Controversy surrounding interracial marriages and sexual relationships

Durba Ghosh is a history professor. She attended WesleyanUniversity, University of Wisconsin and received her Ph.D at BerkeleyUniversity. Ghosh’s focus of study is on South Asian history during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries specifically in British colonialism and imperialism along with feminist theory. Gosh is fluent in these languages Urdu, Hindi and Bengali.

William Dalrymple is a Scottish author of several travel-logs and bestselling popular histories. Notably, he has relied on British reports, letter, and wills, or on translations of Indian works. In 2003, he published “White Mughals”. His article, “Assimilation and Transculturation” was written in defense of that book after criticism from Pankaj Mishra who accuses Dalrymple of writing over simplified “feel-good history”.

Before the 18th century India there were very few European women in India and as a result the English men who worked for the East India Company had relationships with local Hindu and Muslim women. These relationships and the children they produced were a great concern for the EIC & the British government. Children were often sent to England to be raised and educated and may have had little contact with their Indian families. These "Eurasian" children were banned by the East India Company from working for their company around 1786. In the beginning of the 19th century British society in India began to separate itself farther from India society making such relationships taboo.

In 1798, due to external conflict with the Marathas and pressure by neighboring British controlled territory and internal British subsidiary forces the region of Hyderabad became a British protectorate. While maintaining “independence in internal affairs”, Hyderabad would consistently support British forces in both the wars against the Marathas. The British posted a subsidiary force to Hyderabad and a colonial “resident”, who functioned as the British liaison or envoy there. This is the position that James Kirkpatrick held.

Questions:

  1. What are the main points in the stories of Harriet Birch, Mary Carey and Sophia Yeandle? What is Ghosh’s argument?
  1. What are the power dynamics portrayed in these cases- how much power does the government have in the Harriet Birch case? Who is promoting or discouraging the relationship between Kirkpatrick
  1. How does Dalrymple portray the “white mughals”?- What sort of man is Kirkpatrick? What is Dalyrmple’s argument about his (Kirtpatrick’s) motives and decisions?
  1. What objections are raised to interaction relationships- are they racial, religious, age related, political?
  1. Dalrymple uses the “Bengal Wills” as evidence of the frequent relationships between European men and their bibis. What are some of the possible strengths and/or weaknesses of this type of source material? Which perspectives are being represented and which perspectives are missing?

Vocabulary:

Ashur khana—place where floats and ceremonial objects for the Shia festival of Muharram are stored

Begum—respectful address for the wife of a nobleman

Bibi—Hindustani words for “wife,” slightly less respectful than Begum

Ghagra Cholis—Indian dress for women from the northwest, consists of a long skirt and fitted blouse

Masnavi (spelled on pg. 446 of Dalrymple)—long poem in Urdu or Persian

Mofussil—rural areas of a province (has a disparaging connotation)

Munshis—Indian agents who helped with legal work, copying, translating, etc.

Musnud—means both the official seat of an important person (such as a throne), and also the office itself

Omrahs --noblemen

Bibliography

“Asian Studies MHC,” Faculty Profile: Durba Ghosh,

Sharma, Karuna. “Sex and the Family in Colonial India: The Making of Empire”. 12/2007. 5/1/08)

“Biography”. William Dalrymple..

Mishra, Pankaj. “Feel-Good History”. Common Knowledge - Volume 12, Issue 1, Winter 2006, pp. 93-95 als/common_knowledge/v012/12.1mishra.html

Mishra, Pankaj. “More Trouble than It Is Worth”. Common Knowledge - Volume 11, Issue 3, Fall 2005, pp. 432-444. n.edujournals/common_knowledge/v011/11.3mishra.html

Hyderabad: Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 4May2008