White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India [Paperback]

William Dalrymple (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 27, 2004

White Mughals is the romantic and ultimately tragic tale of a passionate love affair that crossed and transcended all the cultural, religious and political boundaries of its time.

James Achilles Kirkpatrick was the British Resident at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad when in 1798 he glimpsed Kahir un-Nissa—'Most excellent among Women'—the great-niece of the Nizam's Prime Minister and a descendant of the Prophet. Kirkpatrick had gone out to India as an ambitious soldier in the army of the East India Company, eager to make his name in the conquest and subjection of the subcontinent. Instead, he fell in love with Khair and overcame many obstacles to marry her—not least of which was the fact that she was locked away in purdah and engaged to a local nobleman. Eventually, while remaining Resident, Kirkpatrick converted to Islam, and according to Indian sources even became a double-agent working for the Hyderabadis against the East India Company.

It is a remarkable story, involving secret assignations, court intrigue, harem politics, religious and family disputes. But such things were not unknown; from the early sixteenth century, when the Inquisition banned the Portuguese in Goa from wearing the dhoti, to the eve of the Indian mutiny, the 'white Mughals' who wore local dress and adopted Indian ways were a source of embarrassments to successive colonial administrations. William Dalrymple unearths such colourful figures as 'Hindoo Stuart', who travelled with his own team of Brahmins to maintain his temple of idols, and who spent many years trying to persuade the memsahibs of Calcutta to adopt the sari; and Sir David Ochterlony, Kirkpatrick's counterpart in Delhi, who took all thirteen of his wives out for evening promenades, each on the back of their own elephant.

In White Mughals, William Dalrymple discovers a world almost entirely unexplored by history, and places at its centre a compelling tale of love, seduction and betrayal. It possesses all the sweep and resonance of a great nineteenth-century novel, set against a background of shifting alliances and the manoeuvring of the great powers, the mercantile ambitions of the British and the imperial dreams of Napoleon. White Mughals, the product of five years' writing and research, triumphantly confirms Dalrymple's reputation as one of the finest writers at work today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dalrymple, author of the bestselling In Xanadu, now anchors himself in India around the turn of the 19th century to focus on James Kirkpatrick, an officer for the East India Company and the British Resident, representing the British government, in the Indian city-state of Hyderabad. Kirkpatrick, who converted to Islam and, after a celebrated and notorious romance, married Khair un-Nissa, the teenage great-niece of the region's prime minister, exemplifies the "White Mughals," British colonialists who "went native." One of the book's strengths is its stunningly detailed depiction of day-to-day life-gardens, food, sexual mores, modes of travel and architecture-and portraits of British governors-general, Indian politicians, their wives and families, and adventurers. It is also an astute study of the political complications Kirkpatrick faced because of his conversion and cross-cultural marriage, and the difficulties his divided loyalties caused him in his role as agent of the increasingly imperialistic British. But most suspenseful is the fate of Kirkpatrick's willful and charismatic wife, just 19 when he died in 1805, and the fate of their children. The twists and turns in the life of their daughter-sent to England when she was five, never to return to India or see her mother again-are fascinating. Dalrymple makes note of the present schism, which some believe unbridgeable, between Western and Eastern civilizations and Kirkpatrick's tale as a counterexample that the two can meet. Illus., maps.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker

At the end of the eighteenth century, James Achilles Kirkpatrick, the promising young British Resident at the Shia court of Hyderabad, fell in love with Khair un-Nissa, an adolescent noblewoman and a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. The story of their romance and semi-secret marriage endured in local legend and family lore but was otherwise forgotten. After five years' work with a trove of documents in several languages, Dalrymple has emerged not only with a gripping tale of politics and power but also with evidence of the surprising extent of cultural exchange in pre-Victorian India, before the arrogance of empire set in. His book, ambitious in scope and rich in detail, demonstrates that a century before Kipling's "never the twain"—and two centuries before neocons and radical Islamists trumpeted the clash of civilizations—the story of the Westerner in Muslim India was one not of conquest but of appreciation, adaptation, and seduction.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (April 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014200412X
• ISBN-13: 978-0142004128
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,174 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > History > Asia > India
  • #90 in Books > History > World > Expeditions & Discoveries

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 65 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If there be a paradise on earth.....it is this, it is this, it is this...... September 26, 2005

By Sandya Narayanswami

Format:Paperback

White Mughals is a must for anyone interested in Indian history, particularly the early history of the British Raj. It turns everything one assumes about the exclusive, closed, late Raj Period on its head because it deals with a time when the British were open to Indian civilization, a period that extended from their arrival in India to roughly the late 18th century.

The book starts off with a brief history of the early encounters of Europeans with India, between the 16th and 18th centuries, which included fascination with and acceptance of Indian culture as much as anything else. We remember Warren Hastings today for his impeachment for corruption. What we forget is that he was probably the most enlightened Governor General of India and had a deep respect for Hinduism and India. Certainly more fun to think about than Lord Curzon.... William Dalrymple touches on all sorts of interesting characters of the time, who assimilated into the culture to a degree unimaginable later on. These range from Irishmen who became sadhus to gunners who became local princes, as well as the fascinating Hindoo Stuart, whose singleminded crusade to get Englishwomen in India to adopt the sari deserves remembrance today.... Hindoo Stuart's quotes alone make the book worthwhile!

One interesting thing is the number of Englishmen born in America, who backed the 'wrong' side in the War of Independence, left the US, and ended up in India, adapting to local customs and marrying Indian women. As history is written by the winning side, these are people one doesnt get to hear much about......

One of these, the Handsome Colonel, born in Georgia, was the father of James Kirkpatrick, Resident at the Court of the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Resident was the Crown representative at the courts of Indian rulers, about the same as an ambassador (what we forget is that the British only ever directly ruled 60% of India....a fact cleverly concealed by the British). The book is about Kirkpatrick's life in Hyderabad, his interactions with this highly civilized Mughul court as well as with his British masters, and his love affair with and marriage to Khair-un-Nissa, a highranking Hyderabadi Muslim noblewoman of Persian extraction. Kirkpatrick spent nearly all his life in India, so adopted the manners and dress of a Mughal nobleman, down to a title of honor accorded him by the Nizam (Hushmut Jung), and converted to Islam to marry Khair-un-Nissa. He may have gone as far as becoming a double agent working for the Hyderabadis against the East India Company. He certainly deplored the rigidity and exclusiveness that crept into British relations in India with the arrival of Lord Wellesley as Governor General. Dalrymple's portrait of Lord Wellesley is unforgettable! The book follows their lives (and those of many of their contemporaries) in the late 18th century down to their children, in the Victorian England of Carlyle. Its a truly fascinating story that begs us to consider what it means to be British, or indeed anything else, because at this time in India, racial and cultural borders were much more fluid than they became later.

As an Indian who grew up in the UK, I was aware that many English in the early days of the Raj "went native"-a term used somewhat pejoratively. Here we see the details. The most flambuoyant example was perhaps Sir David Ouchterlony-the Resident at the court of Delhi-a Scot born in Boston (Massachusetts, not Lincolnshire....), a Mughal nobleman in all respects down to his 13 wives who would precess nightly around Delhi each on her own elephant. He preferred to be called by his Mughal title, Nasir-ud-Daula (Defender of the State). We see the central role Indian women played in this process of assimilation. Finally, in Hyderabad itself, Dalrymple gives us a vivid picture of a highly civilized culture, as much Hindu as Muslim, which gives the lie to so many of the cultural assumptions, polarities, and absolutes that bedevil our times. I for one found this book illuminating, inspiring, deeply moving, and incredibly empowering, but also, sadly, a picture of a road not taken.

Finally, the author, William Dalrymple, a descendant of one of the famous Pattle sisters, discovered while researching the book that he had Indian blood, through Sophia Pattle, born in Calcutta. As her sister was an ancestor of Virginia Woolf, we can say with confidence that the Great Virginia had Desi blood as well! A wonderful book with many interesting footnotes, which reminded me of Burton's Arabian Nights in the depth and extent of the research that went into it.

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A different take on the British in India June 11, 2003

By J. Marren VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

"White Mughals" is a fascinating picture of the British in India at the turn of the 19th century, before the British notions of Empire were fully formed. The author focuses on the life of James Kirkpatrick, a representative of the "Company," to explore the evolution of the British presence in India. Using the story of Kirkpatrick's marriage to a Mughal aristocrat as a touchstone, Dalrymple explores a different model for colonization. Kirkpatrick was the company's chief representative in Hyderabad, a Mughal kingdom. He admired and appreciated India's culture, customs and ancient learning, and quickly adapted to the Indian way of life. He was a gifted linguist and skilled diplomat, who successfully negotiated many thorny issues on behalf of the British with the rulers of Hyderabad. Kirkpatrick exemplified a European who believed that East and West could work together for the benefit of both, that the rulers at the time and the British could co-exist, that customs and culture could blend together.

Dalrymple has assembled a huge amount of information, much of which is primary source material never before examined, to support the fact that this blending of cultures was common at the time. As might be expected, many British had Indian mistresses, but more surprisingly, intermarriage was not uncommon, and for a Muslim woman, marriage to a Non-Muslim could only occur if the man converted to Islam, which some did, including Kirkpatrick. At the time the Indian rulers were Muslim, but they did not attempt the impossible task of converting the Hindu population, and as a result, the same blending of culture that was occuring between east and west occurred to some extent between Hindu and Muslim. The two religions co-existed for the most part peacefully, a situation that changed radically at the time of Indian independence.

Inevitably, the Company became ever more profitable and the British presence stronger, while at the same time the Mughal Empire began to crumble. Successive Governor-Generals reversed the trend, mixed race children became the targets of discrimination, and the remaining Mughal princes were forced into unfavorable agreements with the British. By the time of the Indian Mutiny in 1857, the notion of Empire, and a separation between the English and Indians, was largely complete, to last for almost 100 years.

Finishing the book, one wonders whether the model exemplified by a Kirkpatrick would have worked. Or is conflict between cultures inevitable?--certainly in our fractured world it seems to be. Dalrymple's work is well-written, well-researched, and very thought-provoking.

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Under an Indian Enchantment December 14, 2003

By Prof. D. Roger Hainsworth

Format:Hardcover

It seems that every generation the British are vouchsafed a truly remarkable travel writer. These are writers who do not just travel and write about it but combine their insatiable curiosity about places and people with often profound knowledge of history and languages: Arabic, Urdu, Chinese (all varieties), eighteenth-century Persian among many. The honour-roll is long and distinguished from Burton and Doughty to Freya Stark, Thesiger and Leigh Fermor. Now comes the latest prodigy, William Dalrymple. He began auspiciously with In Xanadu (1989) a prize-winning account of an expedition across Asia to Kublai Khan's `pleasure dome'. It was mature, informed, witty and exhilarating. At the time he was a twenty-two-year old Cambridge undergraduate. Five years later appeared his rich, densely packed account of a year in Delhi, which caused the Sunday Times to declare him "British Young Writer of the Year". In 1997 appeared his masterpiece, From the Holy Mountain in which he traces the footsteps of two monks who trudged across the entire Byzantine world, from the Bosphorus to Egypt, in 587A.D. It combined a detailed knowledge of mediaeval sources, a compassionate eye for the slow decline of Middle East Christianity, a grasp of modern politics and his characteristic black humour. It too proved a prize winner. In 1998 came a collection of superb articles and essays on India, The Age of Kali. Unsurprisingly Dalrymple was the youngest person to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Asiatic Society. Now he offers us White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India.
If you seek magnificent holiday reading here it is. It is not a book to read at a sitting - or three sittings. Dalrymple is not afraid to write a long book and this is the longest of all. It runs to 500 pages, not including the fifty pages of scholarly apparatus that underpins it. It began as a paragraph in an earlier essay. Then he thought of writing part of a chapter of another book about it. Finally the saga got him in its grip and his narrative expanded to cover a territory as large as India in the era of the East India Company. The `plot' concerns a most unlikely love story that ends sadly but that is only one element in a huge canvas. The love story involves James Achilles Kirkpatrick a late eighteenth century British Resident at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, a prince of immense wealth and ruling a huge territory. The woman Kirkpatrick improbably loves and marries is Khair-un-Nissa, the great niece of the Nizam's prime minister. Improbably because it was theoretically impossible for them to meet, or indeed ever see each other since she was always in purdah and in any event, as a descendant of the prophet was only supposed to marry a husband of the same descent. Indeed she was already engaged to a nobleman who met that criterion although the couple had never set eyes on each other. Love proverbially laughs at locksmiths and their story is surely the proof of its validity.
Even by the standards of his own time Kirkpatrick was an eccentric. He embraced Indian culture with total enthusiasm, including the religion of Islam. He spoke and wrote Persian - a feat which Dalrymple himself has matched. Indeed he could not have traced this extraordinary story unless he had. Like Kirkpatrick he straddles two worlds, east and west, and it is his mission to bridge them in particularly difficult times. He is determined to wage war on the west's profound ignorance of Islam before terrible consequences befall both societies.
Dalrymple realised early that the picture of the British sahib standing aloof from Indian culture, refusing to associate let alone marry Indians, and resolutely maintaining British ways, clothes, habits is only true for the second half of the nineteenth century, although it had its dim origins under first Governor General Lord Cornwallis and then his successor Lord Wellesley. In this book he traces how the early Europeans in India, beginning a century and a half before Kirkpatrick's time, tended to become absorbed into Indian society as they joined the entourages of either the Mughal emperors or other ruling princes. A remarkable throng populates his book, characters both European and Indian: raffish, barbarous, cultured, learned, ambitious, endlessly inquisitive, soldiers who were poets, generals who became ascetic mystics. It included one man who had been illiterate in his native England but found in India that he was astonishingly linguistically gifted. Not just linguistically for he created a kingdom for himself and ruled it for decades - probably the origin of Kipling's Peachy in The Man Who Would Be King.
This is a book reeking with the scent of spices, echoing with the sounds of the caravanserais; a book that casts a spell just as India has cast a spell on its author. Dalrymple demonstrates that he is as much at home in the world of eighteenth century India as he is in the India of his own day and loves both with a passion. In White Mughals he has shared his enthusiasm, wit and learning with us with prodigal generosity and we are privileged.