Love And Betrayal In Eighteenth-Century India William Dalrymple Additional Author mixed material bibliography HarperCollins Publishers 2003

Book - Paperback

640 William Dalrymple's <I>White Mughals</I> 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 <I>City of Djinns</I> and <I>The Age of Kali</I>. 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. <p> Set in and around Hyderabad at the beginning of the nineteenth century, <I>White Mughals</I> 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. <p> However, <I>White Mughals</I> 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, <I>White Mughals</I> confirms Dalrymple's status as one of the most important non-fiction writers of his time. --<I>Jerry Brotton</I> 6550967 C2O library Online catalog (BETA) 954.031 DAL Whi 145 C2O library & collabtive (History & Geography) 9000 145 2015-01-02 09:50:52 2015-01-02 09:50:52 machine generated