Plot
The film opens in the fictional Indian city of Mayapore and is set during the 1940s against the backdrop of the last days of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement. Hari Kumar (Art Malik) is a young Indian man who was educated at the British public school (the term for a private school) 'Chillingborough' and considers himself English rather than Indian. He works as a journalist in India, lives with his aunt, and becomes involved with a British woman, Daphne Manners (Susan Wooldridge). One night, Daphne and Hari are attacked in the Bibighar Gardens by a group of unknown men and Daphne is raped.
A lower-middle class British police officer, Ronald Merrick, holds Hari responsible for the rape and puts him in prison where he tortures him, even though he knows him to be innocent. Merrick's motives are twofold: he resents Hari's privileged education as well as the fact that Daphne preferred Hari to him (Merrick had previously proposed to Daphne and was rejected). This story becomes the backdrop for a number of intertwining subplots during the end of the British Raj.
After Daphne's death in childbirth, another young British woman, Sarah Layton, becomes the central character. Like Daphne, Sarah is pursued by Merrick, but prefers his subordinate, Guy Perron. Sarah's sister, Susan, is married to the ineffectual Teddie Bingham, who is killed in an enemy attack despite Merrick's attempt to save his life. Merrick later marries Susan.
Hari Kumar is eventually released from prison, but rarely appears in the story. Merrick's activities are known by the authorities and disapproved of, and he dies in disgrace.
The story line of the television series largely follows that of the novels although, unlike the novels, in the TV series events unfold in roughly chronological order. (In the novel, Hari Kumar does not appear, except in brief vignettes, until more than halfway through The Jewel in the Crown.) More detailed descriptions of the plots are available on the individual pages of the novels:
- The Jewel in the Crown (novel)
- The Day of the Scorpion
- The Towers of Silence
- A Division of the Spoils
Read more about this topic: The Jewel In The Crown (TV series)
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