Domestic Complexities in Imperial India In this 1896 photograph a group of British colonials in India enjoys tea outdoors, waited on by their native servants. The British woman at the center rests her feet on a tiger-skin rug and holds a tiger cub on her lap. Such scenes, which mingled familiar Western habits with unfamiliar and hybrid customs, and which entangled Western colonists and indigenous peoples, were commonplace in Europe’s colonies. (Mansell/Getty Images)