As James knew very well, now that Khair un-Nissa was seven months pregnant and clearly in no state to marry Ahmed Ali Khan’s son, Bâqar Ali and the Shushtari clan were less the problem than Lieutenant Colonel Dalrymple. For Dalrymple could still make Kirkpatrick’s life very difficult, especially if he reported to Calcutta that James had broken his solemn undertaking and was again seeing Khair un-Nissa, despite the clear dangers this presented to the British position in Hyderabad.
So when on 9 December, just three days after the end of the Maula Ali festival, news arrived at the Residency that Lieutenant Colonel Dalrymple had caught a sudden fever and died in his tent, James must have felt a very mixed series of emotions. Dalrymple was a close acquaintance, and James wrote warmly of his ‘mild, conciliating manners’, of his humility and ‘the heavy loss we have just experienced in the death of my invaluable friend’.50 Indeed, he personally conducted the funeral service at the Parade Ground Cemetery just beside the new British cantonments, and showed every sign of grief as he read the funeral oration. But part of him must have quietly rejoiced. For according to Bâqar Ali Khan’s later testimony, less than two days after the death of Dalrymple, James again began secretly visiting Khair un-Nissa with ‘more eagerness than ever’.51
Just over two weeks later a mysterious harkarra (messenger) appeared at Aristu Jah’s palatial courtyard house. He entered the Minister’s durbar and in front of the assembled crowds loudly demanded in the name of Hushmut Jung Kirkpatrick that Khair un-Nissa should be immediately handed over to the British Resident. Before he could be questioned, the man slipped out into the crowded street.52
That same evening Sharaf un-Nissa, accompanied by her mother Durdanah Begum, burst crying and weeping into the quarters of her father, Bâqar Ali Khan. The old man was sitting alone and he anxiously asked what was wrong. Sharaf un-Nissa claimed that she had in the past fortnight received a whole series of threatening messages from the Minister’s house. The first two messages, she said, had come from Aristu Jah’s daughter-in-law, Farzand Begum. Then, ‘the day following the Festival of the Birth of Christ’, another had arrived from Mama Salaha, an aseeldt in Farzand Begum’s service. Mama Salaha had told her that ‘as the Resident had for the Six months past become a real Mussulman [Muslim] she ought therefore to give her Daughter; but that if she did not Comply, ruin would fall on her Father and his Family’.
Sharaf un-Nissa said she had ignored these threats, but then, only three hours earlier, ‘Mama Nuddeem, another of the Minister’s Aseels, brought a message from Furzund Begum, to the following purport, “That if I did not immediately give up my Daughter to the Resident, his eagerness & desire to have her was so violent, that he would Cut off his hair & come & sit down at Bauker Ally Khan’s Door.” ’53 Bâqar Ali Khan was understandably aghast at these threats, as was Durdanah Begum, who, ‘tearing open her garment and throwing a winding sheet over her shoulders, said “Now I am a fakeer and renounce the world.” ’ She then gave him another winding sheet, saying, ‘Take this and having gone before the [British] battalions, throw it over your shoulders and before the whole of the English gentlemen declare that it is your wish to become a fakeer and to relinquish the world’—turning mendicant being in her view the only sure way to save the family both from such threats and such irreparable dishonour.54
Early the following morning, 28 December, Bâqar Ali Khan did indeed visit the British camp, but not to turn fakir. Instead he sought out Colonel Bowser, who was thought likely to succeed Dalrymple as the commander of the Subsidiary Force, and urgently begged him for his help and protection against both Kirkpatrick and the Minister. Bowser was at breakfast when the Khan entered, and as he did not speak either Persian or Hindustani, and realised the importance of the matter, he agreed with Bâqar Ali that it would be best to go and find the force’s fluent-Persian-speaking doctor. Dr Kennedy was at home, and once the three were gathered behind closed doors, Bâqar Ali explained the ‘delicate’ matter he had come to discuss with them. He described how
for a long time past attempts had been made by the Resident, and backed by the Minister, to get possession of his Grand Daughter; but that he had hitherto resisted all their importunities, and had in this been supported by the Late Lt Col Dalrymple, who had exacted a solemn declaration upon honour from the Resident, that he should desist in future from any attempt of the kind. Only two days after the death of Colonel Dalrymple however, these attempts were again renewed … and were very lately accompanied by threats from the Minister, of ruining him & his Whole Family if he did not comply with what was required of him—‘To every importunity and to every threat,’ the Khan observed, ‘he had returned for answer that he was resolved never to yield; that they might deprive him of his jaghire [estates], his pension, and even his life; but that he would never consent to the Dishonor of his Family.
‘They were pushing him now,’ the Khan continued, ‘so very hard, that he saw no other way of saving his Honor than by demanding the protection of Col. Bowser; and that to make the matter appear in the most serious light, he would instantly retire, and get a [formal] letter [of complaint] written to Colonel Bowser on the subject.’
The Khan then went out & returned shortly with a letter, which he immediately carried in his own hand to Colonel Bowser:
After the usual compliments—‘Since the death of Colonel Dalrymple, a business of oppression has come upon me, on account of which my character & reputation will be ruined if I remain any longer at Hyderabad—I request therefore that you will allot to me some habitation in the English Lines, in which I may remain with all my Dependants, or, if this cannot be done, that you will give me a Guard of Seypoys to escort me & my dependants into the Company Territories.’55
With this formal public complaint of Bâqar Ali’s, the dice were thrown. From this point, the affair clearly had to be properly investigated, and what had been up to this point a very private matter suddenly became very public indeed.
That evening Bowser sent a note to James, telling him about the very serious charges Bâqar Ali had made against him. He suggested that all the parties in the dispute should meet face to face at the Residency two days later on the morning of the thirtieth so that they could attempt to find out the truth of the accusations and to settle the matter in as civilised a manner as possible.
James agreed to the meeting, and in the meantime, the following morning, the twenty-ninth, sent Munshi Aziz Ullah straight over to Aristu Jah’s deorhi to tell him what had happened, and to show him Bowser’s note. He particularly wanted Aziz Ullah to find out whether it was true that the Minister’s daughter-in-law, Farzand Begum, had been sending threatening messages to Bâqar’s womenfolk as the old man had claimed.
By chance, Munshi Aziz Ullah arrived just five minutes after Mir Abdul Lateef Shushtari had turned up to petition the Minister on behalf of his exiled cousin, Mir Alam. The two men were friends—Shushtari talks warmly of Aziz Ullah in his memoirs, saying what an excellent Urdu poet and sympathetic companion the munshi was56—and a full account of what transpired survives from Shushtari’s pen:This day, the 13th of Shabaun [29 December], I happened to wait upon the Minister and had only set down a moment when Moonshee Uzeez Oolla arrived and gave a note straight into his hands. The Minister while reading it underwent many changes of countenance and two or three times exclaimed, ‘I declare to God that it is false!’ After having read it he turned to me and said ‘God is my witness that this is an egregious calumny.’57
Aristu Jah then gave the paper detailing Bâqar’s charges to Shushtari to read, muttering that Bâqar Ali Khan deserved to have his nose cut off for spreading such damaging and obviously untrue libels. As Shushtari read it, Aristu Jah sent to his harem summoning his daughter-in-law, Farzand Begum and the two aseels whom Bâqar said had threatened Sharaf un-Nissa. One by one they were brought and questioned in front of Shushtari and the munshi. According to the former, ‘they severally declared, with a hundred oaths, that they were entirely ignorant of the circumstance, and that
it was a calumny on them’.58
This only deepened the confusion—had they or had they not threatened Sharaf un-Nissa?—but James took it as a vindication of his innocence. He knew he had threatened no one, and he believed that Bâqar Ali was not as ignorant as he made out of his wife and daughter’s concerted attempts to draw Khair un-Nissa and himself together. He therefore assumed that Bâqar Ali was up to something, and suspected that it might not be unconnected to Mir Alam’s exile and the manoeuvres of the Shushtari clan to get their kinsman returned to power.
For Mir Alam was now encamped just thirty miles to the north of Hyderabad and was making one last desperate attempt to be returned to favour before he set off into exile and obscurity in Berar. He even wrote to James attempting to make up, saying that ‘the silly reports relating to the family of Aukul Oo Dowlah [Bâqar Ali Khan] are now entirely effaced from my mind by the discovery of their falsity … Friends cannot harbour malice against one another any more than a drop of rain can remain on the surface of the water.’59 Mir Alam also sent to the Nizam claiming that he was suffering from extreme ill health and begging the Nizam to take pity on him; though Abdul Lateef Shushtari ‘had the candour to acknowledge [privately to James] that it is more a pretext than anything else, observing that a man cannot well be at death’s door who like M.A. travels with a seraglio of fifty five concubines with one or other of whom he is said to have daily or nightly connection’.60 Though this made James warm to Abdul Lateef, whom he had begun to like and even trust, it made him all the more suspicious of the motives of Bâqar Ali.
So when, on the following morning, 30 December 1800, Colonel Bowser, Dr Kennedy and Bowser’s Persian interpreter Captain Orr rode into the Residency gardens as agreed, they found James angry, suspicious and in no mood for compromise. The soldiers had gone over Bâqar Ali’s claims as they cantered the seven miles from the cantonments, and had come to the conclusion that ‘some gross mistake or deception existed between the parties’; but James was convinced that there was more to Bâqar’s absurd story than met the eye. He told Bowser that he believed
the Khan was wilfully misrepresenting matters for some sinister purpose. This opinion he founded both upon a Conviction that the messages which the Khan complained as coming from the Minister’s family had never been sent (in as much as the Minister, when informed of the subject had expressed the utmost astonishment & anger at so bare faced assertions), and also because he was Convinced that [Bâqar Ali] Khan’s family was by no means in the state of mental distress represented.
This opinion he founded upon communications with which the females of that family troubled him too frequently. From this channel he was well assured that there was no such distress, and thence seemed persuaded, that the [story of the women’s] Lamentations, [and adoption of ] Cuffunies [winding sheets] etc were all a Deception. From these considerations the Resident seemed to have no doubt that he should be able to demonstrate to us, that all the grievances complained of were fictitious, and the complaints fabricated for some sinister view, to which he seemed to believe that the Khan was privy.61
Shortly afterwards, Bâqar Ali Khan arrived at the Residency gardens. He had barely dismounted and been ushered into the Residency before James had angrily confronted him, asking ‘how he came to involve his name in such a business, and demanded that he should produce proofs of what he had alleged. To this the Khan replied by asserting, that the [threatening] messages he complained of had indeed been sent from the Minister’s family, and added “If you were not the cause of them, how could they have been sent?” ’62 Munshi Aziz Ullah was then called for, who relayed verbatim what had transpired at Aristu Jah’s the day before, and how Farzand Begum and her aseels had all denied sending any threats or messages to the Khan’s house. This only added to the confusion. As Bowser later wrote in his report of the meeting:The Khan persevered in asserting his belief of the messages and affirming that all the distress in his family had been occasioned by them … Hitherto nothing had appeared to throw any light on the subject, and each Party seemed positive that the other was wrong. We therefore reverted to what had been affirmed of the distressed state of the Khan’s family in consequence of the messages in question and wished to find means of satisfying ourselves whether the Family had assumed Mourning Dress as the Khan had affirmed, or whether they were (excepting a family quarrel) in their usual state of Composure, and only astonished at the Khan’s behaviour … 63
They were still arguing the point when there was a knock, and ‘a Person presented himself at the door. Upon seeing him the Resident said, that a message from the Begum [Sharaf un-Nissa] must have been brought. He went out immediately, and on his return observed that he had just received a message of a complexion very different from the Khan’s story.’
At this the three British soldiers agreed that there could be only one solution to the mystery: they would have to send someone to Sharaf un-Nissa’s zenana to question her and find out her version of events. The question was who? Bâqar Ali suggested Mrs Ure, the doctor’s amply proportioned wife, ‘who, from speaking the Hindostany language, might be able to satisfy herself of what the females had to say’; but this proposal was vetoed by Lieutenant Colonel Bowser, who said the matter was too delicate to involve a European woman. Sending all three of the soldiers with Bâqar Ali was then suggested, but vetoed on the grounds that it would make too public a spectacle, and also that, as James pointed out, ‘by the Khan being present also, the women might be overawed from declaring themselves, or even find themselves under the necessity of saying whatever he might wish them. The Khan objected to Captain Orr or Dr. Kennedy going to his zenana unless he himself was with them: and Dr. Kennedy objected to going alone unless the Khan gave his assent to the enquiry being made in this way, which he would not do.’
At this point of impasse, it occurred to them all to question the messenger who had just delivered the message from Sharaf un-Nissa; but he had just left, so a boy was sent to fetch him back. While they waited they went through to eat at the Residency dining hall, where, according to Bowser, ‘The necessity of ascertaining the points in question became every moment more evident. It was accordingly proposed that Dr. Kennedy as a medical man & less liable to excite observation, should visit Sheriffe ul Nissa Begum [alone], and enquire about the [threatening] message and the [story of the fakir’s] cuffuny.’
This seemed an especially suitable solution, as apart from anything else Dr Kennedy had been to Sharaf un-Nissa’s mansion before: a year earlier Khair un-Nissa had been struck down with what appeared to be smallpox, and her horrified mother had prevailed on Bâqar Ali to consult an English physician. Kennedy had paid a visit to the family deorhi, after which Khair un-Nissa made a full recovery.64 Bâqar Ali finally agreed to send Dr Kennedy to his women, and a note was duly dispatched to Aristu Jah requesting permission for the doctor to enter the city. While they were waiting,the Resident being out on the verandah, Dr. Kennedy [discreetly] asked the Khan what steps he had taken to satisfy himself that the women of his family were not [in fact] deceiving him. He said that he had … stated the matter to his wife and daughter, and entreated them to declare themselves, telling them at the same time, that if they were inclined to forward what he was resolved never to consent to [i.e. marrying his granddaughter to Kirkpatrick] they had only to say so, and that he would leave the matter entirely to themselves; but that he was resolved also to leave with them the disgrace, and retire to his own country [Persia], or turn fakeer. The Females declared upon this that they had no such inclinations, & that they were resolved to share his fortunes & turn fakeers also. He then pointed out to us, that this proposal was in him an instance of great forbearance, as much harsher measures were commonly adopted by men of his cast upon similar occasions.
[At this point] we were informed that the Begum’s messenger had returned, & was in the bungalo behind. Thither we went, and Dr. Kennedy recognised the man as an old servant of the Khan’s. The purport of the message [he had brought] was, ‘that the Beg
um wished to inform the Resident, that the Khan had been making a great deal of disturbance in the family, and was no doubt gone to the Residency to expose himself still further by telling a very idle story; but that she hoped the Resident would keep him quiet (sumjow)’.65
Bâqar Ali was both angry and astonished at this, but agreed that the only solution now was for Dr Kennedy to proceed with his mission and to question Sharaf un-Nissa directly, which he did as soon as the permission to enter the old city had arrived from Aristu Jah.
He set off, as agreed, within a covered palanquin, in order to preserve—as far as possible—his anonymity. But while no one could see in, it also meant that Kennedy could not see out, and isolated as he was inside the lattices of the litter, he was unaware that he was in fact being followed, not by one but by two shadowy but entirely separate figures, who themselves were apparently unaware that they were not alone in tailing their quarry.66
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