I believe the trick with the UK is engaging them in war as soon as you can, rather than waiting for your military to catch up. They'll always have a lead in research rate, and as their Indian colonies mature into states their armed forces in the area will become bloated; plus, those hugely populated states, when industrialized, should cost an arm and a leg to get in peace negotiations. After researching medicine and an extra land tech or two, an artillery-heavy army can prevail against the British forces when using defensive terrain and good generals. It's much riskier than fighting the Chinese (who mostly field irregulars and have to go through a desert to reach you), but it can still work - particularly now that the collapse of the British protectorate system makes the prospective battlefield only a couple of provinces in width. The downside is that I'll have to neglect some culture techs in the short run to get those military techs as soon as possible, but I don't expect it will cost too much in the long run.
I'd love to see an AAR based on your alternative strategy, Juan_de_Marco (what a change in fortunes! From no Panjab AARs to two, and now maybe three, in the space of a month)!
It's not that Dalip doesn't look forward to the prospect of Paris, it's the prospect of school in another foreign country that troubles him. But he'll get over it - and find yet more reason to dislike the British, through French culture!
The Chinese dragon has gone from looking like a puppy that has lost its ball in the first poster to a wormy pest in the second one. Heaven protect them from a third.
As for Great Britain uniting India, they will more likely try to rebuild their SOI in that region (although they have conquered Nepal, so they may get more sinister motives into their heads), but Panjab will soon challenge them for supremacy in the subcontinent, and by virtue of being in Asia the Punjabi diplomats will have an advantage in influencing the Indian minor states. The economy is good. This was the first time I played as an unciv and didn't go for freedom of trade as my first tech, since I was actually making decent money as it was. Now that I've got freedom of trade, things are even better.