White Mughals
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 508
William Dalrymple is an Indophile English author whose work titled ‘The Last Mughal’ portrays the 1857 freedom war or mutiny, depending on which side you are on, gained much acclaim in India. Chronologically, the ‘White Mughals’ is a prequel to the events which caused the rebellion in 1857. Content wise, there is no relation between the two works. The Last Mughal is essentially history, while White Mughals is more of a novel. It establishes the love and marriage of the English resident of Hyderabad, James Achilles Kirkpatrick with Khair-un-Nissa begum, a noble lady of the Hyderabadi aristocracy. They lived happily for a decade or so, at the end of which their two children were sent to England for education and Kirkpatrick dies following a serious illness. Khair then have an affair with a senior officer of the East India Company, Henry Russell who abandons her after some time to marry an English woman. Khair also dies of an illness soon after. The children who were sent to England are converted to Christianity and never visit India again. This is the essence of the story. Nothing much to impress really.
Dalrymple establishes that the dislike and condescending attitude the British developed towards India and its culture was an entirely new offshoot in the beginning of the 19th century. Earlier they were more accommodating and eagerly took part in the religious functions and married Indian women. The Anglo-Indian society thus formed were given prominent positions in the company hierarchy till the time of Lord Cornwallis, who put an end to such practices and excluded the hybrid community from the power centres. This was the time in which the British were still dependent on Indian kings and sultans and naturally they found it convenient to establish marital relations with the aristocracy of the princely states. At the turn of the 19th century, the English were all powerful in India. 50 years after Plassey, they stood unchallenged with the French threat convincingly put out after Mysore wars which saw Tipu Sultan defeated.
‘White Mughals’ however, portrays the moral degeneracy India has sunk into in those periods. He quotes the writing of a Portuguese sailor thus, “Others were no doubt lured from Portuguese service by the delights of a society in which slavery, concubinage and polygamy were widespread and entirely accepted, and where they could emulate the curious figure some British sailors encountered at the beginning of the seventeenth century living with as many women as he pleaseth......he will sing and dance all day long, near hand naked...... and will be drunk two days together”.
Tipu Sultan is considered to be champion of Indian freedom since he fought against the British. Our politically inclined historians, however, has lost sight of Tipu’s real intentions in fighting against the British. He had only one aim in doing so, and that was the continuation of his reign and nothing else. He openly sought help from the French who helped him in increasing his military power and providing him with a mercenary force. How can such a person be the fountainhead of India’s freedom struggle? Dalrymple quotes a letter from Napoleon Bonaparte to Tipu, which was sent from Cairo, annexed by Napoleon. It runs thus, “You have already been informed of my arrival on the borders of the Red Sea, with an innumerable and invincible army, full of the desire of releasing and relieving you from the iron yoke of England. I eagerly embrace this opportunity of testifying to you the desire I have of being informed by you, by the way of Muscat and Mocha, as to your political situation. I could even wish you could send some sort of intelligent person to Suez or Cairo, possessing your confidence, with whom I may confer. May the Almighty increase your power, and destroy your enemies!”. It is curious to hear Bonaparte talking about iron yoke of England, because if he and Tipu had their ways, India would have been under the iron yoke of France! Some freedom fighter!
The Muslim aristocracy who ruled India had their roots in Afghanistan or Persia. The book describes how these powerful nobles saw the country of their livelihood. Abdul Lateef, a Persian in the court of Hyderabad was “shocked to see men and women naked apart from an exiguous cache-sex mixing in the streets and markets, as well as out in the country, like beasts or insects. I asked my host, “What on earth is this?” “Just the locals” he replied, “They’re all like that!” It was my first step in India, but already I regretted coming and reproached myself”. And this man lived in India for the rest of his life, sapping the tax revenue from those wretched locals whom he despised so much.
All in all, the book is not as nicely readable as the Last Mughal, especially since the author’s narration of even the minutest details like the gardening arrangements of the British resident in Hyderabad. There are several such sections where the reader has no choice but to somehow read through the boring sections. Otherwise, it is a good work, even though the theme is very superficial and does not appear anywhere in the course of Indian history.
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