William Dalrymple has achieved the impossible. It is never an easy task to write a thoroughly researched piece of history in the vein of exotic novel. Dalrymple did that in style.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The book threw light on some of the facts of Deccan/Hyderabad we tend to ignore (we are not aware of). Having been associated with Hyderabad since my childhood, the book is even more special. I own the book at much more emotional level. ( )

For the last few months -- I've been reading/listening to William Dalrymple a lot to understand Indian history.

He did answer my peculiar questions about India before Independence. My questions were geared towards lifestyle of people, economic status, military. Pardon me for injecting my personal opinion and my reading background.

I do remember the first and second generation orientalists eg: Sir William Jones, falling in love with Bengal et culture of India. They would be 'Indianized.' It makes sense that political opinion, academic opinion changed after 1840's. The English took a more imperialistic attitude towards India.

An Excellent book that gives a real picture of Hyderabad through relationship of James and Khair.

I think growing up in Tamil Nadu, India, the history that I was fed in High-school was contrary to a realist perspective and shoddy in content. I must say, I am embarrassed.

Overall, I recommend this to anyone interested in Indian History, Hyderabad, Life in India before 1850's

Deus Vult,
Gottfried ( )

I recall reading 'Vanity Fair' many years ago- one character, Mr Sedley, was a returned official from India, who brought with him a fondness for all things from the Sub-Continent. How to square the enthusiasm of the late 18th century with the very differently minded 'colonials' we meet in later works- hard-bitten, scornful and determined to preserve a huge distance between themselves and the 'natives'?

This biography of the British Resident at the court of Hyderabad is a pretty massive, all-encompassing work. Although the blurb talks of his love affair with a muslim noblewoman - and that is the thread that brings it all together- the author has done a huge amount of research on every aspect of Indian life. The reader thus encounters the Nizam (local ruler) - whose court has just as much plotting and intrigue as any in the West, attends festivals and battles. The French play a not insignificant part- with Napoleon setting his cap at world domination, and his troops in India seeking to cosy up to Indian rulers, the Brits need to maintain the favoured position.

Our hero, James Kirkpatrick, manages to maintain an equable relationship as go-between for the Moghul king and the East India company But as nasty Richard Wellesly (brother of the later Duke of Wellington) assumes control, the friendly, mutually respectful relations start to morph into what we later associate with colonialism - British staff increasingly pressured to stop wearing Indian garb, avoid mixed marriage etc, , and culminating { with the "wholesale arrival of the memsahibs, the rise of Evangelical Christianity and the moral certainties it brought) in a complete gulf between the two nations. None of which bodes well for the highly controversial romance - and eventual marriage- of Kirkpatrick and Khair un-Nissa...The love story is very sad, though has a heartwarming postscript..

Quite a demanding read- I only really got into it after first 200 pages- but very informative and pretty good read. ( )

At the moment, White Mughals is a DNF book, but not yet in the graveyard. The first 100 pages felt leaden and as I progressed, I skimmed more and more of the (overly?) detailed, historical passages. Eventually, I lost the flavour of the historical background and Dalrymple's writing style didn't build any of the tension that the context of the plot should have developed.

I want to come back to this book with more mental energy, when I might have better luck. I sense that an excellent 350-page historical romance-adventure lurks in this 500+ page book! ( )

White Mughals by William Darymple

Full confession - I wanted to like this book more than I did. I read Dalrymple's City of the Djinns last year and it was one of my top reads for the year so I made a point of requesting more Dalrymple books for Christmas. White Mughals was by no means a bad book. It just wasn't as enchanting for me as I had hoped.

White Mughals is, in part, the story of the relationship between James Achilles Kirkpatrick, a British resident and high official of the British East Indian Company, and Khair-un-Nissa, a muslim noblewoman. The other part of the book is a detailed explanation of the social and political environment at this stage in India. Ultimately, I found this part more engaging that the love story.

White Mughals does a good job of making the point that the division between the English and Indians that characterized late Empire was a product of Victorian sensibilities and that the earlier encounters between the English and Indians were much less separate. Dalrymple's objective here is not to point the sexual contact between the English and Indians (which there was plenty of both before and after the English got a lot more prudish about such things) but rather that genuine love and respect could exist between the two worlds. Kirkpatrick and Khair's relationship is exhibit A to this point.

While serving as the British resident in Hyderbad at a Muslim Mogul court, Kirkpatrick meets and falls for Khair. The two secretly wed and proceed to have two children who are initially raised in Mogul court but are subsequently sent to England for school, never to see their parents again. Dalrymple does a good job of making the point that the marriage between these two people represented a blending of cultures. Kirkpatrick, while undeniably English, took a great interest in Indian culture, especially the Islamic culture of Northern India. He became fluent in the language, arts and courtly culture of where he lived and worked.

Ultimately, White Mughals is written as a tragedy. Kirkpatrick's embrace of the existing culture is juxtaposed with an increasingly puritan and rapacious view of India by the East India Company. Thus, Kirkpatrick is frequently at odds with his superiors over the East India Company's growing territorial expansion and its unfair trade agreements that are pushed on to the Indians at gunpoint. When Kirkpatrick protests, his adversaries use his relationship with Khair and his apparent conversion to Islam as proof that he is a traitor. The reader is left with the sense that Kirkpatrick is being dragged back by a receding tide against which he cannot prevail. There is also a sense that the English relationship with India could have gone in a very different relationship and could have been far more collaborative. Instead, we see the flowering of the idea that India and Indians are lesser people and thus properly subjugated by the English. Kirkpatrick sees the transformation of attitudes and attempts to stop the tide but to no avail.

White Mughals is an interesting book about an important inflection point. However, the grander scope of the issues are occasionally drowned in the minute details of the relationship between Kirkpatrick and Khair, making the narrative harder to follow. ( )