We could only control India through force of arms, but force was useless against a people who didn’t fight back ; because you couldn’t kill people like that without killing a part of yourself too. That was a dilemma we’d never be able to solve. Indian independence was coming. The Raj was a sick man at death’s door and all we were doing was delaying the inevitable

Abir Mukherjee: Smoke and Ashe (Wyndham and Banerjee series Book 3)