a more complete picture of the everyday lives of soldiers in India during the nineteenth century and, more critically, to assess how these reflected the army's conception of the soldierly ideal. While the imbalance between sepoy and European troop strength remained a constant, with the spread of its power the Company recruited greater numbers of European soldiers to serve in India. In the early 1820s regulated canteens, coffee shops and reading rooms were introduced in some of the larger cantonments where European troops were stationed. The European soldier was essential to the imperial project, but at the same time was disconnected from the growing conception of the nation.
