Socially, the high rates of VD in India under the British administration presented a sorry picture of the state of affairs in the colony, as it brought to light the high levels of depravity and dissolution amongst the European soldiers stationed there. In particular, it indicated the administration’s inability to check promiscuity amongst their men and discipline their private lives, raising serious questions about their capacity to control and govern their Indian subjects. This even called into question the moral fibre of the empire’s so-called defenders. 

Indeed, the British had also taken pride in their military prowess for a long time, projecting it as the reason for their robust control over different nations. But this image of the mighty British army could no longer hold water if the sexual habits of the men regularly put them in hospitals and weakened their constitution due to drinking and disease. It exposed the poor will and lack of discipline amongst the men, which raised doubts about whether the men were capable of the higher imperial ideals that were projected as part of the British race.