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White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India Paperback – April 27, 2004

4.5 out of 5 stars 928

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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.


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Editorial Reviews

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

Review

"Brilliant, poignant,and compassionate, White Mughals is not only a compelling love story, but it is also an important reminder, at this perilous moment of history, that Europeans once found Muslim society both congenial and attractive, and that it has always been possible to build bridges between Islam and the West." —Karen Armstrong"Imaginitively conceived, beautifully written, intellectually challenging and a passionate love story—this is Dalrymple’s lifetime achievement and the best book he has ever written. He has done for India and the British what Edward Said did for the meeting between the West and Arab world in ‘Orientalism’. Despite its setting in the 18th century, this is a hugely important contemporary book. Dalrymple has broken new ground in the current debate about racism, colonialism and globalization. The history of the British in India will never be the same after this book." —Ahmed Rashid"A gorgeous, spellbinding and important book... A tapestry of magnificent set pieces and a moving romance. William Dalrymple’s story of a colonial love affair will change our views about British India." —Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (April 27, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 014200412X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0142004128
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.32 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.11 x 1.19 x 9.11 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 928

About the author

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William Dalrymple
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William Dalrymple FRSL, FRGS, FRAS (born William Hamilton-Dalrymple on 20 March 1965) is a Scottish historian and writer, art historian and curator, as well as a prominent broadcaster and critic.

His books have won numerous awards and prizes, including the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award, the Hemingway, the Kapuściński and the Wolfson Prizes. He has been four times longlisted and once shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. He is also one of the co-founders and co-directors of the annual Jaipur Literature Festival.

In 2012 he was appointed a Whitney J. Oates Visiting Fellow in the Humanities by Princeton University. In the Spring of 2015 he was appointed the OP Jindal Distinguished Lecturer at Brown University.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Premkudva (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
928 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2011
I only recently came across this book but recommend it as a most compelling and readable work of history. The combination of romance, wealth and power, the fatal flaws of British and Indian rulers and princes, and two lost children, is just amazing. Dalrymple builds the story on a foundation of wonderfully detailed and erudite research, so that you trust his characterizations and conclusions. The hero of the book, James Achilles Kirkpatrick, was a noble man in all senses of the word, and by becoming one of the mughals transcended the divisions of skin color and culture. As a resident of the British East India Company, he spoke out against the arrogant racism of Governor General Wellesley in the early years of the 19th century that would destroy everything the English needed for their own sakes to keep alive in India. Kirkpatrick's tragedy was dying young on the brink of being able to make a difference in British policy. The tragedy of his young wife continued to her ill-usage at the hands of another Englishman, Resident Henry Russell. The fate of the two Kirkpatrick children is revealed at the end of the book, and the hopefulness of the connection between a granddaughter and far-away grandmother is a lovely ending to the tale. I am going on to read more Dalrymple.
14 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2016
Fascinating account of early 18th Century when British Colonial Officers managed to thrive in that wonderful crossroad where Europe and India met as equals.

Superbly crafted like Persian calligraphy, the story takes us trough the love story between James A. Kirkpatrick, the British Resident stationed in the Hyderabad Court, and Khair un-Nissa, the uniquely beautiful daughter of a noble Persian-Indian family.

Dalrymple leads us in a magical tour of Mughal Hyderabad, in the center of India and in a sense in the center of that brief hybrid world of British Indian relations of mutual understanding and respect.

The love story is tenderly narrated and we follow it along as it survives court intrigues, diplomatic incidents and power struggles. The outcome of the story is tragic, but tempered with the fact that there ares still symbolic remains of their love standing like the Doll House James built for Khair in the Residency Gardens..

In essence, one of those books you just don’t want to be made into film….so the magic never goes.
16 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2022
I enjoyed reading this book even though it was very descriptive at places and strayed away from the main characters. I learned a lot about British rulers at that time which we had never learnt in history books. So, thanks for that! overall it is a good documentary.
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2020
William Dalrymple has a novelist's ability to tell history as a story. This tale of British diplomats "gone native" is a wonderful vehicle for telling the story of the deterioration of the relationships with India, moving from a genuine diplomatic "let's see what we can do together for our mutual benefit" to subjugation and oppression pure and simple. It is a beautiful illustration of how India gradually seduces Westerners. As a bit of a "white Indian" myself--I live there three months a year--I really loved this book. Can't wait to get to the others.
3 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2021
Wealth of information both fascinating and intriguing without being the least bit overwhelming
I loved the style, tone, execution. In the end you can't help feeling a little in love with khair and James and the people who loved them most. I look forward to rereading this, it will be like catching up with old friends that you love dearly
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2013
This book gives the results of exhausting research on a couple, James Kilpatrick and Kahir un-Nissa in an India that was slowly being taken over by the British East India company at the end of the eighteenth century. This is a fascinating time and an interesting couple; I was hoping to learn more about this era in history, but I was largely disappointed. It reads like a PhD thesis, and not a good one, as it presents masses of original letters with no structure other than chronology, and little analysis of events, or explanations of the time and place. The letters are linked by paragraphs giving short explanations of the context of the letter and transitioning to the next one, but this is essentially a collection of letters. The book is studded with footnotes, that usually plunge on into narratives about obscure individuals peripherally related to the main couple.

The letters are excellent, and give insight into the lives of these individuals. This book would be of interest for someone who is already a student of this time, but the uninitiated needs to look elsewhere to understand the British involvement in India.
5 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2015
This is the first book I have read by Mr. Dalrymple. I knew very little about the British exploits in India, and even less about the cross-cultural exchange that is detailed in the pages of this book. This book is a mixture of history, anthropology, theology intertwined with a tragic love story that kept me enthralled from page one. Not only did I fall in love with the characters, but feel almost compelled to visit the land where these events occurred! My thanks to the author for this work. I thoroughly enjoyed every page. I look forward to reading more of his books.
6 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2014
The tale of the star-crossed lovers Col. James Achilles Kirkpatrick and the Hyderabadi Begum Khairunissa unwinds like a Greek tragedy.

The story of Khairunissa, widowed at 19, her children at the ages of 5 and 3 snatched away from her, never to see them again and betrayed by the next man she learnt to love is played out in the background of more tolerant Englishmen who understood and assimilated the habits, culture and religions of India.

The next generation of English conquered India, but did not win its heart.

A page turner of a book impossible to put down.
9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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sharad
5.0 out of 5 stars A slice of indian history that we knew so little!
Reviewed in India on August 1, 2022
Excellent book for those who have interest in Indian history but do not have patience to read the boring academic texts. It reads like a racy novel. This is my 6th Dalrymple book and I intend to finish his entire works in a year.
2 people found this helpful
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irma dickinson
5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing part of history
Reviewed in Mexico on November 14, 2020
I used the book in my English class for adults. So many things we did not know regarding the occupation of India by the British. Loved the way the author interwinds the main story of the couple with all the facts of both cultures. A must for lovers of history. IRMA DICKINSON
veys andre
5.0 out of 5 stars White Mughals William Dalrymple
Reviewed in France on June 12, 2018
Encore une lecture occasionnée par une excellente émission de BBC4. Ce monde fascinant de l'Inde aux prises avec la lutte entre Français et Britanniques constitue le décor. Mais c'est surtout la saga familiale qui est fascinante.
Adrian J. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Allow yourself to be transported back to 18th Century India
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 12, 2018
Having previously read The Last Mughal, this raised my expectations from William Dalrymple, and White Mughals certainly did not disappoint.
While the book mainly focuses on the tragic romance between James Achilles Kirkpatrick and Khair Un Nissa, the former being a White Mughal (a European adapted to Indian culture) the book does provide, at least in its opening paragraph, a panorama of Europeans who "went native" and adapted to Indian ways, converting mainly to Islam, though in a few cases, Hinduism.
Through the course of the book, we learn that this was not unusual in the 18th and early 19th centuries, though it became much less prevalent as the arrogance of British colonial rule increased from the mid 19th century onward, culminating in the war of 1857.
While the opening chapter may be a panorama of European-Indian interactions, and the subsequent chapters a retelling of the relationship and fortunes of Kirkpatrick and Khair Un Nissa, Dalrymple is highly descriptive, and the insights (one must read the footnotes for the whole picture) coupled with Dalrymple's prose elegance, help transport the reader back to Georgian era British India, creating a sense of sentimental attachment that is rarely found in non-fiction.
A problem is that the characters do seem somewhat distant to the reader, in a sense that would not be found in a fictional novel, however, this is non-fiction and relies on documentary evidence, in this case letters, of which direct citations are often used.
If one approaches this expecting a Pride & Prejudice like novel, they may be disappointed, however, if one comes to this book with no pre-conceived expectations and simply allows Dalrymple to transport them back to early British India, then they will not be disappointed.
In all a unique work, both a factual work of historical biography, a panorama of 18th Century India, a touching love affair, and ultimately, a plea for understanding between cultures, showing that civilizations do not always clash, rather, they merge.
8 people found this helpful
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Chocmint
5.0 out of 5 stars Lose your heart in India.
Reviewed in Australia on October 29, 2020
A beautiful and tragic story of love and betrayal.
The leading characters in this story found something in each other across huge cultural barriers in the late 17th and early 18th centuries in India that is rarely found I today’s modern age. If you like India, it’s history, it’s people and it’s geography this is a must read.

Another well done for William Dalrymple.