Love
is a powerful feeling, and it is often a little different depending on what a
person is giving to or receiving from the person who they love.
Let’s look at one such tragic love story that emerged from the
streets of Hyderabad, a love that did not fear society, and a love story that
lives on to amaze us.
Long
back in the 1790s, Hyderabad sensed a breath of new air that, later on, changed
the way people perceived love. A handsome, young gentleman from Madras, James
Achilles Kirkpatrick, had a love story to narrate that would be etched in the
golden history of Hyderabad.
Before the War of Independence in 1857,
after which India became part of the British Empire, many British men working for
the East India Company, who came in
India in the prime of their youth. To make their fortune, got married to local
women and settled down to raise families.
There were very few white women available
and they were compelled to visit brothels or, like well-to-do Indians, maintain
harems of Indian concubines or mistresses.
They were not particularly concerned about
the religious divide: if they wanted to marry Muslim women, they underwent
nominal conversion to Islam; if they took on Hindu wives, they observed Hindu
customs and gave up eating beef.
A True Tragic Love Story: Among the most celebrated liaisons
followed by a secret marriage ending in painful separation was that of Begum
Khair-un-Nissa, niece of the Prime Minister of Hyderabad, and a Scotsman,
Colonel James Achilles Kirkpatrick, British Resident at the court of the Nizam.
James Achilles Kirkpatrick: The White Moghul
A True Love Story: The tale of the romance between James
Achilles Kirkpatrick, the British Resident at the court of the Nizam of
Hyderabad and his Muslim wife Khair-u-Nissa Begum for whom he converted to
Islam and with whom he had two children.
James
Achilles Kirkpatrick was born at Fort St. George, Madras in 1764 but sent back
to Britain where he attended Eton College.
To make
his name and his fortune, the ambitious young man returned as a self-confident
young imperialist intending to conquer India by working for the British East
India Company and became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Company’s Army.
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| James Kirkpatrick |
Nizam-ul-Mulk
Nawab Mir Nizam Ali Khan Siddiqi Bayafandi Bahadur Asaf Jah II reigned
Hyderabad from 1762 to 1803.
James
was initially appointed as the translator at the Nizam’s court during his elder
Brother William Kirkpatrick’s tenure as the Companys Resident (ambassador) in
Hyderabad.
In
1795, savvy and skilled at diplomacy, at only 33 years of age, he replaced his
brother as the Resident.
A
good looking and charming young diplomat, he was responsible as the East India
Company’s Resident in Hyderabad for nurturing relations with the State’s rulers
and keep them on the side of the British.
Taking
his diplomatic tasks very seriously, he fluently conversed in Persian,
Hindustani, Tamil and Telegu and immersed himself in Hyderabadi Indo-Persian
culture.
One
his first tasks was to build a stately Residency at Hyderabad. The Palladian
style house was designed by Lt Samuel Russell of the Madras Engineers, the son
of the Royal Academician John Russell.
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| British Residency Hyderabad -Now Koti Women’s College |
James
smoked hukkahs, chewed paan, attended mujras and even had a zenana, living the
life of a genuine White Mughal. He fathered many children with various local
women that he kept there, just like the Hyderabadi elite.
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| British Residency-Hyderabad |
Living
like a Hyderabadi out of choice, Kirkpatrick related to them and understood
their point of view, which he would present to his superiors.
Nizam awarded him with
titles like Mutamin ul Mulk (Safeguard of the kingdom), Hushmat Jung (Valiant
in battle) and Nawab Fakhr-ud-Dowlah Bahadur (Governor, pride of the state, and
hero).
In
1800 James Kirkpatrick met the fourteen year old grand daughter of the Vizier
of Hyderabad, Nawab Mahmood Ali Khan.
Khair-u-Nissa fell in love with James
Achilles Kirkpatrick
Though
Khair-un-Nissa (the matchlessly beautiful) was kept in strict purdah (veil), during
the engagement ceremonies for her elder sister, she saw James Kirkpatrick in
the court and fell in love.
She
somehow managed to leave the confines of the zenana (ladies quarter) one
evening, presented herself before Kirkpatrick and pleaded her love.
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| Hyderabadi Princess — “Khair un Nisa” |
Kirkpatrick
met all the conditions plus the Nizam made him his adopted son. The couple was
duly married in a nikkah ceremony. Kirkpatrick was elevated to the ranks of
Hyderabadi nobility. The couple became known in Hyderabadi circles as Sahib
Begum and Sahib Allum.
James
built a separate zenana in the Residency compound for Khair-u-Nissa who still
observed purdah.
The
couple lived in an enthralled world of aromatic gardens, delicious fruits,
cooing pigeons, sparkling jewels, veils fluttering in the gentle evening
breeze.
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| Khair un Nissa |
Khair
became renowned for her fair complexioned, delicate featured beauty. Her
portrait was said at the time to do no justice to her good looks.
The good looking couple had two
children: a son, Mir Ghulam Ali Sahib Allum, and a daughter, Noor-un-Nissa
Sahib Begum.
Shortly
after the marriage in as early 1801, a major scandal broke out in Calcutta over
the nature of Kirkpatrick’s role at the Hyderabad court.
His reputation had become suspicious of
late but it was not unheard of British officers to dress and even live like the
natives. However, in James case his loyalty was questioned.
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| James Achilles Kirkpatrick with his Entire Family |
Worse,
Kirkpatrick had formally married the girl, by converting not just in name but
in deed and had become a practising Shia Muslim.
Governor General Wellesley was not kindly willing
to Kirkpatrick’s relationship with the Nizam. Wellesley, having decided to
dismiss Kirkpatrick, summoned him to Calcutta.
Upon
questioning, James at first denied his marriage with Khair un-Nissa, but upon
the Company’s further investigation into the matter he confessed that he had
married her in an Islamic ceremony.
He was summarily dismissed and as a punishment for his religious
conversion it was decided that his two Anglo-Indian children would be taken
away from the parents and sent to Britain to be raised as Christians.
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| Governor Genaral “Richard Colley Wellesley |
A
tearful Khair-un-Nissa had secured a settlement of £10,000 each on five year
old William and three year old Kitty, a substantial sum at the time.
The great Tragedy: James Achilles
Kirkpatrick died young at 41. Khair-un-Nissa was
only 19
James, perhaps already
perhaps fatally ill, died of a fever on October 15 1805 in Calcutta, young,
aged 41 shortly after his kids were shipped off. Khair-un-Nissa was only 19.
Khair-u-Nissa
heard of his death 18 days later. In his will, Kirkpatrick stated: the
excellent and respectable Mother of my two children for whom I feel unbounded love
and affection and esteem.
The
two children were elated under the care of a Mrs Ure and an entourage of
servants. Their baggage included shawls, jewellery and valuables worth £2000
and Captain George Elers, a fellow passenger, bribed the customs officials at
Portsmouth twenty guineas to clear their baggage unopened.
Without
her children and her husband, Khair-un-Nissa turned for protection to
Kirkpatrick’s assistant Henry Russell who replaced him as the Resident in
Hyderabad.
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| William Dalrymples -Author of “White Moghuls” |
After spending a few years with the widow, Russell tired of her
and married a younger half-Portuguese heiress he had met in Madras.
The Sad Ending: Khair-un-Nissa
too died young at 27.
Hyderabad aristocracy
hadn’t approved of Khair-un-Nissa’s suspected liaison and exiled her to the
coastal town of Masulipatam for a while. She died heart broken at the young age
of 27 in 1813.
Further Story of the two children after death of their parents “Khair-un-Nisa & James Achilles
Kirkpatrick”
Kitty was (born
on 9 April 1802) initially named Noor un-Nissa, Sahib Begum (“Little Lady
of High Lineage”) and was raised alongside her brother William (known as
Mir Ghulam Ali, Sahib Allum) in the mansion her father built, living in the
zenana with her mother and maternal grandmother.
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| Kitty Kirpatrick & and her Brother William Kirkpatrick |
In 1805, Kitty and William were sent to live in England at age
three and five years, respectively, with their paternal grandfather, Colonel
James Kirkpatrick.
The two children were baptised as
Christians on 25 March 1805, at St Mary’s Church in London, and were thereafter
known by their new Christian names, William George Kirkpatrick and Katherine
Aurora “Kitty” Kirkpatrick.
James
Achilles
Kirkpatrick died on 15 October 1805, around 8 months after Kitty and William
had left India. In his will, James describes William and Kitty as his
“natural children,” leaving large fortunes to each, and left money to
his nieces and nephews, the children of his brother William Kirkpatrick, to
whom he was deeply indebted.
William Kirkpatrick was elder brother of James Achilles Kirkpatrick
William
Kirkpatrick, who had needed to retire to England mid-career due to increasingly
poor health, had arranged for James Achilles Kirkpatrick to step into his
prestigious position as Resident at Hyderabad.
.jpg) |
| William Kirkpatrick (Elder Brother of James Kirkpatrick |
James
used his fortune to support William Kirkpatrick and his children out of his
love for and gratitude toward his elder brother.
In 1812, William suffered a severe burn
injury resulted in the elimination of one of his arms, and became isolated
thereafter, though he successfully graduated from Oxford University in 1820,
married, and had three daughters before his early death in 1828.
Her
brother’s death, as well as that of her grandfather and other relations, left
Kitty with a substantial inheritance estimated at about £50,000.
Into
maturity Kitty became known for her charm, and in 1822, she met the Scottish
philosopher and historian, Thomas Carlyle, who swiftly became lovesick with
Kirkpatrick.
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| Prtrait of Young “Kitty Kirkpatrick”—1830 In England |
The
romance was encouraged by another of Kitty’s cousins, Julia (who married Edward
Strachey, grandfather of the writer Lytton Strachey).
However,
Carlyle was penniless and not believed by the rest of the family to be a
suitable match for the wealthy and well-connected Kitty.
On
21 November 1829, Kitty married James Winslowe Phillipps (1802-1859), a British
Army officer in the 7th Hussars Regiment, and a member of the Kennaway family,
which also had Indian connections.
It was evidently a happy marriage, Kirkpatrick and Phillipps
went on to have seven children, of whom four survived to adulthood.
Kitty Kirkpatrick died at her home, the Villa
Sorrento, in Torquay, Devon, in 1889.
Khair,
the lovely princess, is still remembered by the Telangana Government. They
named a tourist boat after her!
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| Boat “Khair un Nisa” |
The End
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