Hari becomes romantically involved with Daphne Manners, a young British woman who shows an egalitarian attitude to Indians.

One night, after Hari and Daphne make love in the public Bibighar Gardens, a group of Indian men attack them.

While Lady Manners takes the infant to the resort area of Srinagar, she meets Sarah Layton, a young British woman holidaying with her mother, Mildred, and sister, Susan.

Teddie Bingham, an Indian Army officer and the fiancé of Sarah's sister Susan, is stationed in the nearby princely state of Mirat; Merrick, also assigned there, happens to share quarters with him.

Merrick understands that he was the target of the attack, as this is one of a series of incidents suggesting he is being harassed because of his treatment of Hari and the other suspects in the rape case in Mayapore.

Teddie had left their unit to try to persuade two Indian soldiers of his regiment, who had been captured by the Japanese and joined the INA, to surrender and come in.

Merrick gains assistance from Sergeant Guy Perron, a young Cambridge graduate and Indian history scholar, who was serving with an Intelligence Corps Field Security unit; he speaks fluent Urdu and is asked to observe the interrogation.

After her husband Teddie's death and a difficult birth of their son, Susan Layton Bingham suffers a mental breakdown.

While visiting Mirat at the invitation of its Chief Minister, Count Bronowsky, whom he previously met in Bombay, Perron learns that Merrick is dead, officially from a riding accident.

Bronowsky tells Perron that Merrick actually died during a sexual rendezvous with a young Indian man who was probably working for independence activists.

The authorities cover up the details of Merrick's death, fearing reprisals from Indians during the political uncertainty with the British departure.

The two discuss their view that, in leaving India, the British are opening up "Pandora's Box", releasing the ancient competition for power between Hindus and Muslims, who had earlier conquered and ruled the country.

Joining them is Ahmed Kasim, the educated son of a prominent Muslim politician who has been working for Bronowsky in Mirat for the past few years.

Before leaving India again, Perron tries to visit Hari, now living in a poor neighbourhood and supporting himself by tutoring Indian students in English.

The Jewel in the Crown is a soundtrack album by Anthony Randall and Orchestra performing the compositions of George Fenton that appeared in the miniseries, released in 1985.

All compositions by George Fenton Sir Denis Forman, then chairman of Granada Productions, wrote in 1983 that the impetus for adapting the Raj Quartet was the success of Scott's novel Staying On.

Other leading actors included Peggy Ashcroft (who won the BAFTA Best TV Actress award for her performance), Tim Pigott-Smith, Geraldine James, Judy Parfitt, Rachel Kempson, Eric Porter, Susan Wooldridge, Zohra Sehgal, Saeed Jaffrey, and Karan Kapoor (son of Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kendal).

All four "Best TV Actress" nominations at that year's BAFTAs went to stars of the series, with Ashcroft winning over Wooldridge, James and Parfitt.

According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications there was "a cycle of film and television productions which emerged during the first half of the 1980s, which seemed to indicate Britain's growing preoccupation with India, Empire and a particular aspect of British cultural history".

"I think that aired here in 1983, and there are people still to this day who assemble in each other’s houses and have Jewel In The Crown weekends and watch all 14 hours, mostly in America," he told Attention Deficit Delirium.

"[5] In contemporary reviews, John J. O'Connor of The New York Times wrote, "the careful accumulation of marvelous detail is never less than fascinating.

And once again in a British production, the performances are rarely less than extraordinary... What emerges in the end is a comprehension of India far more convincing than the posturings of a Rudyard Kipling and far deeper than the tightly focused biography of a Gandhi.

"[7] The Washington Post called the series "Ravishing, reverberant and profoundly sad" and wrote, "The inscrutability of India to outsiders is not romanticized, just contemplated, celebrated, just as its intoxicating physical beauty is.

"[8] In reviewing the box-set video in 2010, Alexandra Coghlan of The Guardian wrote that the series "sits alongside Brideshead Revisited as the high-water mark of 1980s British TV.