During the Raj, the British viewed their rule in terms of a thankless duty to uplift the downtrodden and inculcate order into Oriental minds. The mission to civilize the "silent, sullen peoples" of the East was a burden imposed upon them by destiny.
The last observation is a fairly obvious allusion to
1
Maud Diver's The Englishwoman in India
2
J.R. Ackerley's Hindoo Holiday: An Indian Journal
3
Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden"
4
Flora Annie Steel's "The Garden of Fidelity"