White Mughals

Another impressive read by William Dalrymple about a subject that I knew little about. The subject being intermarriage between British and Indians in the Mughal world of the late 18th to early 19th centuries. The dominant event in the telling is the relationship/marriage between Lieutenant colonel James Kirkpatrick, Resident in Hyderabad, to Mughal noblewomen Khair-un-Nissa. To say this caused a stir with the British Indian authorities at the time would be an understatement. Under Clive, they had an investigation, and Kirkpatrick was certainly not well received in some quarters. He converted to Islam so as to marry Khair-un-Nissa who was 14 at the time and he in his 30's, going native as was the saying but to do so was later to be harshly looked upon. Their story and life and times though is very interesting.

Interesting enough for Dalrymple to write 3 pages of “Lists of illustrations”, 2 pages of maps, 2 sets of family trees, 6 pages of Dramatis Persona, 3 pages of acknowledgments, a 13-page introduction, 501 pages of the narrative, countless footnotes through the narrative, 3 sets of plates, a 7-page glossary, 40 pages of endnotes, a 14-page Bibliography and last but not least a 14-page index. Phew!

This is one heck of a well-researched book, everything you may want or not want to know about this famous love affair in Hyderabad; to this day hardly known to anyone else other than those that may have an interest in the more esoteric events in British Indian history. At the time of writing this review, I have just recently had a conversation with a Muslim Indian from Hyderabad who was very aware of the story of Kirkpatrick and Khair-un-Nissa. He was taught this at school, he said, but added that it was not taught elsewhere in India, as the history of India is taught differently from state to state. He also had smiles on his face as he corrected my pronunciation of names, places and words.

I wrote above that the relationship between Kirkpatrick and Khair-un-Nissa dominated the book, but Dalrymple has also given the entire subject a life and times approach. The reader can feel his admiration of the mixing of the east and west, but there was always the feel that this was romanticised, as the mixing/intermarriage seemed to be more an officer class and beyond. I don't see Dalrymple as some supporter of British colonialism in India, but he does have a view that in the early days relationships were less strained than it later became. I am less sure on this based on recent reading of Indian attitude towards their erstwhile coloniser's. There is also a little wishful thinking on his part for the future. He says in the final sentence of the narrative “As the story of James Achilles Kirkpatrick and Khair un-Nissa shows, East and West are not irreconcilable, and never have been. Only bigotry, prejudice, racism and fear drive them apart. But they have met and mingled in the past; and they will do so again” Well yes, but my reading of history shows that we as a species are incapable of long-term mingling, much to my personal disappointment.

In the end, though, this is really a book I would only recommend to those that are interested in the subject of the “white Mughals”. The length of the book is not a problem for me personally but when one gets many, for example, quoted letters that could have been edited back some may find this tedious if they are looking for, as the subtitle says, “Loss and Betrayal In Eighteenth Century India”.
The subtitle just might disappoint.