Its the new year people, and what better way to start it then finishing of the started and hanging midway books. I have promised myself to pull out all the incomplete mind-numbing books, which I have abandoned in 2014. This will be my new start for the year. The first one that I planned to mop up is White Mughals by William Dalrymple.
The book is an elaborate overview of India around 18th & 19th century, the amalgamation of Hindu, Mughal & British cultures. The story focusses exclusively the Deccan politics in the Nawabi court of Hyderabad. It was the time of power struggle, when the East India Company in desire to install business relations with India, was counteracted by the intentions of the French with Napoleon at the helm. it was then the British realised the existence of one man who could make or break their case in Hyderabad was the resident diplomat at the Nizam's court. At this crucial historical juncture, that official was the central focus of much of White Mughals, James Achilles Kirkpatrick.The book details in the political environment, foregrounding the chronicle of General James Achilles Kirkpatrick, the British resident at Hyderabad, went native.
Kirkpatrick not only adopted the Mughal ways of luxury but also was duped for the beautiful minor, Khair-un-Nissa, great niece of the Prime Minister of Hyderabad; inspite of the fact that she was engaged with politically famed Hyderabadi Muslim. The clandestine couple soon bore two children. Dalrymple defines the resilient theory of the "clash of civilisations”, endorsing the evidences that most British officials Indianised themselves in more more then others during this period (like taking a local woman as a mistress and conversion to Islam was very common).
James Kirkpatrick did manage to curry some favour with his employers by helping the Nizam defeat a major power, Tipu Sultan of Mysore, during the siege of Seringapatam. James's career was safe for now but couldn't ultimately survive the increasingly racist attitudes evidenced by subsequent British high officials starting with Lord Wellesley. This period of political and cultural upheaval, during which the British tightened their stranglehold over India, had many victims, British as well as Indian.
The book has intriguing narration, its dense, well-researched book of history rather than a breezy account of sensational on goings. It does offer an often fascinating picture of India in the throes of change, and of how those who were there acted and reacted.
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