White Mughals (47 page)
Authors: William Dalrymple
Aristu Jah and Mir Alam, both of whom competed to be the most cultured of the Hyderabadi
amirs
, were especially keen to be seen promoting and patronising the most talented young Hyderabadi poets to excel in the art of
marsiya
-writing. Each year James and his Residency Assistants would visit the
ashur khanas
of both rivals to hear the works that they had commissioned. As one historian put it, Aristu Jah
amirs
, were especially keen to be seen promoting and patronising the most talented young Hyderabadi poets to excel in the art of
marsiya
-writing. Each year James and his Residency Assistants would visit the
ashur khanas
of both rivals to hear the works that they had commissioned. As one historian put it, Aristu Jah
was very keen on such gatherings, and he organised many, mostly at night. [Such was the reputation of the poets who attended Aristu Jah’s
ashur khanas
that] other reciters and chanters would come secretly and listen to the most popular chants and learn them to perform at their own gatherings, which inevitably led to many quarrels and literary feuds among the town’s poets. Indeed the Nizam and his Minister showed such a passion for these recitations that it became quite the fashion for the nobles to compete in bringing poets and reciters even from as far away as Delhi and Lucknow, and they were all kept busy. One year, Aristu Jah organised 17 such soirées and the Nizam 20. Even more modest
amirs
had two or three such events each.
75
ashur khanas
that] other reciters and chanters would come secretly and listen to the most popular chants and learn them to perform at their own gatherings, which inevitably led to many quarrels and literary feuds among the town’s poets. Indeed the Nizam and his Minister showed such a passion for these recitations that it became quite the fashion for the nobles to compete in bringing poets and reciters even from as far away as Delhi and Lucknow, and they were all kept busy. One year, Aristu Jah organised 17 such soirées and the Nizam 20. Even more modest
amirs
had two or three such events each.
75
The grandest and most magnificent of the
ashur khanas
was, however, that used by Nizam Ali Khan, the ancient Badshahi Ashur Khana, which the Nizam had recently renovated and enlarged after Aurangzeb had used it as a stable for his horses, as a way of deliberately humiliating the conquered Hyderabadi Shi’as. This beautiful Safavid-style mourning hall, which would not have looked out of place in the centre of Isfahan, was filled with some of the most exquisite tilework in India: great intricate swathes of startling parrot-blue, canary-yellow and egret-white, containing delirious swirls of roaring dragons and flame-like clouds.
76
Here, each Muharram, every one of the fourteen brass and silver
alams
(representing the Prophet, his daughter Fatima and the twelve imams, beginning with Ali) was ‘clothed’ by the Nizam’s family in gold brocade on which Koranic verses had been woven. Like Christianity, Shi’a Islam has at its core the story of the scandalously unjust suffering of innocents. Just as relics—especially relics of the True Cross—acted as devotional focuses for the meditations of medieval Christians, so the
alams
acted for Shi’a Muslims.
ashur khanas
was, however, that used by Nizam Ali Khan, the ancient Badshahi Ashur Khana, which the Nizam had recently renovated and enlarged after Aurangzeb had used it as a stable for his horses, as a way of deliberately humiliating the conquered Hyderabadi Shi’as. This beautiful Safavid-style mourning hall, which would not have looked out of place in the centre of Isfahan, was filled with some of the most exquisite tilework in India: great intricate swathes of startling parrot-blue, canary-yellow and egret-white, containing delirious swirls of roaring dragons and flame-like clouds.
76
Here, each Muharram, every one of the fourteen brass and silver
alams
(representing the Prophet, his daughter Fatima and the twelve imams, beginning with Ali) was ‘clothed’ by the Nizam’s family in gold brocade on which Koranic verses had been woven. Like Christianity, Shi’a Islam has at its core the story of the scandalously unjust suffering of innocents. Just as relics—especially relics of the True Cross—acted as devotional focuses for the meditations of medieval Christians, so the
alams
acted for Shi’a Muslims.
The walls of the Badshahi Ashur Khana and its forecourt were lined with arched recesses. The lowermost thousand rows were lit with small earthen lamps on the first night of Muharram, and the rows above each successive evening until, on the evening of the tenth of Muharram, each wall glowed with the light of ten thousand lamps—‘a flaming garden of Ali’, as one poet put it, ‘lit up by ten thousand burning, grieving hearts’. In addition a circular pit was dug in the centre of the forecourt and filled with incense sticks, so that a great fragrant cloud rose from the building as a long procession of black-clad mourners reciting the elegies and holding the alams high circled around the complex.
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For all the sadness of Muharram, and of the events it commemorated, there was nevertheless a carnival element in the festival. There were fireworks every night. Houses were decorated and lit up with oil lamps, as at the Hindu festival of Diwali. As so often in India, and especially in the Deccan, Islam found itself unwittingly absorbed, transformed and assimilated by its overwhelmingly Hindu environment. Indian Muharram processions are unique in that large wooden models of the mausoleum of Hussain at Karbala, called
ta’ziyas,
are borne through the streets by devotees; sometimes in Hyderabad as many as two hundred
ta’ziyas
would be carried in succession. This practice was almost certainly modelled on the Hindu tradition of temple chariots, such as the famous Jagannath
er
car at Puri in Orissa.
78
Even more Hindu was the practice of placing ‘on the
ta’ziyas
small portions of corn, rice, bread, fruit, flowers, cups of water &c’, offerings to Hussain derived from the Hindu custom of leaving flour balls (or
pinda
) for the spirits of the dead.
79
ta’ziyas,
are borne through the streets by devotees; sometimes in Hyderabad as many as two hundred
ta’ziyas
would be carried in succession. This practice was almost certainly modelled on the Hindu tradition of temple chariots, such as the famous Jagannath
er
car at Puri in Orissa.
78
Even more Hindu was the practice of placing ‘on the
ta’ziyas
small portions of corn, rice, bread, fruit, flowers, cups of water &c’, offerings to Hussain derived from the Hindu custom of leaving flour balls (or
pinda
) for the spirits of the dead.
79
Certainly the Hyderabad Muharram celebrations witnessed by Abdul Lateef Shushtari in September 1801 bore hardly any resemblance to the festivities he had grown up with in the solidly Sh’ia environment of Iran. Instead they had been transformed into a sort of syncretic Indo-Islamic saturnalia which had almost as much in common with Hindu river festivals such as the Kumb Mela as it did with the purely Islamic Muharram he knew from home: ‘I have seen with my own eyes how the Muslims in India copy Hindu styles of mourning, fasting and prostrating themselves in the Ashur Khanas,’ wrote a shocked Shushtari in his
Tuhfat al-’Alam.
Tuhfat al-’Alam.
The two groups compete in self-mortification, wounding their chests, and flagellating themselves till the blood flows and they fall unconscious … More bizarrely still, the lower orders disguise themselves, going around in animal skins, some as camels, some as lions and so on, making grotesque gestures and setting up at crossroads and passages a standard [of their quarter], under which they light a great fire: there both men and women and these strange apparitions beat their breasts and dance—but never do they give any food to the hungry nor any drink to the thirsty!
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es
80
es
Ghulam Husain Khan also describes this strange, almost animist tradition of dressing up in animal skins during Muharram, adding that some of the ‘lions’
take sheep by the throat and bite through their jugular veins so that blood spurts out and adds to their image of a fierce blood-covered lion. In the city and Begum Bazaar [immediately behind Khair un-Nissa’s townhouse] … there are not less than 200 of them.
On the [tenth, the] day of the martyrdom, most of them gather under the Purana Pul, the Old Bridge. Some go mad and wear large hats with multicoloured paper streamers, and others put bells around their wastes like
harkarra
messengers. As they wander around the town banging their tambourines, quarrels and fights arise between them which threaten to become serious disturbances if it were not for the policing by the state.
harkarra
messengers. As they wander around the town banging their tambourines, quarrels and fights arise between them which threaten to become serious disturbances if it were not for the policing by the state.
At this time, two Ethiopians, young and well built, gild their bodies with gold leaf, and wearing only a turban, rush out into the streets with 25 other Ethiops and Arabs fully armed. All the other would-be lions become timorous foxes and pull in their codpieces not daring to confront these two. If any dare to they cut off his wooden tail …
In these celebrations both Muslims and Hindus take part together, and on the tenth, the actual day of the martyrdom, all the alam standards and ta’zya models and life size wooden images of
buraq
flying horses
et
go down the Hussaini Alam street to the Musi, accompanied by elephant standards and fanfares and guards of Arabs and Western trained sepoys … Hindus and Muslims go by the thousands, all bare-headed and bare-foot, beating their chests and crying Hussain! Hussain! The Hindus in particular participate with full reverence tying onto the alam standards garlands of flowers with their own hands … From houses rich and poor, as many as can manage stream out of the old Bridge Gate. The mendicants in their two processions under their two rival leaders, the dervishes, the madmen dressed as runners, the lions and so on all go down to the river, chanting praises to Ali, and stay there overnight. The number of people is fifty thousand, not to mention the elephants, some of which carry perfume to spray over the crowd, and horses beyond counting, and all the tents which those who can bring and set up on the bank. There is no more wonderful sight in all Hyderabad!
buraq
flying horses
et
go down the Hussaini Alam street to the Musi, accompanied by elephant standards and fanfares and guards of Arabs and Western trained sepoys … Hindus and Muslims go by the thousands, all bare-headed and bare-foot, beating their chests and crying Hussain! Hussain! The Hindus in particular participate with full reverence tying onto the alam standards garlands of flowers with their own hands … From houses rich and poor, as many as can manage stream out of the old Bridge Gate. The mendicants in their two processions under their two rival leaders, the dervishes, the madmen dressed as runners, the lions and so on all go down to the river, chanting praises to Ali, and stay there overnight. The number of people is fifty thousand, not to mention the elephants, some of which carry perfume to spray over the crowd, and horses beyond counting, and all the tents which those who can bring and set up on the bank. There is no more wonderful sight in all Hyderabad!
The difficulty of maintaining order during this frenzy is a constant theme of Ghulam Husain Khan’s account, and he emphasises how in the past, many died during clashes, especially as rival processions of the fakirs of the different quarters of the city would clash, usually when they converged on the ghats of the Musi, where they would go to wash the
alams
in the river—a direct echo of the ceremony of washing and garlanding the standards of the different orders of sadhus that takes place every twelve years at the Kumb Mela, also with traditionally bloody results: ‘unfortunately,’ he adds, ‘when thousands and thousands of people are scrabbling in the sand on the ghats there are many injured in the shoving and fighting that ensues … ’
alams
in the river—a direct echo of the ceremony of washing and garlanding the standards of the different orders of sadhus that takes place every twelve years at the Kumb Mela, also with traditionally bloody results: ‘unfortunately,’ he adds, ‘when thousands and thousands of people are scrabbling in the sand on the ghats there are many injured in the shoving and fighting that ensues … ’
Keeping some semblance of order over this mystical Saturnalia was also the matter most firmly on James Kirkpatrick’s mind throughout the 1801 Muharram celebrations.
During a particularly bad bout of violence one night between the ecstatic mourners of two rival quarters, the Nizam had called him to the palace and asked if the Subsidiary Force might be brought in to restore order, and James had agreed. The order was sent up to the cantonments, but only a fraction of the required men had turned up. As James wrote to William ten days later, ‘the last Mohurram festival, having occasion for a strong battalion to go into the city at the Nizam’s application, and having consequently desired Col. Vigors [the new commander] to send me the very strongest [battalion available], one of [only] seven hundred and eighty firelocks was with some difficulty produced! And I have heard it said that if the Sub[sidiar]y Force were to be required to move tomorrow, not more than the above number could be reckoned upon.’
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A day later, having made a few more enquiries, James was shocked to have his first suspicions confirmed: a major fraud appeared to be taking place in the cantonments. Writing to William, who was still bedridden in Madras, he reported: ‘The more I reflect on the matter the more I am persuaded that there must be some serious abuses going on in the corps, which cannot too soon be put a stop to … ’
James had suspected that the officers were pocketing most of the allowances the Nizam had given them to provide for their weapons, equipment, tents and carriage. Not only were there not enough guns and artillery, there were hardly any tents.
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Further investigations over the days that followed revealed the situation to be even worse than James had feared: his inquiries showed that, ‘if my information is correct’ there could not have been more than four thousand guns when there should have been, according to the treaty, 7200-in other words ‘little more than half of what [the Nizam] pays for’. This, James realised, put him in an impossible position, as he would
be under the unavoidable necessity of bringing [corruption] to public notice ‘ere long … a great deal of dishonest concealment must be going on, for all the corps are returned as complete or nearly so [in their official accounts]. At this rate what terrible abuses must be going in the Subsidiary Force! And how much are both our own government and this state imposed upon, and what a consequent load of responsibility will fall upon my shoulders if it should ever come out that I know, or even suspected, the serious deception going on, without taking any steps to remedy it?
Col Vigors’ faculties, I am sorry to say, both bodily and mental appear to be rapidly in decline, and he seems to possess in no small degree a defect common more or less to all who have attained to his rank in our service by the usual gradual rise, I mean the defect of winking at abuses, which they are probably conscious of having themselves in similar situations practised. The muster of the troops also must, I fear, be taken in a very slovenly way.
James’s sources, one of whom was almost certainly Fyze’s son, the young Captain William Palmer, who was now attached to the Nizam’s irregular cavalry and so had easy access to the British cantonments while remaining distinct from the regular soldiers, had informed him that the male children of the sepoys were being produced at parade to artificially inflate the numbers in the muster rolls.
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Yet again, James found himself in a hopeless quandary, caught between his conscience and his sense of duty, between the British and Hyderabad, unsure whether to honour his residual loyalties to his old army colleagues and ‘wink’ at their clear corruption, or to honour his commitments to the Nizam under the treaty he had signed. In the end, aware of the unpopularity and odium it would bring down upon him, James eventually wrote to William that, after much hesitation, he was clear where his duty lay, and that he was intent on rooting out the abuses.
What he did not know when he wrote this was that his inquiries had already been noticed in the cantonments; and the suspicions of the senior officers were confirmed when William Kirkpatrick wrote to the commander asking for details of muster rolls and the amount of equipment available, saying that he had received a worrying letter from someone in Hyderabad: ‘They [now] know they are being watched,’ wrote James to William in early October.
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He was also unaware that the senior officers in the force had already acted to defend themselves—by turning the spotlight back on him.
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He was also unaware that the senior officers in the force had already acted to defend themselves—by turning the spotlight back on him.
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