White Mughals (84 page)

79
Ali,
Observations on the Mussulmauns
… , op. cit., p.51.

80
Shushtari, op. cit., pp.545-8.

81
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/13, p.166, 21 September, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

82
Ibid., p.168, 22 September, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

83
Ibid., p.187, 29 September, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

84
Ibid., p.216, 13 October, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

85
Wellesley Papers, BL Add Mss 37,282, p.279, 7 October 1801, Lord Wellesley to William Kirkpatrick.

1
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/56, p.13, 4 January 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

2
Ibid., p.26, 1 February 1802, James Kirkpatrick to John Tulloch; also F228/57, p.7, Hyderabad, 5 April 1802, James Kirkpatrick to John Read.

3
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/56, p.25, 1 February 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Petrie.

4
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.36, 2 October 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

5
James actually spelt Sulaiman’s name ‘Sooleymaun’, but I have updated the spelling to ease comprehension throughout.

6
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.23, 6 May 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

7
Ibid., p.15, 24 July 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

8
Ibid., p.24, 1 April 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

9
That Fyze was literate is clear from her letter to de Boigne quoted in Chapter 6. Khair un-Nissa’s literacy is alluded to frequently in Henry Russell’s letters in the Bodleian Library, which refer to him receiving regular letters from her, although none have survived. Sharaf un-Nissa’s letters have survived, however, although they somehow became detached from Russell’s well-catalogued English correspondence and languished uncatalogued in the store of the library’s Persian Department. I am extremely grateful to Doris Nicholson for finally locating them all. Khair un-Nissa’s letters may have been deliberately destroyed, either by Russell himself or by his daughter-in-law, Lady Russell, who became the family historian. The English correspondence also shows signs of being discreetly pruned, especially of correspondence that might have implicated Russell in the scandal surrounding the collapse of Palmer’s bank, about which Russell had to face a formal investigation by the East India Company and which led to his early retirement from India.

10
See previous note. Russell’s letters refer to his worries that Palmer might use the matter of ‘the Begum’ against him in the East India Company inquiry into the collapse of Palmer’s bank, and it may have been at this stage that he took the precaution of destroying Khair’s letters.

11
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/57, p.8, 8 April 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

12
Both notes are now in the private archive of their descendants.

13
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.23, 6 May 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

14
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/57, p.24, 1 April 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

15
Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, Seaforth Muniments, GD46/8/1, Henry Russell to Lady Hood, Hyderabad, 5 November 1813.

16
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/56, p.8, 8 April 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

17
Ibid., p.24, 1 April 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

18
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.73, 10 December 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

19
Durba Ghosh discusses this letter eloquently in her thesis ‘Colonial Companions’, op. cit., p.124.

20
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/18, p.30, 31 October, William Kirkpatrick to James Kirkpatrick.

21
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/12, p.280, 6 December, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

22
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/18, pp.20-3, from Maula Ali, 23 November 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

23
Ibid., pp.11-13, John Malcolm to William Kirkpatrick, Patna, 19 October 1801.

24
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/13, p.265, 28 November 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

25
Ibid., p.222, 19 October 1801, Vigors to James Kirkpatrick.

26
Probably because of this incident, James later wrote a code for etiquette connected to the reception of the British Resident which laid down in minute detail exactly what should be done on the occasion of a visit, including the number of guns which were to make the salute and the size and make-up of the guard of honour with which he was to be met. See New Delhi National Archives, Foreign Department, Secret Consultations, 16 May 1805, No. 89-90.

27
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/13, p.238, 9 November 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

28
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.15, 24 July 1802, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.

29
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/13, p.282, 7 December 1801, William Palmer to James Kirkpatrick.

30
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/11, p.192, 5 August 1799, William Kirkpatrick to James Kirkpatrick.

31
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/56, p.9, 8 April 1802, James Kirkpatrick to Close.

32
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/18, p.48, 30 November 1801, John Malcolm to William Kirkpatrick.

33
Ibid., pp.24-7, 20 January 1802, William Kirkpatrick to James Kirkpatrick.

34
Ibid., pp.33-7, 20 April 1802, John Malcolm to William Kirkpatrick.

35
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.27, 25 March 1802, N.B. Edmonstone to James Kirkpatrick.

36
William Palmer’s authorship of the letter is clear from its style, its contents, the handwriting, and finally James’s remarks on it to William Palmer’s father, the General.

37
For William Palmer’s stay with his brother John, see the letter from General Palmer to his brother-in-law Benoît de Boigne, Pune, 13 December 1799, in the de Boigne archive at Chambéry.

38
From James Baillie Fraser,
Military Memoirs of Lt. Col. James Skinner C.B.
(2 vols, London, 1851), Vol. 2, p.162.

39
Hastings Papers, BL Add Mss 29,178, pp.240, 254-5.

40
Hawes, op. cit., pp.102-3.

41
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/57, p.1, 14 March 1802, James Kirkpatrick to Ebeneezer Roebuck.

42
East India Company, ‘The Hyderabad Papers: Papers Relative To Certain Pecuniary Transactions Of Messrs William Palmer And Co With The Government Of His Highness The Nizam’ (London, 1824), letter from William Palmer to Henry Russell, p.2.

43
The Resident Charles Metcalfe, quoted in Hawes, op. cit., p.106.

44
OIOC, HM 743, ‘The Affairs Of Messrs Wm Palmer & Co Vol. 2 Extract From Bengal Pol Cons 7th Oct 1825’, Point 61-2, (18).

45
Anon.,
Sketches of India
… , op. cit., pp.325-6.

46
Certainly, William Palmer seems to have been trading in a modest way from at least 1802, when James bought a consignment of camels from him. See OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.22, 8 September 1802, James Kirkpatrick to Charles Farran.

47
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/83, ‘The Letter from Philothetes’.

48
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/57, p.27, 25 March 1802, N.B. Edmonstone to James Kirkpatrick.

49
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/27, p.19, 27 April 1802, James Kirkpatrick to N.B. Edmonstone.

50
See J.W. Kaye., op. cit., Vol. 2, p.162.

51
OIOC, Mountstuart Elphinstone Papers, Mss Eur F88, Box13/16[b], Elphinstone’s diary, f.92, 23 August 1801.

52
J.W. Kaye, op. cit., p.162. Holland initially resided in the royal palace until he rented the Residency site several months later. See Ashwin Kumar Bakshi, ‘The Residency of Hyderabad 1779-1857’ (unpublished Ph.D., Osmania University, 1990), p.97.

53
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/12, p.163, 29 August 1800, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

54
OIOC, Bengal Political Consultations, P/117/18, 19 October 1800; 3 June 1801, No. 1: The Residency, Hyderabad.

55
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/13, p.117, 15 August 1801, for Shumsair Jung.

56
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/12, p.143, 30 August 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick. For James’s request for peach trees see F228/57, p.33, 27 May 1802.

57
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.30, 12 September 1802, James Kirkpatrick to Fawcett in Bombay.

58
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/54, p.8, 9 September, James Kirkpatrick to Trail.

59
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/53, p.21, 25 September 1800, James Kirkpatrick to Trail.

60
Ibid., p.31, 25 September 1800, to Richard Chase.

61
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/57, p.16, 29 April 1802, James Kirkpatrick to an unnamed Madras jeweller.

62
Ibid., p.25, 9 May 1802, James Kirkpatrick to Barry Close.

63
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.31, 24 October 1804, James Kirkpatrick to Kennaway.

64
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.44, 18 October 1802, to Fawcett.

65
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.31, 24 October 1804, James Kirkpatrick to Kennaway.

66
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.67, 3 December 1802, James Kirkpatrick to T.G. Richardson in Madras.

67
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/58, p.77, 21 December 1802, James Kirkpatrick to T.G. Richardson.

68
Anon.,
The Chronology of Modern Hyderabad from 1720 to 1890 AD
(Hyderabad, 1954), p.55.

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.