The present paper portrays British colonial India in the late nineteenth century at a moment in which the anxieties inherent in ruling an empire have been maximized and exacerbated and the demand for strategies to minimize this anxiety were at a premium; a moment in which the contradictions of the maintenance of imperial power were finely crystallized. This moment in the British Raj is primarily painted through an exploration of three personal diaries of members of the official community of British men and women in India (those people affiliated with the British army or government). The lives of these civil servants are analyzed for sources of anxious strain and release; as, it was through the official community that the British hoped to transplant their culture. A careful reading of a narrow selection of diaries allows for the engagement in a type of psychological history of the lived experience of this community. The first section of the essay locates anxiety of rule within the colony as a direct result of the memory of the Mutiny of 1857. The next section explores the relative failures and successes of the Anglo-Indian bungalow in addressing this anxiety. The final chapter is an exploration of the various strategies, such as rules of etiquette and discourses informed by scientific racism, by which Anglo-Indians attempted to moderate the lingering fears and insecurities remaining from 1857.