Review: White Mughals

William Dalrymple's White Mughals is a brilliant piece of literature. For most parts I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. One of my friend's had recommended this book to me and I was more than eager to try it out since I'd already read and enjoyed 'The City of Djins'. This book was however written in a very different style. I'm not exactly sure how to describe the genre of this book to people though. I would probably describe it as history/biography of a romance that took place in 18th century India. The book is about love story of James Kirkpatrick (Britisher) and Khair-un-Nissa (An Indian Muslim). Dalrymple puts together this story through meticulous research that he's done using letters, historical documents, books etc. One of the reasons I enjoyed this book is because of the entirely new perspective I got to a story I had been hearing since I was a young child. As an Indian I had heard about the story of the British coming to India, their divide and rule policies, the events leading up to the revolt of 1857 etc. Basically the one dimensional view that schools would like all Indian children to have. I'm glad that this book helped me to broaden those horizons a little more. 18th century India was actually a time when British and Indian cultures came together in mutual admiration and shared several of their traditions with each other. It was a time when several English men took Indian wives, adopted Indian habits and customs and regarded India as their home and not just a place to be conquered. It also shows how much of an affect one man - Lord Wellesley had on the history of India. The distrust and hate that eventually grew between both countries may never have been there if it hadn't been for a handful of people. By a lucky coincidence I was able to visit Hyderabad (the location of most of the events in this book) while I was reading this book and was able to see first hand some of the history related to the Nizams and to James Kirkpatrick himself. I think it added that extra flavor of interest into reading the book. One criticism I have about this book is that I feel it wasn't edited well enough. There are points when Dalrymple includes facts that have absolutely no bearing to the story at all. It almost seems like he's showing off the research that he's done into this book. When the book is as it so long, adding a few extra pages of irrelevant facts really doesn't help the cause. Finally, I'd like to share the last line of the book because it really struck a chord with me. It goes "As the story of James Achilles Kirkpatrick and Khair un-Nissa shows, East and West are not irreconcilable, and never have been. Only bigotry, prejudice, racism and fear drive them apart. But they have met and mingled in the past; and they will do so again". This book is a must read for History buffs and for everyone else who would be interested in reading a love story written in a way that you would probably never have read before. This book does brilliantly what books are supposed to do - 'Broaden your horizons'.

My Rating: 3.5/5