“East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,” wrote Rudyard Kipling in his poem The Ballad of East and West. This popular line clearly outlines the attitude of the British imperialists of the time. Though the cultures of the East and the West shared space for centuries, it would never be possible for them to truly meet in friendship and peacefully coexist.
Decades before the poem was written, however, the reality could not have been farther from this notion. British soldiers who visited the country on commission, hired by an early version of the East India Company, found it easy to meet the “Orient” halfway, falling in love with the very idea of India. Getting inspired by the dominant culture of the country, many British men adopted Indian dress, culture, music, arts, and the food – specifically Hyderabadi biryani. One-third of the Englishmen who came to India married Indian women. These men who thrived happily in the beautiful blend of east and west were the “White Mughals”.
The documentary The White Mughal – Love and Betrayal in India tells the story of one such man who found a home in the Deccan as well as a love that changed his world forever. The documentary based on William Dalrymple’s bestselling historical account White Mughals (2002), and is narrated by the author. The film was originally shown on BBC in 2015 and will be premiered on Discovery Channel India on March 28 at 9pm.
White Mughals is about James Achilles Kirkpatrick, a British employee of the East India Company who came to the princely state of Hyderabad in 1795 and fell in love with it. He balanced his priorities and responsibilities to the company with his reverence and sympathies towards the Nizam of Hyderabad, ensuring a mutually beneficial environment. While he furthered the footprint of the East India Company in the Deccan, he found himself more and more at home, willingly and increasingly adopting the local culture and language. He was a great soldier and it seemed like nothing could weaken his hold on the situation at hand. Until, of course, he fell in love with Khair-un-Nissa, a beautiful young Muslim princess of Hyderabad.
The documentary is a visual interpretation of Dalrymple’s celebrated book, which was a result of years of painstaking research. Through old diaries, personal letters, a handful of documents and a study of the art and architecture of the area, Dalrymple has pieced together a chapter of colonial history that has not been told before. Featuring classic Georgian portraits by George Chinnery and Thomas Hickey and the meticulous Deccani miniatures of Venkatchellam and Tajully Ali Shah, the film delivers on the promise of being a wonderful viewing experience.
The one-hour documentary contains as much detail as possible without cluttering the narrative. Beyond the love story, the film highlights the changing attitudes of the East India Company as it transformed itself from a business enterprise into a colonial force that subjugated, coerced and suppressed the natives. The new Viceroy, Lord Wellesley, had a racist and intolerant outlook towards inter-racial liaisons, which affected the romantic utopia that James and Khair-un-Nissa had hoped to share.
But James was undeterred. A loyal husband and a loving father, he chooses to convert to Islam and build a harem for his young Muslim bride in his very British Residency in Hyderabad. The story of Khair-un-Nissa and James is deeply symbolic of the period – the intolerance, the growing racism, the aggression and love that was soon to be lost forever.