The conquest of India — the destruction of the Mahrattas This is continuing the story of Joseph Anderson, whose early career during the Napoleonic Wars was told in the Leonaur book Fighting Napoleon’s Empire. At the commencement of this book we fifi nd Anderson engaged as the Governor of a prison colony in Australia before he is posted to India. There, with the 50th Regt. of Foot, he is soon sent to Burma. Through Anderson’s writing we are given a view of military life and campaigning in the early Victorian period, in which many familiar personalities and regiments feature. In 1843 Anderson, by now a Brigadier, was engaged in the Gwalior War against the Mahrattas at the Battle of Punniar.