Step 1: Setting:
European planters on colonial-era plantations (indigo, tea, coffee) formed a small, privileged and powerful class within the colonial economy.
Step 2: Description:
They lived in isolated, self-sufficient estates in bungalows with servants, wielding near-total, often extra-legal authority over the largely indentured or bonded labourers who worked under harsh conditions on their plantations.
Final Answer:
Planters lived as an isolated, privileged elite exercising extensive, often coercive control over their estates and labourers.