The Broken Script

Title: The Broken Script – Delhi Under the East India Company and the Fall of the Mughal Dynasty
Author: Swapna Liddle
Publisher: Speaking Tiger, 2022 (First)
ISBN: 9789354473869
Pages: 413

1857 was the year in which the British colonial machine was interrupted for a short while in its pursuit of the conquest of India. The East India Company's Indian soldiers turned against their masters and the establishment lurched dangerously close to the point of capsizing. Luckily for them, India was divided as always. The Gurkhas, Sikhs and South Indian troops were not part of the revolt and in the end the British effectively used them to crush the rebellion. However, immense changes took place in the colonial administration thereafter. The policy of outright annexation was stopped entirely and the native princes were brought in as allies to manage their own states subject to the paramountcy of British power. This book tells the story of Delhi from the defeat of the Marathas who occupied it in 1803 till the 1857 rebellion. The Mughal emperor was a shadow of his previous self and was a puppet in the hands of the Marathas who however continued to show him respect and acknowledged him as their overlord. The British continued the etiquette but took steps to gradually take away his prerogatives and privileges. Then the mutiny came and along with it the chance the British were eagerly anticipating for a long while. The Mughal dynasty was deposed, the young princes shot dead and the emperor himself was exiled to Burma where he died a few years later. This book examines the political, cultural, intellectual and religious atmosphere in Delhi in the half century after the British ascent in 1803. Swapna Liddle is an Indian historian, author, art curator and heritage conservator based in Delhi. She is well known for her research of history of Delhi including its architecture and buildings. This book is based on her PhD research at the Jamia Millia Islamiya.

The book takes off from the Maratha period where the Mughal throne and its capital city securely lay in the hands of the Marathas. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there was a Mughal emperor on the throne but the empire was largely gone. He was in effect a puppet and pensioner but with considerable symbolic authority over the vast territories that were still legally considered a part of the Mughal empire. Shah Alam II gave over to the East India Company effective rights of his realm and appointed them as the principal functionary of the empire after they defeated the Marathas at Patparganj near Delhi in 1803. The emperor and the royal household were constrained by the British, first from Calcutta and then by more powerful Residents at Delhi such as Metcalfe. The Mughal tried to petition the government in Calcutta, bypassing the Resident, but when it was revealed, the Resident cut down the emperor's stipend – which was in effect a pension. Akbar II's reaction was pitiful. He called himself a fool, pulled his own ears in token of deserving punishment and begged the pardon of Metcalfe in public. The company was any way targeting the humiliation of the emperor. The British then started building up a support base in Delhi by letting out land as jagirs in the time when the Marathas were not conclusively accounted for. This was a usurpation of the Mughal's power. But when the tide changed in their favour and peace led to great leaps in agricultural revenue, they started to resume jagirs and take back donated land and properties. To a culture which was attuned to rulers being generous with largesse, these measures stamped the new rulers as mean. The harshness of British exactions became the subject of popular lore. The balance of power continuously shifted in favour of the company and the emperor's dignity and independence eroded in proportion. The company closed down the Delhi mint which quietly produced coins in the name of Akbar II. The Governor General dropped the word 'fidwi' or 'servant of the Emperor' from his Persian seal. In 1827, Akbar II did away with the protocol when he met Governor General Lord Amherst and allowed him to sit in his presence, no nazars were presented and at the time of departure even stood up and took him by the arm. The defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo and the ensuing peace in Europe made the British more powerful than ever.

Even though the Mughals took power in India after wading through rivers of blood and inflicting irredeemable damage to our culture, the systematic humiliation meted out to them by the British evoke our pitiful sympathy. Every step, howsoever small it may be, was calculated to chip away something from the emperor's honour. In 1833, the British stopped the practice of paying the emperor's stipend on the first of the month if it fell on a Sunday or a holiday. The right to choose the successor was also appropriated by the colonial power. This led to amusing occurrences when there was natural rivalry among the princes. When Akbar II died in 1837, the heir apparent Abu Zafar (later known as Bahadur Shah Zafar) was already 62 years old. He immediately ordered preparations for coronation after he heard the news of his father's death at six in the evening. He was feeling insecure and feared a last-minute coup. The ceremony was at last held at three in the night! This also shows that even though devoid of power, it is the position that make people go after them. Zafar's writ ran only in the fort, but he held daily durbars where the issues discussed was petty, such as the complaint of the wife of the emperor's peon on domestic violence. The royal family had multiplied many times and lived in huts inside the fort in squalour and the fort had become overcrowded. The author accuses the British of not paying them enough to live. Bahadur Shah had eleven sons and 28 grandsons. The number of daughters is not given. Many relations left the fort and started living in the city thereby bringing them under the jurisdiction of the company like ordinary subjects. They were always in heavy debt. Creditors usually accosted the royals on the streets and abused them. They even went to the emperor's jharoka darshan and clamoured before him for a settlement of their dues. The stipend was a kind of privy purse and in early 1857, the British were actively considering to cut them off and to absorb the families in the mass of the population. Still, prospective sons vied with each other to formally succeed their father. Bahadur Shah's elder sons predeceased him. Mohammed Koeash, the eldest surviving son, appealed to the British to make him the heir apparent because of his religiosity. The only worthwhile qualities that he possessed for the post was that he had memorized the Quran and had made the Haj pilgrimage (p.166).

Liddle describes about the social conditions prevailing in Delhi during those times. The British prohibited the slave trade in Delhi in 1812, putting a stop to the sale of human beings which was rampant among the Mughals. Slaves, especially women, soon began to run away from the Red Fort. The royal family protested to the British that these women were 'legally' bought before the ban came into effect! These appeals were ignored. Another fact worth notice is the improving social position of Hindus and other non-Muslim communities from the shockingly degrading status of Dhimmis to subjects of somewhat equal privileges of Muslims. Harsukh Rai, a rich merchant of Delhi, built a temple and carried the idol to the new premises in a magnificent procession. Muslims protested at this because the Dhimmis were practically slaves till that time and were entitled only to carry out their religious rituals either in private or clandestinely. A riot ensued and several people were killed. Leading clerics such as Maulana Rafi ud-Din appealed to the emperor to exert his influence on behalf of the Muslims who were detained by the British. The British bluntly retorted to the emperor Akbar II that 'he was the king of Hindus as well', and that violence and looting could not be tolerated (p. 35). Sectarianism thrived in the Mughal camp even when it was obvious that the revolt was dying down. When Bahadur Shah asked his commander-in-chief to raise troops, he specifically remarked that these should be of the 'sharif qaum' or upper castes such as sayyids, Pathans and Mughals and not 'neech qaum' or lower castes (p. 318). At the height of the Rebellion in July 1857, the festival of Bakrid took place. Muslims threatened to slaughter cows during the festival. Bahadur Shah put his foot down and commanded not to let them do this. He ordered the kotwal (police chief) to round up all the cows belonging to Muslims and keep them under his custody till the festival was over. The kotwal pleaded the impracticality of the order at which the emperor asked him to take bonds from the owners not to kill them (p. 306). However, in the initial days when it seemed that the British were completely wiped out, a banner of jihad was seen raised atop the Jama Masjid on May 19. Hindus complained and Bahadur Shah ordered it to be taken down. In response, one of the senior ulema met him and admitted that the jihad had been declared against Hindus too (p. 305).

A very good survey of the cultural environment including literary pursuits and development in education is included in this book along with quotes from the ghazals and poem that exemplify the era. Adulatory verses penned by Urdu poets including Ghalib on the re-conquest of the British are provided with good effect. Opportunistic palace officials swayed with the wind and courted the British. Ghalib spared no effort to win the favour of British officials. Going one step further, he then stopped the customary couplets he used to write for the Mughals. A college was set up in Delhi which taught Arabic and Persian at first, but later included English as well which then turned out to be more popular than the former two. Persian was replaced by Urdu as the official language of correspondence and business in the 1830s. At the same time, the Governor General 'wished' that in future, correspondence with the dependent principalities would be carried out in English.

Liddle narrates the 1857 revolt and its aftermath in the life of Delhi and the Mughal dynasty. She describes the widespread massacre and loot that took place in the initial days in the city. About 50 British – mostly women and children – were rounded up and confined in a building inside the fort. They were later executed with sword. Jihadis continued their work here too. A Mrs. Aldwell and her children were spared death because they claimed they were Muslims and could recite the kalima (p. 286). Bahadur Shah's plight was unenviable. He was hesitant from the first to ally with the rebels, but he was not able to refuse the insistent and rather aggressive soldiers who invaded his palace. They did not treat him as worthy of any respect. They walked into the Diwan-e-Khas and stood on the carpets with their shoes on. Some of them addressed him as 'arre badshah' and took the liberty of touching his hand and beard. His orders were frequently flouted and it was said that his official seal was used by whichever of those around him pleased. The princes and their sons joined the rebels and took part in looting around the city for which they had to pay with their lives. Bahadur Shah's 'reign' lasted only four months. The British retook the city and shot the emperor's sons and grandsons, with and without trial. Shah, along with his close relatives were exiled to Rangoon where he died four years later at the age of 87. His wife, Zeenat Mahal, lived on in penury till 1882. Jawan Bakht, another son who did not participate in the rebellion, became an alcoholic and died in 1884 at the age of 42 and thereby the Mughal dynasty was snuffed out. The exact location of the emperor's grave was soon forgotten. Though a memorial now exists, it is only approximately where the grave is believed to be located. The British initially considered demolishing the Jama Masjid and Eidgah in Delhi but returned it to Muslims in 1862 on the condition that it was subject to the scrutiny and surveillance of civil and military officers who should be able to enter without restrictions as to shoes (p. 345).

The book is a very good one for getting to know Delhi in the transition period of the medieval merging into the modern. Even though it may appear heartless to say so, but the Mughals had had to go, because with such an anachronistic millstone around the neck, India could not have stepped on to the modern stage. Perhaps India would have spared the evils of partition a century later if the Mughals had continued, but the religious strife would've been unmanageable. The lesser evil is partition anyway. The book also contains a fine collection of paintings and rare, old photographs of the era. What is evident in the portraits is that the Mughal empire, as well as the individual rulers, had greyed beyond any use. The pictures of Akbar II and Bahadur Shah show two geriatrics appearing as if slightly confused about what was going on around them. The book also hosts a very fine discussion on the development of public education with a distinct oriental and English flavour. The vestiges of a PhD thesis are present in the work but this in no way disturbs the readers nor the reading experience is compromised. There are 956 end-notes and a bibliography spanning several pages. The title of the book is derived from an Urdu poem of the period lamenting the collapse of the city after 1857 penned by Sabir which runs:

"So unjustly have the buildings been razed in Delhi
It is fitting to inscribe in the shikastah the account of Delhi"

and shikasta means 'broken script'.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

Allahu Akbar

Title: Allahu Akbar – Understanding the Great Mughal in Today’s India
Author: Manimugdha S. Sharma
Publisher: Bloomsbury, 2019 (First)
ISBN: 9789386950536
Pages: 305

History is written by the winners. That’s the only certain truth as far as historiography is concerned. India was reeling under the yoke of Islamic imperialism for nearly eight centuries. They conquered us, destroyed our temples, killed millions, took many millions of both sexes as slaves, forcibly converted several millions and did one other thing that was more shattering and everlasting than the others. They tampered with our cultural DNA and created a class of people who actually believe that India benefitted from the above-mentioned bouts of extreme repression. In the present day, the Left-Islamist nexus bankrolls them and offer them plum positions in academia and pliant journalism. The Mughals was just another Muslim dynasty that produced two centuries of hell in India’s long history. But one thing must be admitted here. Of the six monarchs who are considered Great Mughals, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar’s rule was the most tolerant. If you scour Islamic history for tolerant kings, perhaps Salahuddin al-Ayyubi might be the only other person you’d find. This book is an effort to understand Emperor Akbar in today’s India. This is a highly censored version which is laudatory to Mughals and worthless as history. The book projects many medieval events onto modern sensibilities and raises political propaganda to claim that the present prime minister, Narendra Modi, is not fit to rule India which was once reigned by such greats as Akbar. Nehru and even Rahul Gandhi is favourably compared to Akbar in this book, but it claims that in view of the Gujarat riots of 2002, Modi broke India while Akbar united it. The book’s title signifies the Muslim battle cry which means that ‘God is Great’. By a clever twist, this also means that ‘Akbar is God’ which was used as a term of salutation by Akbar’s cronies. In that sense, the title is apt for the book because the author practically treats him as divine. Manimugdha S. Sharma is a Delhi-based journalist. He takes a keen interest in politics, military history, the Mughal and British empires and the two world wars. This is his first book in English.

The author confesses that this book was indebted to critical input from the Islamist historians Irfan Habib and Ali Nadeem Rezawi. This makes the author’s pitiable attempts to glorify the Mughals at least comprehensible. A crucial finding in the book is the intellectual and ‘rational’ bend of the Mughal mind. When Hamida Bano, Akbar’s mother, went into labour, court astrologers wanted to prolong it till a later propitious time. But the courtiers rebuffed them saying that ‘things would happen when God willed it’. This fatalistic remark is exalted as a ‘glimpse of the rational minded high society the Mughals had’. However, he notes that Akbar was born at the exact moment the astrologers predicted! Just a few pages later, he concedes that Humayun assigned commands and offices based on the star sign of officers (p.8). The irony is that on the same page he makes this observation, he cannot help remark that ‘Islam condemns soothsaying and endorses natural sciences’ (p.8). It’s a fair guess that it is in such innocuous-looking comments that we see the influence of Habib and Rezawi. The author disgraces himself by praising slavery which was rampant in Islam. He claims that a slave in an Islamic society could rise to become master one day and that slaves were often raised by their masters as their own children, giving them education, training, grooming and teaching them every skill required to rise high in society (p.256). Readers should keep in mind that he is simply sugar-coating the heinous institution of slavery! On the other hand, the author himself may be thought to signify how such a slave would look like in modern times – in the intellectual sense at least. There are several fabricated stories in the narrative such as Humayun recoiling in disgust from a dish of beef and Babur prohibiting cow-slaughter because he was a pragmatic king!

What makes this book not even worth the paper on which it is printed is the political and Islamist propaganda it carries against the present Narendra Modi government in India. You can of course criticize the government for whatever reason, but what does a history book on Mughals has to do with present-day party politics? This book seems to be part of a paid effort that works with political targets in mind written to coincide with the 2019 general elections in India. The author claims that BJP’s election campaigns since 2014 have hinged on Goebbelsian propaganda (p.20). Akbar’s birthday is not certain. He compares this to Modi and says, “Narendra Modi himself has been in the eye of the storm throughout his term for alleged discrepancies in his date of birth as well” (p.7). And, ‘Modi government has a medieval impulse on vilifying opposition’ (p.61). Babur and Akbar erected towers of skulls of enemies vanquished in battle. This is compared to the Modi government’s alleged tendency to seeing minorities as the ‘other’ (p.75). As you can see, the examples are not congruent with the argument but the author compulsively makes these deranged exercises like an obsession. Moreover, he cites several episodes from history and concludes that ‘Akbar was not doing anything that hadn’t been done before and wouldn’t be done again’ (p.78), probably meaning the erection of skull towers. Modi’s scrapping of the outdated and anachronous Planning Commission and putting in NITI Aayog in its place is compared to Akbar’s regent, Bairam Khan, assuming more powers to himself (p.87). Another allegation is that exaggeration is seen in Modi regime’s success stories (p.82). Modi issues ‘diktats to schoolchildren, bureaucrats or factory workers to show up at state or party events since 2014’ (p.14). Also, mass killings were not acceptable in Mughal times as it is now (p.111). Akbar captured Delhi defeating Hemu, who briefly held Delhi by ousting Humayun’s army. Hemu rose from humble origins and the author remarks that ‘one doesn’t get too many instances of someone rising through the ranks like this’ (p.51). However, he does not make the obvious comparison to Modi at this point, who had also risen from a very poor and socially backward family. Graciousness is not a virtue of this wily and partisan journalist who had written this book.

This book glorifies the invaders and slave-masters and vilifies the hapless natives who went down fighting these monstrously destructive powers. Sharma has no compunction to portray an act of blood-curdling cruelty as necessary for a monarch. He claims that Humayun fought his brothers without hating them (!); he loved all his brothers; he had a guilt complex in fighting them (p.28). But in reality, the incident of Humayun blinding his brother makes a terrible read. He pierced a sharp, hot needle through his own brother Kamran’s eyes after capturing him. Dirk Collier notes in his excellent book The Great Mughals and Their India that ‘the lancet was pierced into both eyes about fifty times to make the deed fool proof. The prince bravely withstood the torture, but at the end of it when a mixture of lemon juice and salt was sprinkled on the wound, he broke down and cried out loudly in pain’ (read review here). The author berates the Rajputs entirely as a class – those who fought the Mughals to the last man committing jauhar and saka and those who submitted to them and gave away their daughters to the Mughal harem. Sharma notes with contempt that Rajput ruling families managed to survive until modern times by bowing to every ascendant star on the political horizon, just like grass blades that weather every storm by bending. Some Rajputs fought on the Mughal side against fellow Rajputs. It is interesting to observe how the Mughal chroniclers viewed these fratricidal contests. Badaoni, the Mughal biographer of Akbar through his book Muntakhab ut-Tawarikh, claims that this was a ploy to get kaffirs (infidels) killed by their brethren and to save Muslims the trouble (p.207). But our journalist author chips in with a salvaging comment that Badauni’s remark ‘was not the Mughal state’s view’. How does he deduce this against the written word of a contemporary who knew things better?

Manimugdha Sharma quite literally imagines or wishes that the Mughals gave strict punishment for rape. This ruse is only to make them more appealing to modern sensibilities. He claims that Jahangir demoted Muqarrab Khan, the governor of Gujarat, because he raped a Hindu woman. He is not able to find a reference for this assertion on the period texts, but suggests that his patron, Prof. Ali Nadeem Rezawi of the Aligarh Muslim University, had told him so (p.144). It is amusing that on the immediate previous page, it is asserted that the Mughal Islamic state mandated the testimony of four witnesses to attest to the victim’s version to award sentence to the offenders (p.143). He then maliciously compares the rape of a minor Muslim girl at Kathua to this incident and implies that Hinduism is involved in this brutal incident. To establish the culpability of patriarchal polytheistic religions in sanctioning rape, he describes the story of Medusa from Greek mythology. Medusa was raped and then punished by the gods. Akbar promoted eunuchs in bureaucracy much unlike his predecessors. Those outside the court was still treated with contempt. Even today, Indian politicos and the society at large have not been able to do better than Akbar (p.122). After several rounds of grandstanding, the author ruefully admits that Akbar mercilessly slaughtered tens of thousands in the siege of Chittor in 1568. The emperor then went straight to the shrine of Moinudeen Chishti in Ajmer and proclaimed that his mujahids (holy warriors) defeated kaffirs at Chittor. To iron this out, Sharma slyly assures that this was only a ‘religious rhetorical invocation’ (p.168).

Make no mistake about it that I fully share the author’s conviction that Akbar was the most tolerant of the Mughals – especially in the latter half of his reign. He built the ibadat khana for religious discourse which admitted only Muslim theologians at first. When the emperor realised the hollowness of their arguments, he invited speakers from other religions too. He never joined any of them, but introduced one himself called din e-ilahi, which was nothing more than a kind of personal worship of the emperor. A doubt which is usually pointed at Akbar’s religiosity (or the lack of it) is that whether he had turned ex-Muslim (in the modern sense of the term). The author does not even pronounce it, because his Islamist mentors would not allow it; but gives subtle hints that it may be so. He remarks that since Akbar didn’t go through the formal education process of the time, which involved theological lessons, he had a relatively unencumbered mind that was open to receiving different ideas (p.239). The author quotes Badaoni in such a way as to hint that the emperor had become an apostate. Badaoni sullenly points out that ‘His Majesty had the early history of Islam read out to him and soon began to think less of the companions of the Prophet; soon after, he felt the five prayers, fasts of Ramadan and the belief in everything connected with the Prophet were vain superstitions’ (p.218). When Jahangir rose in revolt against his father, one of the accusations was that Akbar had converted many of the mosques into storehouses and stables. Badaoni also mentions that Akbar dropped all references to the name ‘Muhammad’ and shortened his own name to ‘Jalaluddin Akbar’ (p.227). He assumed the title of amir ul-Mominin (commander of the faithful) which was a break from tradition and a snub to the Ottoman caliphs. The author then argues that ‘this was the reason why Muslim soldiers of the Indian army had no qualms about going to war against the Ottoman empire and Indian Muslims never bothered about the Ottoman caliph’ (p. 222). This is a plain falsehood and raises the question whether he had heard about the Khilafat agitation, which was a bloody episode in India’s freedom struggle and the only instance when Muslims came out in support of Gandhi and his party.

This book is a feeble attempt to understand Akbar in his own time and examine his relevance in our own time. Unfortunately, the author has made the latter part a political slugfest on Narendra Modi. He admits that he has picked some episodes from Akbar’s life story and left out some others (p.xxv) which means that it is a sanitized, if not censored, version. This is a fairy-tale book on Akbar fit for indoctrinating young minds who have not developed the faculty of critical thinking. The author claims himself an Ekalavya and the Islamist historian Irfan Habib as his Dronacharya and consoles that he has not lost his thumb at the end of it. He may have retained his thumb, but certainly has lost common sense and self-pride. This book pompously describes battle stories from European wars in a bid to compare them with Mughals’ experiences and to appear erudite. Most of these stories are irrelevant and uninteresting. They seem to be selected by AI. Sharma calls his detractors ‘weekend historians’ and ‘Twitter professors. He himself fits the bill. His logic is preposterous in the case of many observations. The book declares that Rahul Gandhi comes close to Akbar in unconventional ways because ‘he has ridden bikes and ate with Dalit families’ while Modi has not (p.252-3). The book also includes a discussion on movies such as Jodhaa Akbar and TV serials depicting the Mughal emperor.

This petty political baggage of a book is not recommended.

Rating: 1 Star

The Lion and the Lily

Title: The Lion and the Lily
Author: Ira Mukhoty
Publisher: Aleph, 2024 (First)
ISBN: 9788119635979
Pages: 456

The greatest contribution of Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor, to India’s well-being was that he initiated the disintegration of the Mughal empire. Even though it managed to totter on for another 150 years after his death, its vitality was snuffed out and it served only as a punch bag for every adventurer. Close came the invasion and plunder of Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Durrani. These incidents devastated Delhi and impoverished the emperor. The regional Mughal governors in Hyderabad, Bengal and Awadh exploited this opportunity to the hilt and set up hereditary dynasties in these provinces. The English East India Company (EIC) was the other contender who utilized the chance to establish territorial power. The eighteenth century saw a series of wars around the globe between the colonial aspirations of Britain and France. The former lost a part of its colonial empire in American independence while France succumbed in all theatres of encounter. This sealed the fate of the French in India. Many French soldiers quickly changed sides and sold their military skill and services to native states who could remunerate them handsomely. The Nawab of Awadh was a patron of these European mercenaries. This book brings to centre stage the lives of the nawabs, begums, eunuchs and other lesser known players, in addition to the perspective provided by the involvement of certain French adventurers and soldiers. The ‘lion’ in the title refers to the Awadhi nawabs and ‘lily’ refers to the French royal banner fleur-de-lys (the lily flower) which was part of the French king’s heraldry. Two of Ira Mukhoty’s earlier books – Akbar: The Greal Mughal (read review here) and Heroines: Powerful Indian Women of Myth and History (read review here) – were reviewed here earlier.

The origins of the Awadhi nawabi is full of deception and treachery, but the author lets it pass without comment. However, she does not extend this courtesy to the Marathas or the British. Saadat Khan, who established the Awadhi line, was a cheat on the personal level and a traitor against the Mughal empire. The Mughals had successfully persuaded the Persian invader Nadir Shah to accept a measly war indemnity and return home. But Saadat Khan informed Shah of the vast treasures of emperor Muhammad Shah Rangeela and where it was hidden. Nadir Shah blew into Delhi like a tempest and killed almost 100,000 people till the city drains literally overflowed with blood of the slain. However, after appropriating the treasure, he humiliated Saadat Khan who immediately committed suicide by taking poison. The first Awadh Nawab was thus instrumental in helping Nadir Shah annihilate the very fabric of Mughal imperial authority. Saadat’s son-in-law Safdar Jung succeeded him on the throne. He paid Nadir two crore rupees to confirm his nawabi of Awadh. The helpless Mughal emperor had no other option than to accede to the invader’s command as a fait accompli. The funny part of the episode was that the name of the new nawab meant ‘Lion in war’! The next nawab, Shuja-ud-Daula, sided with the Afghan invader Ahmed Shah Durrani in his battle at Panipat against the Marathas. Such was the antecedents of the scions of Awadh and the author wants us to sympathise with them over their eventual loss of the kingdom to the British.

The book explains how the EIC consolidated their hold on power in north India by cashing in on the wrong policy decisions of the Mughals and their Awadhi vassals. Mughal emperor Shah Alam II and Shuja-ud-Daula lost the battle of Buxar to the British in 1764 who swiftly took possession of Allahabad and then Lucknow, the capital. Shuja would pay a crippling indemnity to the British to get the regions back. On his part, Shah Alam would sign away the right to collect taxes (diwani) of the provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha to the Company. This was the single incident that spawned British colonial empire in India. England no longer needed to send bullion to India for trade. The most heinous part was that the nawabs sided with Britain when one of their vassals was engaged in a tussle with the British. Benares erupted in revolt against the EIC in 1781 under its governor Raja Chait Singh who was loyal to Asaf-ud-Daula. It was a forerunner of 1857 in the retributive spirit of the local troops. Asaf-ud-Daula, who followed Shuja to the throne, sent troops and money to the British. They crushed the rebellion in two months with this generous help. Even though a few loyal courtiers and the nawab had an extravagant existence with all pleasures life could offer at their disposal, the populace languished in miserable degeneracy. The author lets out some vague hints about these, but a pair of discerning eyes could easily penetrate the subterfuge and false praise heaped on the nawabs. Slavery was rampant in the province, both of the menial and sexual varieties. We read of an English architect named Anthony Polier purchasing an eight-year old girl and sending her as a ‘gift’ to a fellow European. When the girl’s father demurred, he threatened the helpless parent with the title-deed of the transaction (p.92)!

Mukhoty notes down the resurgence of Awadhi art under constant intermingling and rejuvenation from exposure to the finest European art. Jean Baptiste Gentil, who was the French Resident at Shuja’s court, wrote down his memoirs that provide us with a mirror of the high society in Awadh. He set up an art atelier and created the largest collection of art assembled by a single person in the province. British painters, starting from Telly Kettle, introduced European techniques to the local audience. It provided candour and recognisable immediacy. Painters trained in the Mughal tradition of the side profile struggled visibly with the full frontal format, the subjects often ending up with an unfortunate squint. Awadhi artists became deeply interested in light and shadow and the creation of volume and space. Mughal artists would thereafter follow the path of greater realism in their paintings. Culinary habits were refined to the highest level. Food became a matter of contestation between Mughal Delhi and nawabi Awadh. Delhi was famous for its biryani while Lucknow cultivated the pulao with infinitely many variations like gulzar, noor, koku, chameli and the like.

This review does not intend to be judgmental on the character of the nawabi aristocracy, but some points need to be mentioned, especially since the author consistently tries to downplay such unsavoury episodes if the Nawab is at fault. She is entirely hostile in the case of the English or the Maratha. An English traveller noted that Shuja was deceitful, unprincipled, bound by no laws divine or human and a tyrant in power (p.54). Even though this observation is nothing but the plain truth, the author blames the observer as being querulant. The first act of Shuja as Nawab was to abduct a beautiful Hindu Khatri woman. When a huge outcry was made, he returned her after a night in the palace (p.26). Mukhoty could have set this aside without any remark, but she stoops so low as to justify such transgressions as ‘the reaction of a boy who had once been powerless at his father’s harsh rendering of state affairs’. Was she an urdubegi (a matron who administers a harem for the pleasures of a domineering master) in a previous birth? Shuja was a licentious wretch who was fortunate to have an accommodating wife in Bahu Begum who ‘graciously’ accepted Rs. 5000 for each sexual transgression and forgave him (p.65). The author observes that she made a tidy sum of money! She became so rich – of course, by other sources as well – that she lent to the state when the need arose. The Europeans also shared the permissive ethos of the times at first. Many of them in high positions lived with Indian bibis and children from them. However, this baggage was usually shed when they returned home. William Dalrymple’s The White Mughals nicely illustrate this (read review here). Muslim governors often enslaved the children of Hindus whose families resisted his rule, emasculated the boys and then converted to Islam (p.161) like the Ottoman Janissaries. One such person, Jawahar Ali Khan, rose to the position of khwajasara (chief eunuch) of Bahu Begum and held great power in his hands. Quite naturally, such a degenerate society is bound to go downhill further. The book gives subtle hints of the elite slipping to effeminacy. The elite copied the nawab’s style and a type of male attire called the banka evolved which used kajal in the eyes and henna at the fingertips like women used to do (p.222).

Willingly or not, Awadh turned a cash cow for the British and financed all their needs. The nawabs demurred only when the British sought to control wasteful expenditure of the palace. Like a gang of robbers, both were more than willing to share the public money between themselves. It was only the ratio of split that was in contention. Asaf-ud-Daula’s tone gradually turned from one of generous largesse towards the fatherly governor general Hastings to one of wounded incredulity and finally to despair and hopelessness (p.180). Even with all this humiliation, he did not turn against them. Asaf always cozied up to the British even at the cost of self-respect. He sent 60,000 rupees along with a letter of congratulations to King George III on the king’s recovery from an illness. Out of this, half was to be paid to the king’s physician and the other was to be distributed as charity in England (p.225). He also helped the EIC by sending horses and baggage elephants in the company’s war against Tipu in the south. It is strange that the author still praises both these men! Asaf was so obsequious to the British that they viewed him with a sniggering disdain. A Britisher who was paid 1800 pounds a year with no work to do wrote to a friend in England about Asaf that he was brutal and an imbecile (p.318). The British who used Asaf for their purposes without any cover however evaluated the man as an ‘effeminate and debouched buffoon’ (p.218). But Mukhoty wants us to believe that he was ‘intelligent and full of vigour and energy’. British control of the state was total by the end of his reign. After Asaf’s death, his son Wazir Ali was initially chosen as the nawab, but the British immediately deposed him and instated his half-uncle Saadat Ali Khan who was earlier exiled to Benares. This was because he was so unpopular with the people of Lucknow, had no soldiers at his disposal and had no powerful supporters. An immense change came about in the attitude of Englishmen at this time. Earlier, EIC officials accepted the Awadhi world full of delicacy and grace with passionate enthusiasm. This changed to produce a generation of haughty men and women brash with a new confidence about their role and ‘civilizing’ mission. Evangelism also played a part in this transformation, but the author does not take this into account.

The nawabs were ardent Shias who are the followers of Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and fourth Caliph. They ostentatiously displayed Shia imagery and rituals and celebrated their festivals with great pomp. As can be expected, this became synonymous with the elite culture among nobility. Asaf built the grand monument of Bara Imambara in Lucknow to commemorate the martyrdom of Husayn, the Prophet’s grandson. This building cost 30 per cent of the annual revenue of the entire Awadh state. In addition, he spent extravagantly on overseas religious structures too. Enormous sums were expended in Iraqi cities which are holy to the Shias like Najaf and Karbala. He also paid for a canal to be dug to bring water to Najaf which is still known as the Asafiya or Hindiya Canal. Persian was admitted as the language of sophisticated poetry par excellence in the Nawab’s court. Poetry also flourished in mushairas and through courtesans. Persian phrases and idioms were self-consciously inserted into Lucknawi Urdu poetry in a process known as islah-i-zaban (correction of language). However, the society became ever more decadent with each passing year. The author ruefully admits that a great deal of Faizabad/Lucknow’s panache was built on elaborate chicanery and dissimulation.

This book is a good example of the diction that makes history books so appealing. I’m sure you will have to look up many words in the dictionary during reading as I myself had had to do. But let me assure you that the time spent on this effort is not at all wasted if you stop for a moment to ponder over the relevance and aptness of that particular word you just looked up. However, this flourish is not shared by the narrative which seems to be driven by an agenda to denigrate native Indian leaders and their actions. Mahadji Scindia, the Maratha leader who was the strongest power in India at that time, is always referred as a ‘Maratha warlord’ and nothing else. Meanwhile, Tipu Sultan of Mysore who had actually usurped power, is portrayed as a ‘warrior sultan’. This book also contains a short history of Tipu Sultan even though it is not relevant to the main topic. Is this because Mukhoty is genuinely thrilled by the antecedents of this most fiendish bigot in Indian history? Even Nadir Shah, who invaded, plundered and washed Delhi in a bloodbath, is described as ‘imposingly tall with flashing black eyes and a voice like thunder’ (p.15). This usurper is also eulogized as one who ‘staged a coup in Persia to depose the centuries-old Safavid dynasty’. But no such courtesy is ever extended to the Marathas. The author also paints all British narrative as inherently biased and hence unreliable. This is in fact an application of the cancel culture to history and is a flawed methodology. Almost all portrayals of Asaf-ud-Daula project the man as an ‘overweight, simpering fool; ridiculously pious, raunchy womanizer, effete homosexual, profligate wastrel and a miserly ruler’. This synopsis of Asaf which is borne out even by the author’s own narrative is assailed as a wilful character assassination by all the British authors who are separated not only by distance, but by time too. To counter this line of thought, she dips into French journals and diaries and reproduces the expected glorification of Awadhi nawabs and Tipu Sultan. In some instances, the author seems to be genuinely confused with some nicknames that are gained at the hands of a mute but critically appraising section of people. Emperor Muhammad Shah’s appellation of rangeela (colourful) was in fact pejorative, but Mukhoty thinks it is affectionate (p.18). This is really amusing, especially if you know why he was called rangeela, which is mentioned in some books on later Mughals.

This agenda-driven book is no better than a historical fiction. If you enjoy that genre, the book is recommended.

Rating: 2 Star

Farzana

Title: Farzana – The Tempestuous Life and Times of Begum Sumru
Author: Julia Keay
Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2013 (First)
ISBN: 9789350297094
Pages: 338

The British emerged as the foremost territorial power in India in the latter half of the eighteenth century. This was facilitated by the disintegration and fractionalization of the Mughal Empire. Provinces like Bengal and Awadh came into prominence which accepted Mughal sovereignty only in name. The British also decimated French colonial ambitions in the Deccan peninsula around this time. At this point, the French bowed out of the race and settled contentedly with whatever little possessions they enjoyed. A lot of Frenchmen and other Europeans had fought in the French army in India when they battled against the British. The French fiasco dashed their career prospects but they were not willing to go back home empty-handed. Many drifted to interior kingdoms and took up employment with Indian princes and the Mughals who were also eager to take them on to train their forces in European drill and discipline. These jobs were lucrative and these foreigners were not averse to mix with local people. Many of them married Indian women and even practised polygamy. Living in the style of local aristocrats, these mercenary troops was a passing phase of India’s march to modernity. We see a fusion of civilizations in this era. The Muslim empire had fallen and the British one not yet reached ascendancy. The ancient spirit of India to absorb everyone and everything once again shone through. May be this was how the Sakas got interwoven in Indian society around the beginning of the Common Era. This book is the story of a Muslim nautch-girl who came into the possession of a European military commander. She steadfastly stood by him and his troops to gain leadership of the brigade and administration of his estates after his death. Her exploits around Delhi in giving protection to the weak Mughal emperor Shah Alam II is recorded in history. As the British tightened their hold on Delhi, she transferred her allegiance to them and was allowed to keep her estates till her death. She is known by her Mughal title Farzand-i-Azizi (beloved daughter of the state), shortened to Farzana. This story is refreshingly told by Julia Keay, wife of the famous historian John Keay, and herself the author of many historical books. The text of this book was completed just before her death in 2011.

Our heroine was the daughter of an Arab father and a Kashmiri dancing girl. The father died when she was only six and the mother and child were thrown out of the establishment by the senior wife. Being a courtesan once, her mother returned to that profession and settled in Delhi. But a young daughter is jetsam for a mother trying to swim for her life in the turbulence of Delhi. Under the doleful eye of the Mughal ruler, a thriving trade on child virgins was being conducted. Mothers did deeds on the virginity of their daughters, sometimes three or four years before they reached puberty. When the time came, they delivered their children to the purchaser to fulfil the terms of the deal (p.18). It was the time when the Jats of Bharatpur made an incursion on Delhi under their leader Jawahar Singh and the little dancing girl caught the eye of Walter Balthazar Reinhardt, a European mercenary described as a morose, ill-conditioned ruffian. It’s not known how exactly Farzana came into his possession, but slowly she became his consort. Because of his unusual mood, he was often called General Sombre which was Indianized to Sumru and so our lady came to be called Begum Sumru. A mercenary was always ready to change sides and cheated on their masters without batting an eyelid. When a reinforced Delhi attacked the Jats back, Reinhardt defected to the Mughal side and became a servant of the emperor Shah Alam II. He entrusted the jagir of Sardhana on him. Farzana had meanwhile charmed the emperor himself with her demeanour and became indispensable to her troops by riding and fighting with them. As a result, when her master died, Shah Alam conferred the jagir on her and allowed her to remain as the leader of the military brigade. In 1781, after Reinhardt’s demise, she converted to Christianity and assumed the name of Joanna at the age of thirty.

The role of European mercenary soldiers in Indian history is not generally discussed and remains unknown to most people. Their interactions with native sepoys were much more cordial than in the English East India Company’s army. In the armed forces of native principalities, a Christian contingent of European descent was always available. The nawabs and rajas realized the superiority of European tactics and discipline in firing drill in the unsettled political conditions of north India. Keay provides a very good overview of the state of various armies. Fifty odd warring factions had regular units and mercenaries who possessed a professional dedication to fight for whoever would pay them with a further recompense in victory – a euphemism for loot. But they were notoriously unreliable for changing sides in the thick of battle or retreating to save their skin. Poor state of transportation technology was what tied these vagrants to India. However, with the rise of smoother and faster sailings, better domestic sanitation, the strictures of evangelical missionaries and a heightened sense of moral purpose and racial superiority, prevented liaison with native women in the nineteenth century. When white memsahibs took over the residences, native bibis were banished.

Though the Mughals had ruled roughshod over India for close to two centuries, their end was very pathetic and evoking sympathy. Keay gives a detailed but gruesome account of the conquest of Delhi by Ghulam Qadir in 1788 and the blinding of the emperor. Qadir was a Rohilla Afghan and of course, the Mughals were Chaghtai Turkish. The Afghan-Turkish rivalry was itself centuries old. Babur writes in his journal about how he made Afghan nobles who surrendered after a battle to approach him on all fours with grass held in their mouths as if to signify they are his humble cows. It was another Afghan – Sher Shah Suri – who had defeated Humayun to bring about a brief interlude of Afghan supremacy. With Ahmed Shah Abdali’s raid in 1761, Afghans again claimed prominence, but the Mughals managed to side-line them soon. Ghulam Qadir was determined to humiliate Shah Alam II. At a time when the Marathas – who protected the emperor – were away, Qadir occupied the Red Fort and took Shah Alam prisoner. He used to sit down by the emperor’s side on the throne, pass his arm familiarly round his neck and blow tobacco smoke into his sovereign’s face (p.169). Qadir asked the venerable old man to hand over the hidden treasure. Either there were none or Shah Alam didn’t want to part with them, so he refused. Qadir thoroughly searched the palace and the zenana and took away personal treasures and family jewels. Ladies of the harem were dishonoured and degraded by the brutal Rohillas. Asking to disclose the hidden wealth, Qadir flogged the emperor. When this failed to elicit any information, Shah Alam’s daughters were brought out of their private apartments and made to dance naked in front of their father for the entertainment of the leering Afghans. Eternally disgraced, many women threw themselves over the ramparts and drowned in the Yamuna river. After his daughters, it was the turn of his sons. They were brought from prison and made to dance to the merriment of the Afghans. When they protested that dancing was for women, noses of some were cut off. Still finding no treasure, Shah Alam was again brought to the palace and made to kneel before Qadir. He drove two red-hot needles into the unfortunate emperor’s eyes. Writhing in agony, the old man was then taken away. By the evening, he was brought back and Qadir had arranged a court painter to depict the scene which was to follow. The Afghan then knelt on the lying Mughal emperor’s chest and with his dagger scooped out one of his seared eyeballs. He then handed the dagger over to one of his lieutenants to repeat the procedure on the other eye. The light of the Timurid royal house went out that day in India forever. The dynasty groped their way in the darkness for seven more decades to their eventual doom at the hands of the British.

Farzana’s service to the Mughal emperor reached its peak after his blinding at which time she was not present in the capital. Her brigade did faithful service to the emperor till he died. She also assumed responsibility of Reinhardt’s jagir after his death. However, her martial and administrative talents withered after some time and she entered into many amorous liaisons with European officers in her brigade. She also swayed with the wind and served the Marathas and the British who established their ascendancy over the Mughals. She married a stubborn officer in her army who was resented by others. They rose in rebellion against both of them. It was by pure luck that she could escape with her life. As years went by, she faded into irrelevance, but kept her estates till she lived. Her adopted son dissipated the inherited wealth and died penniless in London.

The book is adorned with an excellent foreword by William Dalrymple both because of his physical presence in Delhi and also due to his own interest in eighteenth century India. His book ‘The Anarchy’ (reviewed earlier in this blog) also covers the period in question. There is an afterword by the author’s husband John Keay as she died in 2011, immediately after the first draft of the book was completed. Just like Dalrymple does in his works, Julia Keay also keeps the native powers at arm’s length with a touch of contempt and disdain. The desperate efforts of the Marathas, Jats, Sikhs and Rajputs to assert their power in their own homeland is portrayed as aggression and transgression on rightful authority. Even though with a disapproving heart, she grudgingly accepts their military might and de facto supremacy on the land. The book displays a remarkably masterful use of language full of aphorisms that condense the character of the protagonists aptly in a few words. Delightful word play is also seen in many places. Eventually, the author has done her duty in full to present a historical personality in rich colours and sharp focus. To readers who find travel close to their heart, I would suggest to take a day’s trip to Sardhana when they are in Delhi to visit the church which is still intact and the palaces built by Farzana around 230 years ago.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

Babur: The Chessboard King

Title: Babur: The Chessboard King
Author: Aabhas Maldahiyar
Publisher: Vintage, 2024 (First)
ISBN: 9780670099542
Pages: 403

Estimating the economic output of a nation in the form of GDP is extremely complicated as the period of study goes further and further back in time. However, some scholars have made intelligent guesses based on ancient commercial sources and the flow of history. In the year 1000 CE, the share of India’s GDP to that of the entire world was 28 per cent while China accounted for 22 per cent. In 1950, this had declined to a measly 4.2 per cent for India and 4.6 per cent for China, even though China kept up its momentum till 1820 in which year its share was an impressive 33 per cent. What caused this devastation of Indian economy in these 1000 years? What caused the decline of agriculture and industry and also the collapse of native social structures? The answer is not hard to find. 700 years of Islamic colonialism and 200 years of British colonialism had sapped India dry of her resources. Till the establishment of the Kimberly mines in South Africa in 1870, Golconda in India was the only major diamond mine in the world. However, each one of the huge number of stones extracted from Golconda was taken out of India by force or trickery. India’s gold and silver alleviated poverty and established infrastructure in the distant lands of Persia, Arabia, Khorasan and Great Britain in that millennium of colonialism and slavery. Mohammed of Ghor led the first wave of Islamic occupation while Babur led the second. This is in addition to the transitory yet thoroughly ruining plundering raids of Mahmud of Ghazni, Timur, Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Durrani. However, there is a stream of Indian academia which glorifies the invasion and occupation of Islamic powers as having provided something beneficial to India. This book is an attempt to recreate the history of Babur from primary sources of which the most prominent is his own diary, the Baburnama. Aabhas Maldahiyar is an architect and urban designer who has an intense love for history. A nationalist to the core, Maldahiyar is also a skilled reader of Persian manuscripts. The GDP data mentioned above is taken from the appendix of this book with original references from the book, ‘Contours of the World Economy, AD 1 – 2030’ by Angus Maddison.

Maldahiyar begins with an excellent introductory chapter that seethes with indignation at the slavish way history is taught in post-independence India through a curriculum cleverly crafted by Left historians. The author identifies three traits seen in all NCERT (the state agency which prepares school text books at the national level) text books as 1) all invaders except the British were not bad 2) no invaders including the British had any religious zeal, and 3) before the arrival of the great invaders, India was a place of the worst practices like Sati, untouchability etc. This scam has made not merely wee-sized harm but a catastrophe set to dismantle the pride and respect of our land and civilization. This is nothing short of intellectual dishonesty. The fact that this obfuscation is deliberate is proved by the observation that unlike the British, the earlier colonialists like the Sultanates and Mughals were very honest about their deeds and all the ‘namas’ contain descriptions of the worst kind of atrocities they inflicted upon our ancestors. In their eyes, the atrocities upon the Kafirs were virtuous; hence they saw no reason for hiding it. However, post-independence historians – Leftists on the one hand and Islamists posing as Left on the other – ignored this clear evidence and portrayed these brutal monsters as great kings. The book includes a prescient quote by Heinlein that ‘a generation which ignores history has no past and no future’. This book is claimed to be an attempt to set the record straight by delving deep into the primary sources.

The author plans a grand scheme for the book which envisages the most important primary source – Babur’s journal titled ‘Baburnama’ – superimposed on the happenings around the world during that period. Since this approach does not seek to make any verdict or frame opinion on the subject matter, Maldahiyar proposes to provide a new perspective on Babur. He stresses again at another point that if you must trust something in history, it must be the primary source corroborated with other primary sources on the same subject. With this magnificent objective in place, the author embarks on his journey into the sixteenth century narrative written by Babur but flounders on the very first chapter itself. A lot of details from Babur’s memoir are simply reproduced with no correspondence or correlation. Readers are not able to follow the storyline even if they are well-versed in the biography of Babur. Making an excellent replica of what Babur had written, this book lists out about 20-30 different names of people or places on each page and readers are rendered utterly clueless about what’s happening. In the Sherlock Holmes’ story ‘The Adventure of the Red-Headed League’, the complainant is asked to simply copy the Encyclopedia Britannica on to plain paper with no questions asked. This book is somewhat similar with the difference that the Baburnama is the source of the copying. Incomprehensible sentences like ‘Baqi Chaghaniani, a younger brother of Khusrau Shah, who was more Chaghanian, Shahr-i-Safa, and Tirmiz, sent the khatib of Qarshi to Babur’ (p.168) are repeated without any clarification. This is just one among the numerous such instances. Even the names of the singers who performed in a binge party thrown by Babur are listed faithfully as if the data is crucial in re-evaluating a flawed narrative of Indian historiography. The author has not shown any trace of judgment in selecting the topics and instead portrays Babur as a hero for most of the book. About 20 pages are earmarked to reproduce verbatim Babur’s observations on Kabul city – its geography, climate, fruits, crops and other details – like a gazetteer.

Babur meticulously recorded his impressions on other people – friend and foe alike. He observed places, societies, battles and politics to form his opinion and strategy about them. Babur ruled Kabul for around two decades before invading India and he used this time to effectively subjugate the whole of Afghanistan. Many Muslim tribes were at the receiving end of his battle fury and had to submit to humiliating treatment at the hands of this proud descendant of Timur. We read about some interesting anecdotes in this book on how they responded to defeat in battle. Assuming the disdainful pride of the conqueror of Afghan tribes, Babur writes, “we had been told that when Afghans are powerless to resist, they go before their foe with grass between their teeth as if to say ‘I am your cow’” (p.206). This was what exactly happened at the battle of Kohat. But Babur was not impressed with this spineless and opportunistic display of servility and ordered to behead the Afghans one by one. The book contains a detailed narrative on Babur’s campaigns in Afghanistan, especially his frequent attacks on the Turkmen Hazara tribes. Babur claims that he ‘drove them like deer by valley and ridge; we shot those wretches like deer; we made captive their people of sorts; we laid hands on their men of renown; their wives and their children we took’ (p.255).

The book is extremely boring except for the Introduction and Epilogue which are finely structured and establishes the logic behind writing this book. In fact, these two chapters are the only part of the volume where the author handles his own creation. Regarding the hundreds of pages in which the reader finds no relevance or interest, we can only say that it was a great disappointment. The author appears thoroughly clueless in organizing the content of Babur’s journal in a meaningful way so as to tell a coherent story. Besides, the significance of the title ‘chessboard king’ is not elaborated in the text. Readers are left to form their own conjectures on this critical point. This book is said to be the first among many volumes of a similar nature covering the entire history of Mughals. Maldahiyar may save himself the trouble if the other volumes are also planned to repeat the spirit and style of this book. In fact, I would have given one more star in the rating had I not purchased the book thinking that it’d be a good one on the Mughals. Hence the proverb ‘never judge a book by its cover’ stays very relevant.

The book is a waste of time and not recommended.

Rating: 1 Star

Akbar of Hindustan

Title: Akbar of Hindustan

Author: Parvati Sharma

Publisher: Juggernaut Books, 2022 (First)

ISBN: 9789391165512

Pages: 386

 

There are very many number of books on Akbar in vogue. This book is the latest in the series. I slightly wondered what new things this author has in her oeuvre to tell us that we have not heard before and prepared a blank sheet in my mind to note down such things. What came of it I will describe at the end of this review. And I also failed to categorize this work into any literary genre. Obviously the author wanted some parts to shine out as a novel, some parts as story, still others as historical fiction and the whole of it perhaps as history. Unfortunately, it has turned out to be a chimera of fact and fiction. The Mughal period of Indian history is now increasingly subjected to critical review by scholars who want to eliminate the hyperbole, false accounts and misleading analyses put together by Left-Islamist historians earlier. This book is a feeble attempt to drive a wedge in the popular narrative by inventing – or at least unearthing from hitherto unheard of texts – incidents in which historical characters who are popular in today’s India have acted in ways that defy modern morality. Thus we read about Tulsidas regretting that the Shudras imparting knowledge to non-Brahmins and Birbal arranging the demolition of a temple. Akbar’s reign was marked by a pattern of steady, unrelenting expansion of the realm, a clear focus on the generation of wealth and an equally resolute suppression of any opposition to the emperor. This is clearly catalogued in the book. Parvati Sharma lives in New Delhi where she studied English literature and Indian history. She writes novels and children’s books. Her debut work was known for its depictions of love and sexuality in urban India.

 

The book is not tightly organized around a defining layout and completely lacks a structure. The emperor’s sayings and deeds constitute the bulk of the narrative. While reading through it, one cannot help wonder at the part played by chance in the crucial battle at Panipat (the second). Akbar’s forces met Hemchandra Vikramaditya (Hemu) who was the vizier of Adil Shah Suri, the last of the Suri clan. Hemu did not wear a helmet while riding an elephant in the battle. Suddenly, an arrow pierced his eye, but he bravely pulled the arrow out and with it the eye out of the socket which he wrapped in his handkerchief. But after some time, he slumped unconscious. The elephant was caught and the grievously injured Hemu brought before Akbar who was only fourteen years old. His regent Bairam Khan wanted Akbar to behead him as ‘a blow for empire and Islam’. Akbar meekly obeyed. The Mughals did not leave Hemu’s eighty-year old father also. They captured him and offered him his life in return for converting to Islam. He protested that ‘after eight decades of having worshipped my god according to my religion, why should I change it at this time merely from fear of my life and without understanding it come into your way of worship?’. The fanatical Mughals were not diverted by such theological niceties. The old man was summarily executed like his son. These incidents show how bloodthirsty and devoid of compassion the Mughals acted. But remember, they were the most benevolent under Akbar!

 

It is true that Akbar’s attitude changed during the latter half of his reign and other religions received some royal patronage but never equal status with Islam. Akbar established the Ibadat Khana as a debating platform for various Muslim sects to argue among themselves. But religion is best believed in its entirety rather than subjecting it to rational arguments by the opponents. Akbar saw through its hollowness and was disillusioned. Then he invited other heterodox sects and even other religions. In the end, he decided to start a cult of his own called din-e-Ilahi. Surprisingly, the author makes very few remarks about the new sect on which historian Abraham Eraly heaps his praise as “for a brief, shining moment, a new and brilliant star blazed over Fatehpur Sikri. Then the moment passed. And the night closed in again”. Sharma consistently tries to gloss over temple destruction and forced conversion which was commonplace. In one instance, she talks about Birbal, Akbar’s Hindu minister, sacking and desecrating a temple in Nagarkot and concludes rhetorically that ‘a Shia commander, running a bloody campaign for a Brahmin courtier by assaulting a shrine is not the usual template of bigotry’ (p.175). It is construed as ‘changing affiliations and antagonisms that propelled Akbar’s world’. This is a typical trait of the Left-Islamist cabal. They would arraign any number of reasons or provocations for an act which they cannot openly support with modern morality, but would never pinpoint religious bigotry of the invaders as the prime cause.

 

It is really amusing to observe Parvati Sharma bringing up a retrospective justification for ‘love jihad’ which is a serious problem now faced by Indian society with the story of a couple engaging in inter-religious love. In her story, a Sayyid nobleman falls in love with a Hindu married woman in Agra. Musa and Mohini, as they are called, secretly united twice but forcibly separated each time by the woman’s relatives. Musa dies of heartburn at the ‘injustice’ of Hindus not letting a married woman into his harem. At this, Mohini duly converts to Islam and commits suicide. The author then seethes at the fact that the couple would have met the same fate in twenty-first century Agra. She is probably right. Today’s Agra, or Uttar Pradesh or even India for that matter, has not reached the stage already arrived at in Pakistan where Hindu women are simply kidnapped, declared to have embraced Islam and her relatives then lose any legal right to reclaim her. Is this the model she wants to establish in India? Now we go back to Mughal times for a moment to examine love as a noble emotion that transcends religion. If such was the case, then why is it that not a single case is known where a Mughal princess married a Hindu nobleman who were said to be aplenty in the Mughal court? After all, love is blind, but the author is not. And she knows how to sound the right notes to appear secular in today’s India. Akbar commissioned many translation projects of Hindu religious texts in Sanskrit to Persian. But behind his back, the Persian scholars reproached the books proclaiming polytheism. Badauni termed the Mahabharata ‘a collection of puerile absurdities’ (p.196). Further details of the reluctance of Persian scholars literally to touch Indian epics with their hands can be seen in my review of Audrey Truschke’s book, ‘Culture of Encounters – Sanskrit at the Mughal Court’ earlier in this blog.

 

The book offers nothing new and is just a run-of-the-mill product that satisfies nobody. It starts with an intimidating cast of characters that gives 106 names with their relationship noted in a small paragraph. Needless to say, this is a pure wastage of time as the readers won’t be able to remember even half of them. And some of them are mentioned only once in the main text, so this exercise appears pointless. The requirement of referring to the names after reading the book does not arise either. The author should have provided a caveat informing the readers that they stand to lose nothing if they skipped the section. The book also includes many irrelevant side issues like Akbar’s hatred of homosexuality among his high-ranked officers and the detailed handling of such an affair involving an Uzbek warlord in his service. What is most repugnant about the book is its thinly veiled attempt at cheap political criticism aimed at current nationalist parties. Historians – I am not sure if the author can be called one – should stick to their topics rather than dabble in contemporary political drama and make a mess of what they should have done.

 

In the beginning, I mentioned about a blank sheet in my mind. At the end of the reading, I had yet to scribble anything there apart from some remarks about the jarring political tone of the book. This book is useless as regards information or entertainment and hence not recommended.

 

Rating: 2 Star