White Mughals
Page 59
69 Khan, Gulzar i-Asafiya, pp.305-15.
70 Jagdish Mittal, ‘Paintings of the Hyderabad School’, in Marg, 16, 1962-63, p.44.
71 This fine image, which James Kirkpatrick’s Assistant and successor Thomas Sydenham said he ‘procured with much difficulty from the archives of the Nizam’s family’, is illustrated on p.265 of Mark Zebrowski’s Deccani Painting (London, 1983).
72 This section is derived from the extraordinary research of Ali Akbar Husain in his important study Scent in the Islamic Garden, op. cit., p.108.
73 Ibid., pp.105-6.
74 Ibid., pp.38, 71, 78, 131.
75 Ibid., pp.107-8.
76 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.3, 2 October 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.
77 This is said explicitly in the first letter from Kitty Kirkpatrick to Sharaf un-Nissa, in the private archive of their descendants.
78 James notes in 1801 that of the Residency staff only Dr Ure had seen the children: OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/13, p.152, 6 September, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick. Later it becomes clear that Henry Russell had also met them. Khair nevertheless kept strict purdah and did not show herself to any of the Europeans: Russell, who had to deal frequently with her both before and after Kirkpatrick’s death, was only permitted to see her unveiled in 1806 in Calcutta, and it was clearly considered a great honour to him that she did so. After her affair with Russell commenced, she promised to show herself to his brother Charles, again something that was granted as a special favour in very special circumstances: as Henry explained, ‘The Begums are both of them very grateful for your constant attentions to their wishes, and frequently speak of you with great warmth and interest. Khyr oon Nissa says she will see you and become personally acquainted with you, whenever she has an opportunity.’ See Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.164.
79 Khair un-Nissa did however seem to have met Russell’s mistress, who is never named and remains only ‘my girl’. Russell’s relationship with the girl does not appear to have been a very serious or affectionate one: in 1806, during his long absence in Calcutta, she became pregnant, to Russell’s fury, though he was sure that he was the father and wrote to his brother Charles: ‘Your account of my girl’s conduct gives me much pain, and I am exceedingly dissatisfied to hear she is with child. On me she has not many claims, but the Begum has interceded very warmly for her; and, and at her particular request, I have consented to restore to the girl her full monthly allowance of 30 rupees she originally received from me. I will therefore thank you to pay her that sum in future, and to tell her that I expect her gratitude to the Begum, as well as to me, will induce her to behave better than she has done lately.’ See Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.155, Calcutta, 18 June. One child the children might have met was young John Ure, the doctor’s son, who was the same age as Sahib Begum.
80 Judging by the evidence of Khair and Sharaf un-Nissa taking Fanny and Fyze to the Minister’s and Nizam’s zenanas.
81 This section is derived from the extraordinary research of Zinat Kausar in her wonderful Muslim Women in Mediaeval India, op. cit., esp. Chapter 1.
82 I am grateful to Dr Ruby Lal for her help on the role of wetnurses in the Mughal harem.
83 Letter from Sharaf un-Nissa to Kitty Kirkpatrick, undated but c.1840, in the private archives of their descendants.
84 Jehangir (trans. Alexander Rodgers, ed. Henry Beveridge), The Tuzuk i-Jehangiri or Memoirs of Jehangir (London, 1909-14), p.36.
85 Kausar, op. cit., p.11.
86 Ibid., p.14.
87 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.33, 24 October 1804, James Kirkpatrick to George Kirkpatrick.
88 Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C156, p.21, 21 April 1808. After James’s death and Khair un-Nissa’s exile to Masulipatam, Henry Russell sent his brother Charles to Khair’s townhouse to fetch him some of James’s Mughal clothes that he kept there and which Henry needed for a masquerade in Madras. He told his brother to take ‘as many of the poor Colonels Hindoostanee dupes[?] [Indian clothes] that I might wish’, asking him to go to the house and ‘see if you can solicit[?] a complete dup, if there be one, and if not take what articles are sufficient, and what will be the expense of purchasing them. There should be a jama complete, with sunjaf[?] and kinaree; a pair of rich kumkhand turbauns; a turban of Umjud Ally Khan’s shape; and a rich putka or cummarbund for the court[?]—all these things I believe you will find at least three or four setts of in the Begum’s House, except perhaps the turbun and cummerbund; but you can soon ascertain and let me know’.
89 In Henry Russell’s correspondence from Calcutta, he records Khair writing letters not only to her grandmother but to her friends ‘Chistan and Hyatee’s mother’. Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.150, Chowringhee, 4 July 1806. When Khair died, ‘her mother [Sharaf un-Nissa] and all her relations and friends were with her’. Among those gathered around her bed was Fyze. In the days that followed, huge crowds turned up at her funeral, ‘which was attended by every person of rank in the place’. See Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, GD46/15/3/1-30, Henry Russell to Lady Hood, Hyderabad, 23 September 1813.
90 Letter from William George Kirkpatrick (Sahib Allum) to Kitty Kirkpatrick (Sahib Begum), dated 1 March 1823, in the private archive of Kirkpatrick’s descendants.
91 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.4, 11 June 1803, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
92 Letter from Kitty Kirkpatrick to Sharaf un-Nissa, undated but c.1840, in the private archives of their descendants.
93 Ibid. For one among many instances of Khair un-Nissa making dresses for a friend see Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C172, p.67, 7 June 1813, Masulipatam, from Lady (Mary) Hood.
94 Kausar, op. cit., pp.194-8.
95 For an excellent account of Wellesley’s rebuilding of Government House in Calcutta see Bence-Jones, op. cit., Chapter 2.
96 Quoted in Davies, Splendours of the Raj, op. cit., p.35.
97 Quoted by Moon, op. cit., p.340
98 Malcolm makes the error, in his telling of the story, of calling the Minister ‘Meer Allum’. As the Mir was in 1802 under house arrest and Aristu Jah was the Minister at the time, I have corrected the mistake in the quotation to avoid confusion.
99 J.W. Kaye, op. cit., Vol. 2, p.100.
100 For the Nizam’s toothlessness see de Boigne archive, Chambéry, bundle AB IIA, Lieutenant William Steuart to ‘Mac’, Paangul, 30 October 1790. For the camels’ milk see Bidri, op. cit., p.60; for the fishing see New Delhi National Archives, Foreign Department, Secret Consultations, 1800, 15 May, No. 12, ‘Moonshee Azeez Oolah’s Report of a conversation with AUO and of what passed at the Durbar of HH on 9th March 1800’. For the spice-island pigeons see OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/13, p.80, 29 June 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick. For the lioness see OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.65, 3 December 1802, James Kirkpatrick to N.B. Edmonstone. For the clock, the automaton and the cloak see OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/11, p.332, 5 March 1800, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
101 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/13, p.292, 17 December 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
102 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/57, p.35, 23 May 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
103 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/11, p.287, 25 November 1800, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
104 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/13, p.47, 6 May 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
105 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.38, 6 October 1802, James Kirkpatrick to James Brunton.
CHAPTER 8
1 See Anon., Some Notes on the Hyderabad Residency, op. cit., p.29.
2 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.1, 11 June 1803, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
3 New Delhi National Archives, Hyderabad Residency Records, Vol. 834, p.178, 6 August 1803, James Kirkpatrick to Arthur Wellesley.
>
4 Ibid., 7 August 1803, James Kirkpatrick to ‘Major Laton commanding the Hyderabad Detachment’ for the ‘extra butter’; pp.179-80, 8 August, James Kirkpatrick to Arthur Wellesley for the succession of Nizam Sikander Jah.
5 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.8, 18 August 1803, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
6 Kirkpatrick, ‘ A View of the State of the Deccan’, op. cit., p.33.
7 From Davies, ‘Henry Russell’s Report on Hyderabad’, op. cit., pp.121-3.
8 Moon, op. cit., p.314
9 Arthur Wellesley quoted in ibid., p.316.
10 Letter from James Kirkpatrick to N.B. Edmonstone, undated but c.May 1803, in the private archive of Kirkpatrick’s descendants.
11 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.1, 11 June 1803.
12 Sir Thomas Munro, quoted in Moon, op. cit., p.321.
13 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.40, 4 June 1805.
14 Ibid., p.13, 2 October, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
15 Ibid., p.1, 11 June 1803, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick
16 Hastings Papers, BL Add Mss 29,178, Vol. XLVII, 1801-02, 4 December 1802, pp.314-19, William Palmer to Hastings.
17 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.62, 23 November 1802, and p.67, 1 December 1802, both James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.
18 New Delhi National Archives, Hyderabad Residency Records, Vol. 634, 9 May 1804, pp.32-3.
19 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.8, 18 August 1804, and p.40, 4 June 1805, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
20 Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.42, 17 August 1804, Madras, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
21 I am grateful to Professor Robert Frykenberg for sending me a copy of this image.
22 Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.1, 21 February 1802; p.5, 19 March 1802; p.11, 15 April 1802: all Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
23 Quoted in ‘A Preliminary Report on the Russell Correspondence Relating to Hyderabad 1783-1816’, reprinted in Indian Archives, Vol. IX, January-June 1955, No. 1, pp.25-6.
24 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.40, 4 June 1805, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
25 Bidri, op. cit., p.83.
26 New Delhi National Archives, Hyderabad Residency Records, Vol. 634, 20 October 1804, ‘A Secret Communication’, p.85.
27 Moon, op. cit., pp.340-1.
28 Quoted in Butler, op. cit., p.326.
29 Hastings Papers, BL Add Mss 29,180, Vol. XLIX, f.328, October 1804-December 1805, William Palmer to Hastings, Berhampore, 12 October 1805.
30 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/75, p.3, 27 July 1805, Lieutenant Colonel Robinson to James Kirkpatrick.
31 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.53, 9 November 1802, James Kirkpatrick to James Brunton.
32 Ibid., p.66, 30 November 1802, James Kirkpatrick to James Brunton.
33 Ibid., p.31, 24 October 1804, James Kirkpatrick to Kennaway.
34 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.8, 18 August 1804, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
35 See the obituary in the New Monthly Magazine for 1836; Rev. George Oliver’s ‘Biographies of Exonians’, in the Exeter Flying Post 1849-50; and a file on the Kennaway family in the West Country Studies Library, Exeter.
36 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.31, 24 October 1804, James Kirkpatrick to Kennaway.
37 Ibid., p.25, 23 July 1804, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick. Isabella (who was christened Barbara Isabella Kirkpatrick, but was known as an adult by her more becoming middle name) was born in 1788. See Strachey Papers, OIOC F127/478a, ‘Sketch of the Kirkpatrick Family by Lady Richard Strachey’.
38 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.67, 3 December 1802, James Kirkpatrick to T.G. Richardson in Madras.
39 Ibid., p.53, 8 November 1802, James Kirkpatrick to James Brunton.
40 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.20, 9 October.
41 Ibid., p.40, 4 June 1805, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
42 See Khan, Indian Muslim Perceptions of the West, op. cit., Chapter 2.
43 Shushtari, op. cit., pp.11, 351, 425.
44 For Thomas Deane Pearse’s interests in astronomy see Bengal Past and Present, Vol. 2, 1908, pp.304ff, and esp. Vol. 6, 1910, pp.40 and 273-4, part of a long series of articles on Pearse’s letters.
45 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.40, 4 June 1805, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
46 Ibid., p.33, 24 October 1804, James Kirkpatrick to George Kirkpatrick.
47 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/82, p.32, 13 July 1805, Dr Ure.
48 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.40, 4 June 1805, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
49 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/84, dated 22 March 1805.
50 Mirza Abu Taleb Khan, op. cit., p.197.
51 Ibid., pp.198-200.
52 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/13, p.166, 21 September 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
53 OIOC, Sutherland Papers, Mss Eur D547, pp.133-4, undated but c.1803.
54 Ibid., p.134.
55 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/13, p.152, 6 September 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
56 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.27, 4 October 1804, James Kirkpatrick to the Handsome Colonel.
57 Ibid.
58 Ibid., p.40, 4 June 1805, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
59 Ibid., p.27, 4 October 1804, James Kirkpatrick to the Handsome Colonel.
60 Ibid., p.35, James Kirkpatrick to Mrs Hooker, c.August 1805.
61 Ibid., p.40, 4 June 1805, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
62 Letter from Kitty Kirkpatrick to Sharaf un-Nissa, undated but c.1840, in the private archive of Kirkpatrick’s descendants.
63 Hickey, op. cit., Vol. 4, p.385.
64 Patrick Conner, George Chinnery 1774-1852: Artist of India and the China Coast (London, 1993), p.62.
65 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/75, p.5, 6 August 1805, William Petrie to James Kirkpatrick.
66 Hickey, op. cit., Vol. 4, pp.319-20.
67 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/75, p.3, 27 July 1805, Lieutenant Colonel Robinson to James Kirkpatrick.
68 See Hastings Papers, BL Add Mss 29,180, Vol. XLIX, f.328, October 1804-December 1805, William Palmer to Hastings, Berhampore, 12 October 1805.
69 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/75, p.5, 6 August 1805, William Petrie to James Kirkpatrick.
70 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/68, p.109, 20 August 1805, Mir Alam to James Kirkpatrick, trans. by Henry Russell, First Assistant.
71 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/75, p.13, 9 September 1805, Henry Russell to James Kirkpatrick.
72 Calcutta Gazette, 3 October.
73 OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/75, p.15, 14 September, James Kirkpatrick to William Bentinck: Passes on Meer Allum’s request to buy His Highness of Arcot’s house and enclosure in Hyderbad. Also p.18, 22 September: a note from the Nawab of Arcot’s secretary giving James Kirkpatrick an appointment at ten the following morning to see the Nawab at Chipauck House, presumably to discuss Mir Alam’s proposed purchase.
74 Calcutta Gazette, 10 October.
75 OIOC, Elphinstone Papers, Mss Eur F88, Box13/16[b], entry for 13 September 1801.
76 Calcutta Gazette, 3 October.
77 Hastings Papers, BL Add Mss 29,180, Vol. XLIX, f.328, October 1804-December 1805, William Palmer to Hastings, Berhampore, 12 October 1805.
78 The codicil lies at the bottom of the will. See OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/84, dated 22 March 1805. Among the points James added was a characteristically thoughtful directive that his generous bequests to his nieces should be paid on marriage, and not necessarily to await their twenty-first birthdays.
79 These details are all taken from Theon Wilkinson’s wonderful book Two Monsoons, op. cit.; n.b. esp. Chapter 1.
80 Calcutta Gazette, 28 November.
81 Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms
Eng Letts C152, p.50.
CHAPTER 9
1 Denis Kincaid, British Social Life in India up to 1938 (London, 1938), pp.22, 95.
2 David Burton, The Raj at Table: A Culinary History of the British in India (London, 1993), p.208.
3 Shushtari, op. cit., p.427.
4 Quoted in John Keay, India Discovered (London, 1981), p.22.
5 Hickey, op. cit., Vol. 2, p.187.
6 Shushtari, op. cit., p.434.
7 Ibid., p.137.
8 Ibid., p.301.
9 OIOC, Fowke Papers, Mss E6.66, Vol. XXVII, J. Fowke to M. Fowke, Calcutta, 12 December 1783.
10 Shushtari, op. cit., p.432.
11 Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.128, 9 April 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell; and p.176, 30 August 1806, Henry Russell in Calcutta to Charles Russell in Hyderabad.
12 Ibid., pp.190-2, 7 November 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
13 Ibid., p.138, 9 May; p.152, 11 July; and p.128, 25 June: all three letters from Henry Russell in Calcutta to Charles Russell in Hyderabad.
14 Ibid., p.140, 2 June 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell; and p.158, Calcutta, 23 July, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
15 Ibid., p.164, 16 August, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
16 Ibid., p.190, 7 November, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
17 Ibid., p.162, 3 August 1806.
18 Khan, Tarikh i-Khurshid Jahi, op. cit., pp.713-14.
19 Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts D151, p.96, Poona, 31 May 1810, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
20 Quoted in Anon., Some Notes on the Hyderabad Residency, op. cit., p.4.
21 Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts D151, p.120, c.June 1810, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
22 Ibid., p.11, 1 March 1806; and p.126, 24 March: both Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
23 Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts.
24 Ibid., C155, p.155, 18 July 1806.
25 Ibid., p.132, 14 May.
26 Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts D151, p.76, Poona,19 May 1810, and p.96, Poona, 31 May 1810. For his vow not to employ anyone disloyal to James, see Ms Eng Letts C155, p.132, 14 May.