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White Mughals

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In "White Mughals," William Dalrymple tells the story of a tragic love affair between British Resident James A. Kirkpatrick and Khair un Nissa, a noble Persian Indian woman, set against the backdrop of 18th-century British India. The book provides a detailed account of the cultural integration and relationships between Europeans and Indians during this period, highlighting the complexities and nuances of colonial interactions. Dalrymple's writing style is described as captivating, immersive, and rich in historical detail, offering a unique insight into a lesser-known aspect of British history in India.

Characters:

The characters are complex and multi-dimensional, representing the cultural bridges of their time, yet may come off as somewhat distant due to the documentary nature of the narrative.

Writing/Prose:

The writing style is a blend of narrative history and personal storytelling, enriched by meticulous details and research, though at times it risks overwhelming the reader.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot revolves around the relationship between a British official and a Muslim noblewoman, highlighting cultural exchanges and the societal influences of their time, ultimately culminating in a tragic outcome.

Setting:

The setting vividly portrays 18th-century Hyderabad, emphasizing the complex interactions between British officials and Indian society before the advent of strict colonialism.

Pacing:

The pacing is uneven, with a slow beginning that becomes more engaging in parts, but may lose momentum later due to excessive detail.
Outside, amid clouds of dust, squadrons of red-coated sepoys tramped along the hot, broad military road which led from the coast towards the cantonments at St Thomas’s Mount. Waiting in the shade of t...

Notes:

The book covers the relationship between James Achilles Kirkpatrick, a British resident in Hyderabad, and Khair un Nissa, a Muslim noblewoman.
It highlights the cultural exchange and interactions between the British and Indians before the Victorian era's puritanical attitudes took hold.
Kirkpatrick learned and immersed himself in Indian culture, particularly Islamic customs, and became fluent in the local language.
Kirkpatrick and Khair were secretly married and had two children who were sent to England for schooling, never to reunite with their parents.
The book is framed as a tragedy due to the changing attitudes of the British East India Company, moving from cultural appreciation to colonial oppression.
Dalrymple conducted extensive research using original letters and documents from the period, making it a richly detailed historical account.
The narrative shows that earlier British officials often admired and respected Indian culture, contrasting sharply with later colonial attitudes.
The book reflects a time when British residents could blend and intermarry with Indian nobility, which was much less common in the subsequent Victorian period.
The tragic saga of Kirkpatrick and Khair un Nissa symbolizes the possible flourishing of cross-cultural relationships, which were later stifled by colonialism.
Dalrymple's writing emphasizes not just a love story but broader historical and political dynamics during a pivotal time in India.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

There are medium-level content warnings for themes related to colonial oppression, cultural conflict, and the tragic fate of the main characters.

Has Romance?

The book centrally features a high level of romance through the love affair between James Kirkpatrick and Khair un Nissa.

From The Publisher:

White Mughals is the romantic and ultimately tragic tale of a passionate love affair that crossed and transcended all the cultural, religious and political boundaries of its time.

James Achilles Kirkpatrick was the British Resident at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad when in 1798 he glimpsed Kahir un-Nissa-'Most excellent among Women'-the great-niece of the Nizam's Prime Minister and a descendant of the Prophet. Kirkpatrick had gone out to India as an ambitious soldier in the army of the East India Company, eager to make his name in the conquest and subjection of the subcontinent. Instead, he fell in love with Khair and overcame many obstacles to marry her-not least of which was the fact that she was locked away in purdah and engaged to a local nobleman. Eventually, while remaining Resident, Kirkpatrick converted to Islam, and according to Indian sources even became a double-agent working for the Hyderabadis against the East India Company.

It is a remarkable story, involving secret assignations, court intrigue, harem politics, religious and family disputes. But such things were not unknown; from the early sixteenth century, when the Inquisition banned the Portuguese in Goa from wearing the dhoti, to the eve of the Indian mutiny, the 'white Mughals' who wore local dress and adopted Indian ways were a source of embarrassments to successive colonial administrations. William Dalrymple unearths such colourful figures as 'Hindoo Stuart', who travelled with his own team of Brahmins to maintain his temple of idols, and who spent many years trying to persuade the memsahibs of Calcutta to adopt the sari; and Sir David Ochterlony, Kirkpatrick's counterpart in Delhi, who took all thirteen of his wives out for evening promenades, each on the back of their own elephant.

In White Mughals, William Dalrymple discovers a world almost entirely unexplored by history, and places at its centre a compelling tale of love, seduction and betrayal. It possesses all the sweep and resonance of a great nineteenth-century novel, set against a background of shifting alliances and the manoeuvring of the great powers, the mercantile ambitions of the British and the imperial dreams of Napoleon. White Mughals, the product of five years' writing and research, triumphantly confirms Dalrymple's reputation as one of the finest writers at work today.

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About the Author:

William Dalrymple was born in Scotland and brought up on the shores of the Firth of Forth. He wrote the highly acclaimed bestseller In Xanadu when he was twenty-two. The book won the 1990 Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award and a Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award; it was also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize. In 1989 Dalrymple moved to Delhi where he lived for six years researching his second book, City of Djinns, which won the 1994 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award. From the Holy Mountain, his acclaimed study of the demise of Christianity in its Middle Eastern homeland, was awarded the Scottish Arts Council Autumn Book Award for 1997; it was also shortlisted for the 1998 Thomas Cook Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize. A collection of his writings about India, The Age of Kali, was published in 1998.

William Dalrymple is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Asiatic Society, and in 2002 was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his 'outstanding contribution to travel literature'. He wrote and presented the British television series Stones of the Raj and Indian Journeys, which won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002. His Radio 4 series on the history of British spirituality and mysticism, The Long Search, recent won the 2002 Sandford St Martin Prize for Religious Broadcasting and was described by the judges as 'thrilling in its brilliance... near perfect radio.'He is married to the artist Olivia Fraser, and they have three children. They now divide their time between London and Delhi.

 
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