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Against this domestic Victorian background a larger struggle was occurring throughout India, one which took the power out of the hands of the Mughal and other ruling dynasties at the beginning of the 19th century and placed the subcontinent as the shining gem in the British Imperial crown by the end of the century. In many ways, the influx of British women, the development of Victorian moral ideals, and the textile trade were extremely influential in that change. In the late 1700’s 1700s and the first couple of decades of the 1800’s 1800s when there were very few women coming from Britain to India, it was far more commonplace for British men working and living in India to assimilate into the Indian culture of the time.<ref> Lawrence James, <i>aj: the making and unmaking of British India</i>, (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998) 221.</ref>

Those women who were making the journey were women who were interested in the adventure of the situation or women taking advantage of the lack of European women in India to find a husband. For these women the journey to India was very difficult, taking up to six months via a dangerous ocean journey around the tip of Africa. While on the ship there were two main ways for women to interact with textiles, through their nightgowns and chemises and through the small comforts they were able to bring on board. <ref> MacMillan, <i>Women,</i> 16-21.</ref> Lengths of chintz were recommended to be brought along - these lengths of textiles could be used to create privacy curtains on either side of the sleeping accommodations women found themselves in. For some women, their sleeping quarters were as simple as a hammock hung above a cannon while dirty water rushed across the floor below - in these situations being able to create a small enclosure from a brightly printed piece of fabric would have been one of the very few comforts available on board onboard ship. Later women traveling on the more comfortable steamers were also advised to bring old clothing with them as well as their own linens, chintz laundry bags, and once again chintz curtains for privacy.<ref> Ibid.</ref>

Chintz by the earliest parts of the 19th century was already an accepted part of the British textile culture. Originally meaning an Indian hand -printed cotton, patterned using mordants and resist dying - two techniques which were perfected in India before Europe, coming from a Hindustani word for “spotted”. The term came to mean a cotton fabric which that was usually glazed with a floral print, regardless of where it was made. In the 19th century, chintzes were being made throughout England using resist dying and roller printing techniques. These British chintzes were more affordable than the original handmade Indian pieces and were a textile used throughout all levels of British society for both furnishing and clothing. Many of the patterns used by Western textile producers for their chintz cotton were variations on patterns which had been designed in India for export to the European market. This means that while the patterns were Indian in nature when they were taken by British women to India they did not match the products of the native textile industry.[[File:Chintz dresses, Victoria & Albert Museum, London - DSCF0380.JPG|thumb|Chintz dresses, Victoria & Albert Museum, London - DSCF0380]] <ref>Lucy Trench, <i>Materials & techniques in the decorative arts: an illustrated dictionary,</i> (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000) 86. </ref>