Imperialism in India

The most interesting thing about British rule in India was the way in which Britain managed to maintain control over a vastly larger population with a much smaller group of soldiers and a much smaller population - there were 45,000 British and 150 million Indians. They initially managed to maintain power by force, but it quickly became clear that this would not work with the Sepoy rebellion.
What I liked most about the way in which they ended up holding power was the fact that the way in which they ruled reflected so much a sense that they operated in a similar sense to the traditional Christian image of Satan - rather than actually march large armies around or invade India, they had small groups of British who played existing tendencies toward violence amongst the Indian peoples against each other and using them to further their own aims.