During the early nineteenth century, Indian families underwent significant changes as they adjusted to rising British power. This was so not only for prominent families of Indian princes, but also for mercantile families such as the Abrahams, landholding zamindars, and high-caste Hindu households. Scholars have described a process of fragmentation that elite families experienced under colonial rule. Whereas previously, family life had integrated political, economic, and “household” affairs, colonial policies attempted to extricate Indian families from political and economic entanglements. The goal was to separate private family interests from a more rational “public” domain.

A common thread that united the experiences of many Indian families was their burden to perpetuate their wealth and status according to new schemes of colonial governance. What factors determined whether a family would flourish or come apart under colonial rule? How would influential families secure relationships of trust between their own members and with colonial officials? Regarding such matters, perhaps no issue was more volatile than that of succession. Colonial policies defined the terms by which Indian families would designate an heir and secure their place under British sovereignty.