Emma's possibly greeting British lady in India (8)
I believe the answer is:
memsahib
'lady in india' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'emma's possibly greeting british' is the wordplay.
'possibly' is an anagram indicator.
'greeting' becomes 'hi' (hi is a kind of greeting).
'british' becomes 'b' (abbreviation e.g. in 'BBC').
'emmas' is an anagram of 'memsa'.
'memsa'+'hi'+'b'='MEMSAHIB'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for memsahib that I've seen before include "Old Indian term for European married woman" , "Polite form of address for a woman in India" , "Raj lady's address" , "Indian madam" , "In colonial India, term of respect used of a married European woman" .)