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
Review
William Dalrymple is one of Britain's greatest travel writers; his descriptions of his journeys in Central Asia, India and the Middle East are unsurpassed for their grasp of telling details and sensitivity to place and history. Now, in his first work of straight history, he has brought back to life the remarkable story of the English Resident in Hyderabad in the late 18th century who fell in love with, and married, a high-born Muslim girl, and held fast to her despite the condemnation of the ruling East India Company. But, interesting though the story of James Achilles Kirkpatrick and Khair un-Nissa is, the core of the book is the wider subject of Anglo-Indian relationships at the time. Dalrymple demonstrates how early contact between East and West was informal and open-minded - there are numerous portraits of 18th-century Englishmen dressed in Mughal garb, and Western scholars were enthralled by the subcontinent's rich literary and religious traditions. But as the East India Company tightened its hold and turned its energies to subduing and ruling rather than trading, the divisions between English and Indian deepened, and senior Company officials began to dismiss native beliefs as foolish superstition and disapprove of inter-racial mixing. Dalrymple poignantly quotes contemporary letters by Englishmen with children by Indian women in which they agonize over whether their sons' and daughters' skin is light enough for them to achieve a reasonable position in Anglo-Indian society, or whether they should be sent back to England - which, ironically, was less prejudiced. This book suffers from the usual faults of a first work of history. Dalrymple is determined to include as much of his prodigious research as possible, and the result is a profusion of fascinating but irrelevant snippets of information that at times seriously distract from the main narrative. The range of characters is enormous, and it's easy for the reader not as comfortable in the period as Dalrymple to forget that Abdul Lateef and Shushtari are the same person, or why exactly Khair un-Nissa's female relations were so much keener on her liaison with Kirkpatrick than her male relations. But these are only minor points. This is a fascinating book that sheds a fresh light on a period that tends to get forgotten in comparison with the stereotypical picture of the Raj, and demonstrates how easy it is for what may seem to be polar opposites (East/West, Muslim/Christian, ruler/subject) to merge into new and flexible identities. More than anything, this is a plea for the racial, religious and cultural tolerance that is needed as much now as it ever has been. (Kirkus UK)
by William Dalrymple
by William Dalrymple
by William Dalrymple
by William Dalrymple
