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‘Memsahibs’: How British women negotiated food and fear (and love and life) in colonial India Source:Scroll Before colonial rule began in India, various rest houses were built along the ancient commerce routes. Serais and dharamshalas (shelters and rest houses) have existed in India for centuries and were meant for pilgrims travelling through the dusty corners of the countryside. During the Mughal rule, inns called caravanserais provided shelter to traders, merchants, and buccaneers. The Indian postal system was established by Robert Clive in 1776 in Calcutta, which ushered in the age of dak bungalows, also known as circuit houses. These buildings were much like the coaching inns of Europe and were built especially for British officers and civilians as they travelled through the hinterlands. Eventually, the bungalows came to be used by individual travellers for resting overnight while in transit. ...