Paul Scott and the Raj quartet.

The 4 novels of this series cover the British in India during the War and afterwards. Daphne Manners is an English girl, rather plain and a bit clumsy, who goes to India during the war and takes up volunteer work. She lives with an Indian lady, Lady Chatterji, and meets a woman who takes in the sick and dying and nurses them. Sister Ludmilla is reckoned to be mad by the British colony, and they are snobbish about Indians. Daphne becomes friendly with Hari Kumar, who works on a local newspaper. He has been brought up in England and finds the Indians so different that he cannot get on with them.. but he is looked down on by the British. Daphne goes out with him but it is difficult. She is also courted by Ronald Merrick, an Englishman who is in the Police service but who comes from a relatively poor background. He too is looked down on by the wealthier British, but he is still treated as one of the elite. Daphne does not like him much but feels sorry for him. He is arrogant and likes being in the police, but he wants to get into the army which is of higher status.