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Amazon.co.uk Review
William Dalrymple's White Mughals is destined to become one of the great non-fictional classics of Anglo-Indian history. Dalrymple is steeped in India, having lived there for six years, and written a series of remarkable travel books chronicling its past and present, including City of Djinns and The Age of Kali. Having already earned comparisons with great travel writers like Chatwin and Theroux, Dalrymple has now produced a meticulously researched and beautifully written historical narrative on one of the most colourful but neglected aspects of British colonial rule in India.
Set in and around Hyderabad at the beginning of the nineteenth century, White Mughals tells the story of the improbably romantic love affair and marriage between James Achilles Kirkpatrick, a rising star in the East India Company, and Khair-un-Nisa, a Hyderabadi princess. Pursuing Kirkpatrick's passionate affair through the archives across the continents, Dalrymple unveils a fascinating story of intrigue and love that breaches the conventional boundaries of empire. As Kirkpatrick gradually goes native (adopting local clothes and enduring circumcision) he becomes a secret agent working for his wife's royal family against the English, as he tries to balance the interests of both cultures.
However, White Mughals is by no means just an exotic love story. It is a vehicle for Dalrymple's understanding of the complex legacy of the English Empire in India, that he defines more in terms of exchange and negotiation than dominance and subjugation. It is a powerful and moving plea by Dalrymple to understand the cultural intermingling and hybridity that defines both eastern and western cultures, and a convincing rejection of religious intolerance and ethnic essentialism. Elegantly written and at a pace that belies its length, White Mughals confirms Dalrymple's status as one of the most important non-fiction writers of his time. -–Jerry Brotton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'Destined to become an instant classic' Amanda Foreman 'William Dalrymple is that rarity, a scholar of history who can really write. This is a brilliant and compulsively readable book' Salman Rushdie 'My favourite English book of the year, [an] irresistible masterpiece' Philip Mansel, Spectator Books of the Year 'A remarkable achievement: illuminating, thought-provoking, moving -- and entertaining' Tablet 'A bravura display of scholarship, writing and insight. Dalrymple manages the incredible feat of outpointing most historians and most novelists in one go. This is quite simply a stunning achievement' Independent on Sunday 'Gorgeous, spellbinding and important, [a] tapestry of magnificent set-pieces' Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times 'Enthralling!brilliant, as exhaustively researched as it is brilliantly written' Mail on Sunday
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unable to put this book down.,
By
This review is from: White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in 18th-century India: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century India (Paperback)
As an avid reader of history, you once in a while come across a book that is so vivd that you are immediately transported back to another world and time that you are reluctant to leave once you have completed the last page. I must admit that I was enticed to read this book following some excellent reviews and the photogenic cover but was totally unprepared as to just how compelling a read this would be. Despite the 500 or so pages, I found this book impossible to put down.Having read a few books on the Empire of late, "The White Mughals" deals with a hitherto unknown aspect where Europeans of the 18th Century embraced Indian culture with vigor. As Dalrymple explains, this was very much the norm as many white settlers becoming Hindu or Muslim and taking Indian wives. Whilst the author laces the main theme of his story with fascinating footnotes, the book largely concerns the romance between the East India Company's governor in Hyderabad, James Kirkpatrick and the beautiful Indian noblewoman Khair un-Nissa. Having set the theme with a detailed account of the politics of the Nizam of Hyderabad's court, vivid descriptions of Indian festivals, gardens and architecture as well as the machinations of Richard Wellesley, the Governor General of the East India Company and brother to the future Duke of Wellington, the book really comes into it's own with the account of the tragic relationship between the two central characters. Not only is this book excellently researched, Dalrymple has unearthed a wonderful story which he has put across with aplomb. Having ploughed my way through innumerable history books over the years ranging from the Romans through to the First World War, this is one of the very best books that I have read and cannot recommend it highly enough. This is a book that will challenge your preception of the role played by Britain in India and I would be intrigued to learn just many people will be inspired to visit Hyderabad having enjoyed this book. The "White Mughals" is demonstrative of how history should be written. A fantastic achievement.
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This superb book,
By Peter1942 (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in 18th-century India: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century India (Paperback)
This is a marvellous book, history at its most appealing as documentation of a period and as gripping narrative. At its core is the love story and marriage between James Achilles Kirkpatrick, the East India Company's Hyderabad resident at the end of the 18th century, and Khair Un-Nissa, the grand-daughter of a high ranking official at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad. Kirkpatrick's significance is that he represents a little-known phenomenon: the adoption by some Europeans of the religion, manners and dress of Islam or Hinduism while (in the case of the book's protagonists) retaining their essential Britishness. Around this theme of cross-cultural migration and the personal narrative of the Kirkpatrick family whose children were sent off to England at a young age and never saw their parents again, William Dalrymple has woven a marvellous tapestry of Hyderabad court life, East India Company attitudes and Anglo-Indian intrigue. The story is peopled with some fascinating human beings including the Nizam's Prime Minister Aristu Jah and his assistant and later successor Mir Alam; the William Palmers father and son who appear to have achieved as complete an identity with their host country as it is possible to imagine; Marquess Wellesley, the bullying Governor General of the day and elder brother of the (later) Duke of Wellington; Khair's mother Sharaf un-Nissa who lived on for decades after her daughter's death and whose late correspondence with her granddaughter is one of the book's most moving moments; and James Achilles Kirkpatrick himself, a decent and honourable man, anointed son of the Nizam, at first willing instrument of the Governor General's policies but later disillusioned by the latter's excesses and prepared to counter them. It is through the sources he has unearthed, in particular the correspondence, that Dalrymple succeeds so brilliantly in bringing these forgotten people back to life so that their motives and passions engage us across the gulf of two centuries and profound changes in social assumptions and attitudes. The story is imbued with the author's own evident love of India and its people and his ability to steep himself in his subject so that we feel we breathe the air of the country.
Anyone who has the slightest affinity for India or an interest in the colonial Anglo-Indian relationship will love this book.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written--- buy this book!!!,
By
This review is from: White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in 18th-century India: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century India (Paperback)
Beautifully written and very moving story of a romance between an Englishman and an Indian girl in the 18th century. The book provides an insight into how different British and Indian history could have been, had not the greed, ignorance and prejudice of a powerful few prevailed over the instincts of sensitive individuals like Kirkpatrick and many of his contemporaries.An incredible amount of research must have gone into this book and Dalrymple's love and respect for India comes through on every page. My only complaint is that he goes into too much detail about the politics of 18th century India -- this could possibly put off readers not familiar with India and its history. Basically at the heart of the book is the love story of Kirkpatrick and Khair -un-Nissa and several other couples like them -- and the very intricate descriptions of the politics tends to slow down the momentum. But despite that, White Mughals is an amazing book that I would recommend to everyone -- don't be daunted by its size!
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