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