Good biographies of the great British governors-general of. India, particularly those of the nineteenth century, are few and far between, and the most surprising neglect of all is that of Lord William Cavendish Bentinck's rule in India between 1828 and 1835. There is no doubt about the importance of his period of rule, for it was in Bentinck's day that the British seriously began to get to grips with the questions whether and how far they should attempt by means of deliberate policy to change traditional India; and his own contributions in trying to define the right direction and lines of social and economic policy and to improve race relations were positive, distinctive, and formative. Bentinck has a special place in the history of race relations. Unfortunately, his just and humane attitudes towards Indians and their potential role in the new India did not gain general acceptance among British ruling groups either in India or Britain.