Note how the comfortable middle-classes (pink) are lining the streets. Even in the poorer areas of the city, the wealthiest (relative to the region) line the streets where the housing is more open, likely with windows and balconies overlooking the street, and also where they are more visible to the world. The poorest individuals are hidden away in their cramped windowless tenements and pushed toward the river Thames, which was a heavily polluted open sewage system until 1866 and remained a rank, smelly river through the end of the century. Certain ports along the Thames were also known hubs for crime and prostitution, with incoming sailors looking for "comfort" while on land and with abandoned pregnant women tossing themselves in the river, with no other options present to them.

Note the massive presence of this economic class, even in the wealthiest neighborhood in London. Nearly every upper-class (yellow) section is flanked by a mixed (red) and then poor (grey) area, with the wealthiest homes lining the largest streets and squares and the poorest more enclosed against small streets and within blocks, reflective of the windowless, cramped tenement-style housing the lower classes were limited to. This also contributes to the limited visibility of the poor to the upper-class; because they are hidden away from the main streets and upper-class areas, Mukharji's British colonialist tourguides could easily show Mukharji the surface-level wealth of the city while avoiding the pockets of poor neighborhoods and squares that lurked behind each lavish block of houses.

Note the grouping of the upper and upper-middle classes together. Booth's intentional categorizing of these two income levels shows the low proportion of individuals that occupied the high classes relative to the lower classes. Because there were so many more impoverished people in London, yet the distinctions between the lower classes were far less statistically developed than those in the upper class, Booth's work focuses more on the differences of standard of living amongst the poor.

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 established "workhouses" in place of the old poor houses. This act attempted to make workhouses less appealing and helpful, so as to deter the poor from entering them. As a last resort for many, workhouses provided often meager shelter for poor and homeless individuals in return for an indentured-like requirement of service to the workhouse factory. The Act was framed to deter undeserving applicants, and the treatment within the workhouse was often inhumane, splitting up families, refusing the elderly and disabled who could not work, and forcing its inhabitants to perform strenuous and dangerous labor.

Meaning 2 shilling and 2 pence, where there are 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings, or 240 pence, in a pound.

Note the contrast of Booth's research with Mukharji's account: "What interested me therefore in English life is the higher standard of living as compared with that of the Indian people. Love of comfort combined with beauty rules the English heart. They know better than we [Indians] how to live well, and how to secure the means to live well... Comfort and beauty thus come to be cheap, and within the reach of the lowly and the poor" (Mukharji 221-2).

The Kohinur, also commonly spelled Kohinoor and Koh-i-noor, is a now 105-carat diamond that has a long and contentious history of ownership, prior to its being given to Queen Victoria in 1849 and even still today. Since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, India has protested British ownership of the Kohinoor, with Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan all contesting ownership rights as well. For years, India accused Britain of stealing the diamond, as the British forced 10-year-old Indian king Duleep Singh to sign a document giving up his claim to sovereignty and passing possession of the Kohinoor to the British Crown in 1849. The circumstances of ownership surrounding the diamond before it entered British possession as well as the manipulative way it entered British hands makes the stone a source of tension between Britain and India that remains even today. See Lorraine Boissoneault's August 2017 article in the Smithsonian, "The True Story of the Koh-i-Noor Diamond," for more information on the conflict.

The question of Irish independence from Britain, the decision of which would have major implications on the independence of other colonies of England, including India. The parliamentary Act of Union in 1800 declared Ireland a part of Great Britain, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The act also abolished the Dublin parliament and declared Ireland would be represented instead at Westminster by a parliament of Anglican officials, banning Catholics from taking office. This act significantly increased social tensions between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, as it declared there would be no Catholic Emancipation, which further repressed Irish Catholics in favor of the Anglican Church of England. This conflict surrounding Irish independence spanned throughout the 19th century, including the movement for Irish "Home Rule" (an Irish Parliament) in 1870, spurred a model of nationalism in colonized spaces beyond Ireland, such as India. Ireland's tactics for fostering unity in the cause for independence served as a model that Eastern colonies like India largely drew on in their own indpeendence efforts. For further reading, refer to Howard Brastad's article "Indian Nationalist Development and the Influence of Irish Home Rule, 1870-1886" ).

Nabu-balatsu-ikbi, born 650 BCE, was the wise prince and governor of Babylon, half-brother of king Nabopolassar (658-605 BCE) and father to king Nabonidus (556-539 BCE).

The great poet Mukharji refers to is Sa'di Shirazi (1203-1292). The quoted poem is found in Chapter 1, Story 2 of Sa'di's 1258 CE book The Gulistan, or The Rose Garden, which is one of two major works by Sa'di and is widely considered one of the most significant works of prose in Persian literature.

tope: a grove or plantation of trees

Haidarabad, modern spelling Hyderabad, is the capital of southern India's Telangana state.