Farzana Read online

  ____________________________

  * Also known as the ‘Yellow Boys’ from the colour of their uniform.

  AFTERWORD

  ‘This was Julia’s last book. She died in 2011 after over a year’s illness. A first draft of the text was by then complete, but she was not able to undertake its revision or prepare it for publication. As a result, the book has deficiencies of which she would have strongly disapproved. She would, for instance, have been meticulous in acknowledging the help and support of all those who contributed to her research. I do so on her behalf but without being able to recall most of the names. She would also have wanted to thank the many friends who provided hospitality in India and, of course, our children for their love and encouragement. In respect of the text she would have been able to amplify the source notes with the page numbers and publishing details that are all too often lacking. Some have been located but without re-researching the entire work many gaps remain. I can only apologize.

  Most of Farzana’s old stamping grounds we explored together. Her palaces and battle sites, her childhood haunts and her great white basilica in Sardhana were where we spent some of our last precious months. Julia desperately wanted to retrieve Farzana’s reputation from the romancers and the popularizers. She wanted to portray her as the agent of her own extraordinary career and to set that odyssey within its historical context. Given that Farzana herself wrote scarcely anything, this was not always easy. Nor was it helped by Julia’s declining health. But the result is surely a triumph – both for her who wrote nothing and for her who would so loved to have written more.

  John Keay, 2013

  NOTES

  Foreword

  1  One of the only sources of information about Delhi at this period was a report by Lieutenant William Franklin in the 1795 edition of the new Asiatick Researches.

  2  Franklin, Lieutenant William, in the 1795 edition of the new Asiatick Researches.

  3  British Library, Warren Hastings papers, William Palmer to Warren Hastings, Add Mss 29,172, VOL XLI, 1790, P.184 21ST NOVEMBER 1790 AGRA: ‘I applied to the Shah [Alam] in your name for permission to transcribe his copy of the Mahbharrut, and was assured that it would have been most cheerfully granted if the book had been in his possession, but his library had been totally plundered & destroyed by that villain Ghullam Khauder Khan, and he added, not without some degree of indignation, that part of the books had been purchased at Lucknow, that is by the Vizier; & upon enquiry find this to be the case, for his Excellency produced some of them to the English Gentlemen, boasting that they were the “King’s”.’

  4  See Leach, Linda York, Mughal and other Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, Volume II, p 794. Two Europeans shown in the painting 7.121 are referred to by their Muslim names Khwajah Ismail Khan and Salu Khan.

  5  See Lall, John, Begam Samru: Fading Portrait in a Gilded Frame, Delhi: Roli Books, 1997, pp. 126-7.

  6  See Linda York Leach, Mughal and other Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, Volume II, item 7.121, colour plate 109 & 110 (London 1995).

  7  For Sardhana and the Begum Sombre see Lall, John, Begam Samru: Fading Portrait in a Gilded Frame, Delhi: Roli Books, 1997 especially pp. 126-7 for the Christmas festivities. See also: Fisher, Michael, ‘Becoming and Making Family in Hindustan’ in Chatterjee, Indrani, Unfamiliar Relations, New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2004; Shreeve, Nicholas, Dark Legacy, Arundel, 1996, Shreeve, Nicholas (ed)., From Nawab to Nabob: The Diary of David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, Arundel, 2000. For the Sardhana poets see Saksena, Ram Babu, European & Indo-European Poets of Urdu & Persian, Lucknow, Newul Kishore Press, 1941.

  8  David Dyce Ochterlony Sombre’s Diaries, edited by Shreeve, Nicholas, From Nawab to Nabob, Arundel 2000: see for example entries for Diwali (Thursday the 30th of October, p. 66), Holi (Easter Sunday 29th March 1834, p. 21), Dusshera (Thursday the 1st October 1835) Witchcraft (3rd January 1835, p. 78) and Exorcism (Tuesday the 2nd September 1834).

  9  Shreeve, Nicholas, The Indian Heir: A Biography of Davis Dyce Sombre, Bookwright, 2001, p. 7.

  10 Saksena, Ram Babu, European & Indo-European Poets of Urdu & Persian, Lucknow, Newul Kishore Press, 1941, pp100-137.

  11 National Army Museum, London, Gardner Papers, NAM 6305-56, Letter 14, Delhi 6 June, 1820.

  12 Ibid., Letter 16, p 41.

  13 Michael Fisher, The Inordinately Strange Life of Dyce Sombre – Victorian Anglo-Indian MP and Chancery ‘Lunatic’. London: C. Hurst, New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.

  Prologue

  1  Jacquemont, Victor, Letters from India, London, 1836.

  1. Where Passions Rage

  1  Burns, Cecil, ‘From Slave to Princess’, article in Times of India Annual, 1923.

  2  Burns, Cecil, ibid.

  3  Quoted in Jalal, Ayesha, Partisans of Allah, Harvard University Press, 2008, p. 56.

  4  Jalal, Ayesha, ibid., p.56.

  5  Modave, Comte de, Voyage en Inde du Comte de Modave, 1773-1776, ed., Jean Deloche, Paris: Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient, 1971, p. 332.

  6  Lall, John, Begam Samru: Fading Portrait in a Gilded Frame, New Delhi: Roli Books, 1971, p. 17.

  7  Neville, Pran, Nautch Girls of India: Dancers, Singers, Playmates, New Delhi: Variety Book Depot, 1996.

  8  Munro, Innes, A narrative of the military operations on the Coromandel coast against the combined forces of the French, Dutch and Hyder Ally Cawn, from the year 1780 to the peace in 1784 (1789).

  9  Minhaj-us-Siraj, Tabakat-I Nasiri in History of India as Told by its Own Historians, ed. by H.M. Elliot and J. Dowson, Vol. 2, p. 332.

  2. In Between Empires

  1  Sarkar, Jadunath, Fall of the Mughal Empire (4 vols), Calcutta:M C Sarkar, 1932–50.

  2  Inden, Ronald N., Imagining India, Oxford: Blackwell, 1990, pp. 239–40

  3  Bernier, Francois, Travels in the Mogol Empire AD 1656-68, London: Oxford University Press, 1914.

  4  Keay, John, India: A History, London: HarperCollins, 2000, 2010, p. 379.

  5  Banerji, Brajendranath, Begam Samru, Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1989, p.2.

  6  Moon, Penderel, The British Conquest and Dominion of India, London: Duckworth, 1989, p. 41.

  3. The Butcher of Patna

  1  Moon, Penderel, The British Conquest and Dominion of India, London: Duckworth, 1989, pp. 41, 96.

  2  Thomas Bacon, First Impressions and Studies from Nature in Hindostan, London: W.H. Allen, 1837, p. 36.

  3  The Annual Register quoted in Compton, Herbert, A Particular Account of the European Military Adventurers of Hindustan, London, 1892, p.401.

  4  Twining, Thomas, Travels in India 100 years Ago, London: Osgood MacIlvaine, 1893, p. 137.

  5  Moon, Penderel, supra, p. 106.

  6  Smith, Lewis Ferdinand, A Sketch of the Rise, Progress & Termination of the Regular Corps Formed and Commanded by Europeans in the Service of the Native Princes of India, Calcutta: Greenway, 1805.

  7  Modave, Comte de, Voyage en Inde du Comte de Modave, 1773-1776, ed., Jean Deloche, Paris: Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient, 1971, p.150.

  8  Jasanoff, Maya, Edge of Empire; Conquest and Collecting in the East 1750-1850, London: Fourth Estate, 2005.

  9  Moon, Penderel, supra.

  10 Modave, Comte de, supra.

  11 Compton, Herbert, A Particular Account of the European Military Adventurers of Hindustan, London: Fisher Unwin, 1892.

  12 Fraser, James Baillie, Military Memoir of Lieut-Col James Skinner, London: Smith Elder, 1851.

  13 Modave, Comte de, supra.

  14 Qanungo, Kalika Ranjan, History of the Jats up till the Death of Mirza Najaf Khan, 1782, Delhi: Low Price, 2003.

  15 Sleeman, William, Rambles & Recollections of an Indian Official, Constable, London 1893, Vol. 1, p. 440.

  16 Sarkar, Jadunath, Fall of the Mughal Empire, Calcutta: M.C. Sarkar, 1932�
��50, Vol.2, p.381.

  17 Modave, Comte de, supra.

  18 Sleeman, William, supra, quoting N.W. P. Gazetteer, 1st ed., Vol vii.

  19 Qanungo, Kalika Ranjan, supra p. 99.

  4. Enchanted by Her Heroism

  1  Warren Hastings, quoted in Shreeve, Nicholas, Dark Legacy; The Fortunes of Begam Samru, New Delhi: Rupa, 1996..

  2  Modave, Comte de, Voyage en Inde du Comte de Modave, 1773-1776, ed., Jean Deloche, Paris: Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient, 1971.

  3  Modave, Comte de, supra, p. 421.

  4  Besson, Maurice, Les Aventuriers Francais aux Indes (1775-1820), Paris: Payot, 1932.

  5  Translation by Shreeve, Nicholas, Dark Legacy: The Fortunes of Begam Samru, New Delhi: Rupa, 1996.

  6  Qanungo, Kalika Ranjan, History of the Jats up till the Death of Mirza Najaf Khan, 1782, Delhi: Low Price, 2003, p.104.

  7  Fraser, James Baillie, Military Memoir of Lieut-Col James Skinner, London: Smith Elder, 1851.

  8  Smith, Lewis Ferdinand, A Sketch of the Rise, Progress & Termination of the Regular Corps Formed and Commanded by Europeans in the Service of the Native Princes of India, Calcutta: Greenway, 1805.

  9  Clive, Robert, quoted in Keay, John, The Honourable Company; A History of the English East India Company, London: HarperCollins, 1990, p 375.

  10 Spear, T.G.P., Twilight of the Mughals, London: Oxford University Press, 1951.

  11 Modave, Comte de, supra, p. 231.

  12 Quoted in Alam, Muzaffar and Seema Alavi, A Europeam Experience of the Mughal Orient: The Ijaz-I Arslani of Antoine-Louis Henri Polier, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2008.

  5. A Home of Their Own

  1  Persian Correspondence iv; Waqa-i-Shah Alam Sani MS; quoted in Banerji, Brajendranath, Begam Samru, Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1989.

  2  Quoted in Banerji, Brajendranath, supra.

  3  Ghosh, Durba, Sex and the Family in Colonial India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

  4  Bacon, Thomas, First Impressions and Studies from Nature in Hindostan, London: W.H. Allen, 1837, Vol. 2.

  5  Modave, Comte de, Voyage en Inde du Comte de Modave, 1773-1776, ed., Jean Deloche, Paris: Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient, 1971, p. 422.

  6  Qanungo, Kalika Ranjan, History of the Jats up till the Death of Mirza Najaf Khan, 1782, Delhi: Low Price, 2003, p.167.

  7  Modave, Comte de, supra, p. 40.

  8  Qanungo, Kalika Ranjan, supra, p. 171.

  9  Modave, Comte de, supra, p. 438.

  10 Keene, H G, Hindustan Under Free Lances 1770-1820, London: Brown, Langham, 1907, p. 20.

  11 Barbé, Emile, Le Nabob René Madec, Paris, 1894.

  6. Steel Beneath the Muslin

  1  Smith, Lewis Ferdinand, A Sketch of the Rise, Progress & Termination of the Regular Corps Formed and Commanded by Europeans in the Service of the Native Princes of India, Calcutta: Greenway, 1805.

  2  Shreeve, Nicholas, Dark Legacy: The Fortunes of Begam Samru, New Delhi: Rupa, 1996.

  3  Sleeman, Major General Sir W.H., Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, London: Constable, 1893, p. 273.

  4  Smith, Lewis Ferdinand, supra.

  5  Compton, Herbert, A Particular Account of the European Military Adventurers of Hindustan, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892, p. 341.

  6  Modave, Comte de, Voyage en Inde du Comte de Modave 1773-1776, ed., J Deloche, Paris: Ecole Francaise d’Extreme Orient, 1971, p. 419.

  7  Sleeman, Major General Sir W.H., supra, Vol. 2, p. 276.

  8  Bannerji, Brajendranath, Begum Samru, Calcutta: N.C. Sarkar, 1925; reprint, Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1989, p.17.

  9  Quoted in Visram, Rosina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History, London: Pluto Books, 2002.

  10 Minhaj-S Siraj in Elliot, H.M. and J. Dowson, History of India as Told by its Own Historians, Vol 2, London: Tubner & Co, 1869, p. 332.

  11 See, for instance, Compton, Herbert, A Particular Account of the European Military Adventurers of Hindustan, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892; Keene, H.G., Hindustan under Free Lances 1700-1820, London: Brown, Langham, 1907.

  12 Malcolm, John, A Memoir of Central India, London: Kingsbury, Parbury and Allen, 1823, Vol. 2, p. 174.

  13 Gordon, Stewart, The New Cambridge History of India, The Marathas 1600-1818, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

  14 Khan, Gholam Hossein, Seir-i-Mutaqherin, 3 vols, Calcutta, 1782.

  15 Sarkar, Jadunath, Fall of the Mughal Empire, Vol.3, Calcutta: M.C. Sarkar, 1938, p. 89.

  16 Francklin, William, History of the Reign of Shah-Aulum, Delhi: Cooper and Graham, 1798.

  17 Sarkar, Jadunath, supra, Vol. 3, p. 184.

  18 Tahmasp Khan (‘Miskin’) quoted in Sarkar, Jadunath, supra.

  19 Francklin, William, History, etc., supra.

  20 Wilkinson, Theon, Two Monsoons, London: Duckworth, 1976.

  21 Quoted in Lall, John, Begam Samru: Fading Portrait in a Gilded Frame, Delhi: Roli Books, 1997.

  22 Malcolm, John, A Memoir, etc., supra, Vol. 2, p. 120.

  23 Spear, T.G. Percival, Twilight of the Mughuls: Studies in late Mughul Delhi, London: Oxford University Press, 1951.

  24 Francklin, William, History, etc., supra.

  25 Twining, Thomas, Travels in India 100 years ago, London: Osgood MacIlvaine, 1893, p.262.

  26 Hastings to Browne, Add. MSS. 29,115, quoted in Davies, C.C., Warren Hastings and Oudh, London: Oxford University Press, 1939.

  7. Fit for Service

  1  Sleeman, Major General Sir W.H., Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, London: Constable, 1893. Vol. 2, p. 276.

  2  Compton, Herbert, A Particular Account of the European Military Adventurers of Hindustan, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892, p. 25.

  3  Grant Duff, James, History of the Mahrattas, 3 vols, London: Longmans, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1826, p. 479 fn.

  4  Young, Desmond, Fountain of the Elephants, London: Collins, 1959, p. 80.

  5  Keene, H.G., Fall of the Mughal Empire of Hindustan, London, 1887, repr., Gloucester: Dodo Press, 2010.

  6  Young, Desmond, Fountain, etc., supra.

  7  Francklin, William, The History of the Reign of Shah Aulum, London: Cooper and Garnett, 1798.

  8  Polier, Antoine-Louis-Henri, A Treatise on the History, Religion and Culture of the Sikhs, 1787, in the Orme MSS, British Library.

  9  Wendel, Francis Xavier, Memoires de l’origine et etablissement des Siks, 1772.

  10 Singh, Khushwant, A History of the Sikhs, Vol. 1, 1469–1839, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1963, p.121.

  11 Francklin, William, History of the Reign of Shah Aulum, supra, p. 77.

  12 Heber, Reginald, quoted in Lall, John, Begam Samru: Fading Portrait in a Gilded Frame, Delhi: Roli Books, 1997.

  13 Francklin, William, History of the Reign of Shah Aulum, supra.

  14 Sarkar, Jadunath, Fall of the Mughal Empire (4 vols), Calcutta: M C Sarkar, 1932–50.

  15 Francklin, William, History of the Reign of Shah Aulum, supra.

  16 Keene, H.G., Hindustan under Free Lances 1700-1820, London: Brown, Langham, 1907, p.39.

  17 Francklin, William, History of the Reign of Shah Aulum, supra.

  18 Fraser, James Baillie, Military Memoirs of Lt. Col. James Skinner, London: Smith, Elder, 1851, Vol. 1, p. 239.

  19 Smith, Lewis Ferdinand, A Sketch of the Rise, Progress & Termination of the Regular Corps Formed and Commanded by Europeans in the Service of the Native Princes of India, Calcutta: Greenway, 1805.

  20 Bidwell, Shelford, Swords for Hire; European Mercenaries in 18th century India, London: John Murray, 1971, p. 84.

  21 Compton, Herbert, A Particular Account of the European Military Adventurers of Hindustan, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892.

  22 Seema Alavi in Paul, E. Jaiwan
t, Rani of Jhansi: Lakshmi Bai, Delhi: Roli Books, 2005.

  23 Colonel James Tod, Asiatic Journal quoted in Compton, Herbert, supra.

  24 Edwardes, Michael, King of the World – the life and Times of Shah Alam, London: Secker and Warburg, 1970, p. 181.

  25 Sarkar, Jadunath, A History of Jaipur, Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1984, p. 279.

  26 Keene, H.G., Fall of the Moghul Empire of Hindustan, supra.

  27 Sarkar, Jadunath, Fall of the Mughal Empire, supra, Vol.4, p. 19.

  8. Fearless Foreigner

  1  Burns, Cecil, ‘From Slave to Princess’ in The Times of India Annual, 1923.

  2  Hennessy, Maurice, The Rajah from Tipperary: George Thomas, London, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1971.

  3  Fraser, James Baillie, Military Memoirs of Lt. Colonel Skinner, London: Smith, Elder, 1851, Vol. 1, p. 238.

  4  Compton, Herbert, A Particular Account of the European Military Adventurers of Hindustan, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892, p.112.

  5  Duff, James Grant, History of the Mahrattas, London: Longmans, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1826, Vol. 2, p. 139.

  6  Bacon, Thomas, First Impressions and Studies from Nature in Hindostan, Vol. 2, London: W.H. Allen, 1837, p. 54.

  7  Francklin, William, The History of the Reign of Shah Aulum, London: Cooper and Garnett, 1798.

  8  Francklin, William, ibid.

  9  Francklin, William, ibid.

  10 Mohammed, Fakir Khair-ud-din, Ibratnama, quoted in Sarkar’s Persian MS and Bannerji, Brajendranath, Begum Samru, Calcutta: N.C. Sarkar, 1925; reprint, Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1989, p. 212.

  11 Modave, Comte de, Voyage en Inde du Comte de Modave 1773-1776, ed., J. Deloche, Paris: Ecole Francaise d’Extreme Orient, 1971, p.273.

  12 Twining, Thomas, Travels in India 100 years ago, London: Osgood MacIlvaine, 1893, p.263.

  13 Duff, James Grant, History of the Mahrattas, supra, Vol. 3, p. 29.

  14 Alavi, Seema, The Sepoys and the Company: Tradition and Transition in Northern India, 1770-1830, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 222.

  15 Besson, Maurice, Les Aventuriers Francaises aux Indes (1775-1820), Paris: Payot, 1932, p.100.