0:00:04 > 0:00:05FAINT CHANTING
0:00:05 > 0:00:09In the centre of the Indian city of Hyderabad,
0:00:09 > 0:00:11there lies this extraordinary building.
0:00:13 > 0:00:18Within the walls of this perfect villa, I stumbled across a story
0:00:18 > 0:00:20that challenged everything I thought I knew
0:00:20 > 0:00:22about the British in India.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29James Achilles Kirkpatrick, the East India Company representative
0:00:29 > 0:00:33at the court of Hyderabad, had apparently converted to Islam.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35He married a beautiful local noblewoman
0:00:35 > 0:00:38and, apparently, he became a double agent.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44I found that James, once intent on conquering India,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47was instead conquered himself.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50This passionate love affair between a high-ranking
0:00:50 > 0:00:54East India company officer and a Mughal princess
0:00:54 > 0:00:58came during a period of religious and ethnic tolerance
0:00:58 > 0:01:01that has been wiped from the history books.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06Beneath the familiar tale of the British conquest of India,
0:01:06 > 0:01:09I began to uncover a more intriguing and surprising story.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12The Indian conquest of the British imagination.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14My research has revealed
0:01:14 > 0:01:18that many merchants and soldiers who settled here
0:01:18 > 0:01:20fell so in love with their adopted country
0:01:20 > 0:01:24that they shed their Britishness like an unwanted skin.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28Immersing themselves completely in Indian culture,
0:01:28 > 0:01:31becoming White Mughals.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35But this moment of cultural hybridity and renaissance
0:01:35 > 0:01:40was also a time of looting and empire building.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42And for James Kirkpatrick and Khair un-Nissa,
0:01:42 > 0:01:45their love had to prevail in a time of war.
0:01:59 > 0:02:05In May 1841, a party of guests arrived to take tea at Swallowfield,
0:02:05 > 0:02:10a grand English mansion in the Berkshire countryside.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13On entering the front door, one of the women in the party
0:02:13 > 0:02:16saw something that caused her to burst into tears.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21Up on the staircase, instantly recognisable,
0:02:21 > 0:02:22was a George Chinnery portrait
0:02:22 > 0:02:26of two children in oriental dress.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29The woman in tears was Kitty Phillips nee Kirkpatrick.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32And she hadn't seen the picture since she sat for it
0:02:32 > 0:02:3535 years earlier in Madras.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38The picture showed Kitty and her brother
0:02:38 > 0:02:42wearing Hyderabadi court dress.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Her brother gazes confidently out at the viewer,
0:02:45 > 0:02:49but his little sister has an expression of infinite sadness
0:02:49 > 0:02:51and vulnerability.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56Brought up in England an Evangelical Christian,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Kitty until now had been cut off from her Indian past.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03But the portrait brought back half-forgotten memories
0:03:03 > 0:03:08of a previous life when she'd been known not as Kitty Kirkpatrick,
0:03:08 > 0:03:10but as Noor un-Nissa, Sahib Begum,
0:03:10 > 0:03:12the Light Among Women,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15the Lady of High Lineage, a Mughal princess.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28To find out more about Kitty's origins,
0:03:28 > 0:03:33I travelled to the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36In the late 18th century, Hyderabad was a wealthy and dynamic place
0:03:36 > 0:03:39which controlled the world's greatest diamond mines.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42Situated high on the Deccan Plateau,
0:03:42 > 0:03:46it was a key strategic location in the heart of India.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49It was to these streets in 1795 that Kitty's father,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52James Kirkpatrick, arrived as a young man.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55He was already a high-flying officer who had proved
0:03:55 > 0:03:58himself in battle against the Sultanate of Mysore.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06My first stop was the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09where they had recently rediscovered an early portrait of James
0:04:09 > 0:04:12painted in his first few years in the city.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17And here he is. Here's our hero, James Kirkpatrick.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20He would have been about 29, 30.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23A young man for the job.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25And what a good-looking guy he is!
0:04:25 > 0:04:29If you are going to have a romantic lead, this the man, isn't he?
0:04:31 > 0:04:34James' employer, the East India Company, was probably
0:04:34 > 0:04:38the most aggressive and ruthless corporation in world history.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41It was transforming from a mercantile business,
0:04:41 > 0:04:43trading silks and spices,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45into a colonial power in its own right,
0:04:45 > 0:04:47with its own private army.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50James would rise to the role of the Resident,
0:04:50 > 0:04:52the equivalent of ambassador.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55And it was James' job to make sure his rivals, the French,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58didn't win in the battle for influence in Hyderabad.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06In India in the 1790s, you have the British
0:05:06 > 0:05:09and the French with trading interests on the coasts,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12you have the Mughal Empire in the north,
0:05:12 > 0:05:14the long-standing, major power in South Asia,
0:05:14 > 0:05:19and then in the south, you have a bunch of princely states.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21And the British and the French
0:05:21 > 0:05:25are interested in expanding their influence into these regions.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Moving in from the trading posts that they've set up on the coasts
0:05:29 > 0:05:34and duking it out in order to get more and more military control.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40The century-long war for global dominance
0:05:40 > 0:05:42between Britain and France was escalating.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47And several Indian rulers looked to France as a potential liberator
0:05:47 > 0:05:50from the British stranglehold.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53James was almost tailor-made for the job of winning hearts
0:05:53 > 0:05:55and minds in Hyderabad.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59He was born in India, but educated in England.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01And he had a foot in both camps.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04In this picture of him at 16,
0:06:04 > 0:06:07James looks every bit the British officer he was.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09Yet his first language had been Tamil.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13And later, he became fluent in Persian and Hindustani.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18He wrote Urdu poetry, dressed in Indian clothing
0:06:18 > 0:06:21and even grew Indian-style mustachios.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27At this moment of cultural renaissance in India,
0:06:27 > 0:06:29a number of the merchants and officers who settled here
0:06:29 > 0:06:32fell in love with their adopted country.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36They copied Indian habits and embraced local customs.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38They became White Mughals.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45James was by no means the first British man
0:06:45 > 0:06:47to live the life of a White Mughal.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51This fellow, happily smoking his pipe in Lucknow,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54was, in fact, a Yorkshire accountant named John Wombwell.
0:06:56 > 0:06:57While this man, who, in Delhi,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00insisted on being addressed as Nasir-ud-Daula,
0:07:00 > 0:07:02or Defender of the State,
0:07:02 > 0:07:06was known in the Highlands of Scotland as Sir David Ochterlony.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11Sir David is drawing deep on his hubble-bubble.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15Given his glazed look, it's not clear that he's smoking tobacco
0:07:15 > 0:07:18while watching his 13 Indian wives dance.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21His Highland relatives, hanging in the portraits above his head,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24may be wondering what happened to Oor Davie
0:07:24 > 0:07:26after all those years in the Indian sun.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31The Metropolitan Museum in New York
0:07:31 > 0:07:35has recently mounted a major exhibition on the Art of the Deccan,
0:07:35 > 0:07:37the region which centres on Hyderabad.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41The pictorial record shows that Europeans had long been attracted
0:07:41 > 0:07:43to the art and culture of the Deccan.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46The tolerance and openness of this world
0:07:46 > 0:07:49had a great appeal to outsiders.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53So you have, in this textile here,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Armenians, Europeans, Dutch, French,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59some Mughals, some Indian Muslims, all mixing together.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02What was it that attracted foreigners to this place?
0:08:02 > 0:08:04The Deccan was very receptive to foreign influences,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07especially because of its coastlines that welcomed lots of European
0:08:07 > 0:08:10traders and travellers.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12And in the period preceding that exchange,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15you already had the Middle East and Africa
0:08:15 > 0:08:17meeting on Indian soil in this region.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21What's fascinating is you can see a very cosmopolitan Deccan world.
0:08:21 > 0:08:22You can see Europeans.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25You've got a figure with a ruff around his neck.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29Some of the eyes actually look blue to show foreign eyes.
0:08:29 > 0:08:30You've even got a dog, which is...
0:08:30 > 0:08:33- Haram in Islam.- Right. That's true.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37But they're quite often associated with foreigners and Europeans.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41And this one's been given wonderful tiger stripes and a hatched belly.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46In this 17th-century painting of the Dutchman Cornelius van der Bogard,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49we can already see the beginnings of a fusion
0:08:49 > 0:08:52in Indian and European styles.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54The interesting thing is that the costume he wears, although
0:08:54 > 0:08:57European in style, is actually made out of local textiles, as well.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00He's seated leaning against bolsters...
0:09:00 > 0:09:03- Under a canopy. A man with a fly whisk.- Exactly.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06And so, when Kirkpatrick arrives in Hyderabad,
0:09:06 > 0:09:10he's coming on the heels of 100 years of European influence.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14Absolutely. I think that it was a very welcoming world in its own way
0:09:14 > 0:09:18to adventurers, to traders. Many of them settled down for many years.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22So settled, indeed, that by the end of the 18th century,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26one third of British men in India were living with an Indian woman.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34When I researched further at the British Library,
0:09:34 > 0:09:36I found that James Kirkpatrick
0:09:36 > 0:09:39had shared the details of his own life as a White Mughal,
0:09:39 > 0:09:41professional and personal,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44in candid letters to his elder brother William.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47The Kirkpatrick papers had recently been bought
0:09:47 > 0:09:49by the India Office Records.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53And there were nearly 100 files newly catalogued.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56A lot of the more interesting passages were in code.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59Eventually, I found a transcription over one of the passages.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02And it was a simple number/letter correspondence.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06And in James's decoded letters, I found compelling evidence
0:10:06 > 0:10:08of a great scandal in Hyderabad
0:10:08 > 0:10:11which would threaten to overwhelm him.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18The heart of political power in the old city
0:10:18 > 0:10:20was the Chowmahalla Palace.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24If an incomer was to succeed, they needed to win the favour
0:10:24 > 0:10:27of the man who'd been on the throne for 35 years.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Nizam Ali Khan was a Muslim of Mughal descent
0:10:30 > 0:10:33ruling a mainly-Hindu population.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37By brilliant diplomacy, he had established a prosperous state
0:10:37 > 0:10:40at this pivotal position in South-Central India.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43As his letters recorded, James' success with the Nizam
0:10:43 > 0:10:45was the envy of British diplomats
0:10:45 > 0:10:48in other cities, like Calcutta and Madras.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50"The people of Madras, I am told,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53"are at a loss to conceive by what magic I always continue
0:10:53 > 0:10:55"to work my ends at this Durbah.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59"I will inform you in a few words that it consists merely
0:10:59 > 0:11:04"in treating old Nizzy with a great deal of respect and deference.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07"Humouring him in all his innocent whims and wishes."
0:11:07 > 0:11:11Typical of his courtesy was to send to Calcutta for a warm quilt
0:11:11 > 0:11:15when the cold weather set in as, he said, "The old man feels the chill."
0:11:15 > 0:11:20"You have no idea how kindly these marks of attention are taken by him.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23"I may truly say that by such attentions,
0:11:23 > 0:11:25"I have gained his warm heart."
0:11:28 > 0:11:32James' diplomatic talents didn't end with his kindness.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36He genuinely enjoyed life in Hyderabad and admired its culture.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39He was a man who knew how to enjoy himself.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42Fortunately, so did the Nizam.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44To get an idea of the sort of man Nizam Ali Khan was,
0:11:44 > 0:11:48you only have to know he abolished his father's morality police
0:11:48 > 0:11:51and instituted instead a ministry
0:11:51 > 0:11:54called the Office of the Lords of Pleasure.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00The job of this extraordinary ministry
0:12:00 > 0:12:03was to provide lavish court entertainment.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06From music and poetry recitals to dance displays.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11The court dancers were admired as much for their poetic talents
0:12:11 > 0:12:13as their other skills.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15They were privy to all the court gossip
0:12:15 > 0:12:18and were happy to sell this information.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21James skilfully exploited this trade,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24setting up a remarkably-efficient network of spies.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34He made sure he was fully absorbed socially into Hyderabad society,
0:12:34 > 0:12:36mixing freely with the noblemen.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38He hunted with trained cheetahs
0:12:38 > 0:12:43and afterwards, would organise performances by the city dancers.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Chief amongst these was the famous Mah Laqa Bai Chanda,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51a courtesan who was also a celebrated poet.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56She built a library filled with books on the arts and sciences
0:12:56 > 0:12:58and was an advisor at the Nizam's court.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02No wonder one Hyderabadi historian thought her,
0:13:02 > 0:13:03"An extraordinary woman.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06"A unique combination of body and soul."
0:13:08 > 0:13:10In this painting by Venkatchellam
0:13:10 > 0:13:14which shows all the nobility of the Nizam's court out hunting,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17she fills the top right-hand side of the canvas
0:13:17 > 0:13:19sitting in her stately palanquin,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22the only woman in a landscape full of men.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27Under James, the Residency participated in the life
0:13:27 > 0:13:31and festivals of the city in a way it had never done before,
0:13:31 > 0:13:33or would ever do again.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35He gave money to the Sufi shrines,
0:13:35 > 0:13:37he broke the Ramadan fast with the Nizam,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40he came here to Maula Ali during the annual festival
0:13:40 > 0:13:43and every Muharram, he presented himself
0:13:43 > 0:13:46with his head covered at the annual recitations.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49This painting shows him attending a wedding
0:13:49 > 0:13:51during his early days as Resident.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54From a diplomatic point of view, his adoption of local customs
0:13:54 > 0:13:55was clearly advantageous,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58but it seems to have gone far deeper than this.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01A fellow officer described
0:14:01 > 0:14:04how he wore a Mussulman's dress on all occasions.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07He smoked a hookah, grew Indian-style mustachios
0:14:07 > 0:14:09and even painted his fingers with henna.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11He also wrote Persian poetry
0:14:11 > 0:14:16and commissioned masterpieces from the city's miniature painters.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32To learn more about the art James so loved,
0:14:32 > 0:14:34I'm going to visit Jagdish Mittal at his home,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37where, over 70 years, he has assembled
0:14:37 > 0:14:42the world's greatest collection of Deccani miniature paintings.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45These are gorgeously-coloured, jewel-like images
0:14:45 > 0:14:48designed to be passed from one person to another.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51And this fabric is also Deccani.
0:14:51 > 0:14:52This is called ikat.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57And is this how the Deccanese sultans would have stored their...?
0:15:00 > 0:15:03So, they were never shown in frames, or on walls...?
0:15:04 > 0:15:08- We're doing it in the authentic manner?- Yes.- Very good. Ah!
0:15:17 > 0:15:21Ah! And he was a great friend of Kirkpatrick himself, wasn't he?
0:15:21 > 0:15:22That's right. Yes.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Kirkpatrick really loved this atmosphere here in Hyderabad.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47Over and over again, James' letters to his brother are suffused
0:15:47 > 0:15:51by his intoxication with India.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56He was now a powerful young diplomat on the rise in a country he adored.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00Every day, the bustle and noise and the heady mix of Mughal
0:16:00 > 0:16:02and South Indian culture thrilled him.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06And he was even entranced by the local cooking.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08- So Hyderabad biryani. - Hyderabad biryani.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Whoa-ho! Look at this!
0:16:12 > 0:16:13So this is biryani.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18This is Hyderabad's most famous dish. Hyderabadi biryani.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20And even 200 years ago, in my research, I found that
0:16:20 > 0:16:24French mercenaries were taking service in Hyderabad
0:16:24 > 0:16:26just so that they could eat this dish.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29They described it as the most magnificent dish in India.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32They had rice, fowls, lamb
0:16:32 > 0:16:35butter and loads of spicery.
0:16:35 > 0:16:37And you can smell the cinnamon, the cumin just wafting up.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40Sad you can't have the smell on the telly, I'm afraid,
0:16:40 > 0:16:42but trust me, it's unbelievably good.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44Can I have some?
0:16:45 > 0:16:50James was known throughout the city for his love of Hyderabadi cuisine.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53The Nizam often sent him a dish of aubergines
0:16:53 > 0:16:54cooked in the palace kitchens
0:16:54 > 0:16:57that he knew was a personal favourite.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59For James, the key to living in India
0:16:59 > 0:17:01was not to try and impose European ways of living,
0:17:01 > 0:17:05of dress, of attitudes, but to adopt those of India.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07And in terms of food, this was certainly much more delicious.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16James' increasing absorption into Mughal society
0:17:16 > 0:17:18meant he avoided the sort of mistake
0:17:18 > 0:17:21made by other, more clumsy British diplomats.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23He was somebody the Nizam felt he could trust.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26And he was a frequent and welcome visitor
0:17:26 > 0:17:28here at the Chowmahalla Palace.
0:17:28 > 0:17:29But despite winning the respect
0:17:29 > 0:17:32and even the affection of Nizam and his ministers,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35he was still as far as ever from his main goal,
0:17:35 > 0:17:37the ousting of the French.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44Newly arrived at the East India Company Headquarters in Calcutta
0:17:44 > 0:17:48was the ambitious new Governor General, Richard Wellesley.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52Unlike James, he had little respect for Indian culture or people.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54He wanted to use the East India Company
0:17:54 > 0:17:59and its massive private army to add India to the British Empire.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03Richard Wellesley is part of a family of very talented
0:18:03 > 0:18:07and ambitious aristocratic officers.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12His mission is to eliminate French threats within the subcontinent
0:18:12 > 0:18:15and to assert the primacy of the East India Company
0:18:15 > 0:18:18as the leading territorial power.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23But the French were led by a charismatic general, Michel Raymond.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26By lending mercenary troops for his local wars,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30Raymond had cultivated the Nizam of Hyderabad.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33It was now vital for James' career that he satisfy
0:18:33 > 0:18:36the new East India Company demands,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39voiced by Governor General Wellesley.
0:18:39 > 0:18:44The French must be dealt with by James, no matter what the cost.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47He opened secret treaty negotiations with the Nizam
0:18:47 > 0:18:51that the British would support him unambiguously in any future conflict
0:18:51 > 0:18:54if only he would disband his French mercenary army.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57But then something else happened.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06Near the old French garrison lies the tomb of General Raymond.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Nobody knows who was really responsible,
0:19:09 > 0:19:12but with negotiations ongoing,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Raymond was found dead in his bed one morning,
0:19:15 > 0:19:20with all the evidence pointing to the use of a slow-acting poison.
0:19:20 > 0:19:21For many years thereafter, the Nizam,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24on the anniversary of Raymond's death,
0:19:24 > 0:19:28used to send a box of cheroots and a bottle of beer to the tomb,
0:19:28 > 0:19:30in memory of his old ally.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34But with their charismatic leader gone
0:19:34 > 0:19:37and discipline slipping in the French garrison,
0:19:37 > 0:19:41James Kirkpatrick was quick to take advantage of the situation.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Finally, on 1st September 1798,
0:19:45 > 0:19:49the Nizam signed the treaty negotiated by James.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51The French garrison was to be disbanded
0:19:51 > 0:19:55and four battalions of British troops stationed in Hyderabad.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03The Nizam took himself away to the fortress of Golconda,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06leaving the rival Europeans to sort it out.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08But he invited the British in
0:20:08 > 0:20:10without inviting the French to leave.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20The citadel here was Nizam Ali Khan's refuge of last resort
0:20:20 > 0:20:23and in times of political crisis, such as now,
0:20:23 > 0:20:27he retreated here and locked the gates behind him.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35On the morning of October 22 1798,
0:20:35 > 0:20:38the French garrison, on the banks of the River Musi,
0:20:38 > 0:20:41awoke to find themselves surrounded.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46James watched anxiously from the Residency
0:20:46 > 0:20:48on the other side of the river.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51Within a few hours, the largest French force in India,
0:20:51 > 0:20:54nearly 16,000 men, lay down their arms
0:20:54 > 0:20:57and surrendered without a single shot being fired.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59James watched the whole thing through a spyglass
0:20:59 > 0:21:01from the roof of the Residency behind us
0:21:01 > 0:21:03and wrote to his brother, William,
0:21:03 > 0:21:05that it was the finest sight he had ever seen.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11James' Hyderabad Treaty with Nizam was a triumph,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14and his political career was guaranteed.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Governor General Wellesley was delighted.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21But of unquestionably greater importance,
0:21:21 > 0:21:23for the course of James' life,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27were the victory celebrations that took place afterwards.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32It was here that that he first met Khair un-Nissa.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39This noble princess came from one of the leading Hyderabadi families.
0:21:39 > 0:21:40She was of Persian origin,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44and a Sayyida, directly descended from the Prophet himself.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47Only one portrait of her survives
0:21:47 > 0:21:50and in her expression you can see, beneath the innocence,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53a strength that might be interpreted as defiance
0:21:53 > 0:21:55in a less serene face.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01With only the painting and James' letters to go on,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04I tried to look deeper.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06I knew that she was already engaged to someone else
0:22:06 > 0:22:10and any relationship with James could only cause a major scandal,
0:22:10 > 0:22:14with the men of her family certain to disapprove.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17So why did she do it, I wondered?
0:22:17 > 0:22:19Why did she take such a colossal risk?
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Were there any surviving manuscripts which gave her point of view
0:22:22 > 0:22:24or that of her own family?
0:22:26 > 0:22:29After months of research in Hyderabad,
0:22:29 > 0:22:31I was wandering through the metal workers' bazaar,
0:22:31 > 0:22:33looking for presents to my family,
0:22:33 > 0:22:36when I had an extraordinary stroke of luck.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43I had got chatting to the owner of this bookshop.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46When I told him what I was working on,
0:22:46 > 0:22:48he said he had something to show me.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Previously undiscovered first person testimony from 200 years ago
0:22:55 > 0:22:57is hard to find
0:22:57 > 0:23:00yet here, from a pile of manuscripts, he produced
0:23:00 > 0:23:03an old Persian book
0:23:03 > 0:23:06which turned out to be the 600 page autobiography of a cousin
0:23:06 > 0:23:10of Khair un-Nissa and it included his thoughts on the affair.
0:23:12 > 0:23:13And when was this written?
0:23:13 > 0:23:16- It was probably before 160 years, sir.- Ho, ho.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22What's interesting is he doesn't blame Kirkpatrick for the scandal,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24which engulfs his own life, he blames the women.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27He says that Kirkpatrick is a man of honour, a fine poet.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29He's built a beautiful garden.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31The person he blames is Khair un-Nissa's mother,
0:23:31 > 0:23:34Sharaf un-Nissa, and he said that she has been infected by what
0:23:34 > 0:23:37he calls the immorality of Hindu India.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40Falling in love in the 18th century for a young Muslim woman
0:23:40 > 0:23:42would have been risky.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44She is 15.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47She probably lives her whole life clustered in the harem.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50I can imagine that she found him very appealing.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53He was tall, he was good looking, he was wealthy.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56If you want to break an engagement in the 18th century,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59and you're a Muslim woman from a respectable family,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02you can't just say I'm not in the mood to get married.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04You have to have another option lined up
0:24:04 > 0:24:07and so I think this is maybe the way out of that.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12In a culture where honour killings were routine,
0:24:12 > 0:24:16she was literally taking her life into hands.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20As an historian, you can spend as long as you like in libraries
0:24:20 > 0:24:23accessing endless documents, but you're rarely much wiser
0:24:23 > 0:24:26about people's motives and, in this story,
0:24:26 > 0:24:30the big mystery is why in a strict Muslim Persian Shia family,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33Khair un-Nissa's mother encouraged her to start
0:24:33 > 0:24:34a relationship with Kirkpatrick.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39I think that's the big 64,000 question, isn't it?
0:24:39 > 0:24:41I mean, look, there's two ways to run it.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45One is she thought there was some political advantage to be gained
0:24:45 > 0:24:48and that the person that Khair un-Nissa was already
0:24:48 > 0:24:53engaged to wasn't maybe politically worth it any more.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57Another way to run it is that she wanted to see her daughter
0:24:57 > 0:25:01have a better relationship than the circumstances she was in.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04- She had been married off young and widowed.- Yeah.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08And widowed young, right, and so this may have been her way
0:25:08 > 0:25:11of seeing her daughter out of that system.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17If Sharaf un-Nissa thought she was saving her daughter
0:25:17 > 0:25:22from an unhappy marriage, she may have been encouraged by examples
0:25:22 > 0:25:26of successful marriages between British officials and Indian women.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29As I sifted through the records, searching for examples,
0:25:29 > 0:25:34I came across references to someone sharing my own surname.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38It soon became clear that not only did I have an ancestor
0:25:38 > 0:25:39who lived in India,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43but that he himself had married an Indian woman from Hyderabad.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48Lieutenant Colonel James Dalrymple,
0:25:48 > 0:25:50who, according to this inscription,
0:25:50 > 0:25:52commanded the Honourable East India Company's forces
0:25:52 > 0:25:54serving with His Highness The Nizam.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56This guy, Dalrymple,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59turns out to be a very similar figure to Kirkpatrick.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02He was also married to a local noblewoman, a Shia called
0:26:02 > 0:26:06Mooti Begum, the daughter of the Nawab of Masulipatam
0:26:06 > 0:26:07from the coast
0:26:07 > 0:26:10and a cousin of Mumtaz, who's buried in the Taj Mahal.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15It was obviously a very affectionate marriage.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18Dalrymple left instructions that the inscription on his tomb
0:26:18 > 0:26:22be repeated in Persian so his wife could read it.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26But this strain of Anglo-Indian blood had been entirely
0:26:26 > 0:26:29wiped from my family records in the years following his death
0:26:29 > 0:26:31and I had no idea about it.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37But now Dalrymple comes into this very story.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41He was ordered to confront a man whose captive he had once been.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51He was the French-backed enemy of both the Nizam and the British.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53And true to the Hyderabad treaty,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Colonel Dalrymple led an Anglo-Indian force to war.
0:26:58 > 0:26:59But crucially, with him
0:26:59 > 0:27:03went the male members of Khair un-Nissa's family.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07He sent off a massive force to attack Tipu in his island fortress
0:27:07 > 0:27:10at Srirangapatna and with that force went Baqar Ali Khan,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13the Nizam's paymaster, and Khair un-Nissa's grandfather.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17This left the coast clear at home for Khair's mother,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20Sharaf un-Nissa to completely rewrite plans
0:27:20 > 0:27:22for her daughter's future.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26One evening, Sharaf and Khair un-Nissa
0:27:26 > 0:27:30paid a visit to the women's quarters of the British Residency,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34ostensibly to call on family friends.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38Their real purpose was quite clear, especially to Kirkpatrick himself.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42In a letter to his brother, he described the meeting.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48"That I did safely pass the fiery ordeal of a long nocturnal
0:27:48 > 0:27:52"interview with the charming subject of the present letter."
0:27:52 > 0:27:55He reassured William that he had not succumbed,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58and that he had been careful to honour his position.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01"I managed to abstain from the tempting feast
0:28:01 > 0:28:04"I was manifestly invited to."
0:28:06 > 0:28:09But eventually he says, after two weeks of this...
0:28:09 > 0:28:12"I must have been something more or less than a man
0:28:12 > 0:28:14"to have held out any longer."
0:28:14 > 0:28:17So basically he's saying it's her fault - what could a boy do?
0:28:17 > 0:28:20And he ends the letter saying, back off.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23"I must therefore entreat you, dear Will,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26"to spare me if possible the pain of any further discussion of this."
0:28:26 > 0:28:30And of course in that matter, his wishes were not granted.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32But William's opinion was the least of his worries.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44One very interested party who had remained in Hyderabad
0:28:44 > 0:28:47was the Prime Minister, an astute and brilliant politician
0:28:47 > 0:28:50called Aristu Jah.
0:28:50 > 0:28:55He saw James' secret affair as the perfect opportunity for blackmail.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57Perhaps Aristu Jah could even turn James to act,
0:28:57 > 0:29:02not just in the British interest, but that of Aristu Jah himself.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Soon after the victorious army had returned to Hyderabad,
0:29:09 > 0:29:14two local newsletters were published making shocking accusations.
0:29:14 > 0:29:17They claimed that James Kirkpatrick had forced Khair un-Nissa
0:29:17 > 0:29:19to sleep with him.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25In a brilliant strategy, the Machiavellian Aristu Jah
0:29:25 > 0:29:28had actually leaked the gossip in order to catch out James.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33When Lord Wellesley heard the allegations,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36he asked the Prime Minister to investigate.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38James was summoned to an interview,
0:29:38 > 0:29:42his job and future in India now in the hands of Aristu Jah,
0:29:42 > 0:29:46the very man who had planted the rumours in the first place.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51If he chose to help the Minister persuade Wellesley to sign various
0:29:51 > 0:29:56treaties helpful to Hyderabad, then he could keep Khair un-Nissa.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00If he chose to resist then, sadly, the minister would have no option
0:30:00 > 0:30:02but to confirm all the charges
0:30:02 > 0:30:05and he would lose both Khair and his job.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10There was, in fact, no real choice.
0:30:10 > 0:30:12It was checkmate.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15According to a Hyderabadi chronicler writing at the time,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18James promised Aristu Jah to...
0:30:18 > 0:30:21"Strive for the best interests of your government
0:30:21 > 0:30:24"and obey all your orders as long I am Resident."
0:30:24 > 0:30:27In other words, to become a Hyderabadi double agent.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35With these assurances, Aristu Jah now confirmed
0:30:35 > 0:30:38James' innocence in the affair to Wellesley.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40He had James in his pocket.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43Yet James was sure that the two countries interests were the same
0:30:43 > 0:30:47and that by building an alliance between the British
0:30:47 > 0:30:48and the Mughals of Hyderabad,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51he was serving Khair un-Nissa's interests too.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57James had survived but he hadn't been entirely honest with
0:30:57 > 0:30:58Lord Wellesley.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01He'd omitted to tell him the crucial fact that
0:31:01 > 0:31:04he was in fact sleeping with Khair un-Nissa.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07Following further family complaints in Hyderabad,
0:31:07 > 0:31:08he was advised to stop seeing her,
0:31:08 > 0:31:12and by the summer it looked as if the whole thing had blown over.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15But the situation was actually about to get a great deal more
0:31:15 > 0:31:18complicated, for Khair was pregnant with James' child.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22James was now in serious trouble.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24He had promised to end the affair,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28and it was now obvious that he had not kept his word.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31Moreover, under Islamic law,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34as a Christian he was not permitted to marry Khair un-Nissa, but
0:31:34 > 0:31:39her grandfather felt she had been dishonoured and sought an abortion.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47Then James showed how far he would go to
0:31:47 > 0:31:49prove his love for this woman.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53He decided to convert to Islam.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03Khair un-Nissa's family withdrew their objections and in a secret
0:32:03 > 0:32:06ceremony in January 1801,
0:32:06 > 0:32:11Khair un-Nissa and James were married.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18When two months later, Khair gave birth to a son,
0:32:18 > 0:32:22James wrote on a tiny scrap of paper which still survives...
0:32:22 > 0:32:28"On Wednesday the 4th March, at about four o clock in the morning,
0:32:28 > 0:32:32"a son was born to me in the city of Hyderabad.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35"His mother, from a dream she had,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38"wishes him to be named Mir Ghulam Ali, to which I mean to add
0:32:38 > 0:32:43"that of Sahib Allum, which means, little Lord of the World."
0:32:48 > 0:32:52But Governor General Wellesley's intolerant attitudes meant
0:32:52 > 0:32:56that prospects were increasingly grim for the kind of enlightened
0:32:56 > 0:32:59White Mughal that James represented.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01He was now married with a young child,
0:33:01 > 0:33:03but to his masters in Calcutta,
0:33:03 > 0:33:08he still claimed he had cut off all relations with Khair un-Nissa.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10James even had to keep his brother in ignorance,
0:33:10 > 0:33:12as William had recently been employed
0:33:12 > 0:33:13as Wellesley's personal secretary.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18But James' reticence to reveal his mixed race marriage
0:33:18 > 0:33:23was a reflection of the new racism of the Wellesley regime.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27James wrote privately of Wellesley,
0:33:27 > 0:33:29"Oceans of blood and treasure
0:33:29 > 0:33:33"have been wasted in his pretended plan of general pacification
0:33:33 > 0:33:37"which was a mere pretence for the general subjugation of India."
0:33:39 > 0:33:42In this period, I think everyone is getting anxious about racial mixing,
0:33:42 > 0:33:44not just the British,
0:33:44 > 0:33:47but certainly Indians are getting more anxious about this as well.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51There's a real drop off of certainly respectable or elite women
0:33:51 > 0:33:53entering into these relationships.
0:33:54 > 0:34:00Any inter-racial relationship was frowned upon by James' superiors.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03So Khair un-Nissa and their son remained in the family home
0:34:03 > 0:34:08in the Old City, as he felt unable to move them into the Residency.
0:34:08 > 0:34:13But he was not the only victim of Wellesley's new racist agenda.
0:34:16 > 0:34:17I love this picture.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20This is, I think, one of the most charming images of a family group
0:34:20 > 0:34:23to survive from the entire Indo-British encounter.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27It shows General William Palmer, the Resident in Poona,
0:34:27 > 0:34:31and his Mughal wife Faiz Baksh, she was Khair un-Nissa's best friend.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34And just as the two women form a bond, so do the two men,
0:34:34 > 0:34:36and they share in their correspondence
0:34:36 > 0:34:41their misgivings about Wellesley's nakedly hostile attitude to Indians.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44Palmer was a relic of a more tolerant age.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47When he and Faiz were married 15 years earlier,
0:34:47 > 0:34:51such an inter-racial liaison would have been unremarkable,
0:34:51 > 0:34:53but now things were different.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56About the same time as Khair becomes pregnant,
0:34:56 > 0:35:00Wellesley sacks Palmer because he's got a Mughal wife
0:35:00 > 0:35:02and because he has a sympathy with Indian culture.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11But despite his troubles,
0:35:11 > 0:35:16James was still committed to make all he could of life in Hyderabad.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20His legacy is this remarkable building, the Residency.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25And it says much of the value that the Nizam put on his new
0:35:25 > 0:35:28British alliance that he funded its construction,
0:35:28 > 0:35:30to James' own conception.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33It's a women's college now, and somewhat faded.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35But judging from his letters,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39it was an achievement of which he was hugely proud.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43It remains one of the very greatest buildings in India.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47It used to be thought that it was designed
0:35:47 > 0:35:50by the Hyderabad military architect, Samuel Russell,
0:35:50 > 0:35:52but it's very clear from Kirkpatrick's letters
0:35:52 > 0:35:55that he knocked it together himself in his spare time
0:35:55 > 0:35:59with the assistance, he says, of Maestri architects from Madras.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02Now, Maestri architects are basically master builders,
0:36:02 > 0:36:07they're Indians, so this perfect, British-looking Palladian mansion,
0:36:07 > 0:36:10sitting here in the middle of Hyderabad is, in fact,
0:36:10 > 0:36:12like everything else in Kirkpatrick's life,
0:36:12 > 0:36:14an Anglo-Indian collaboration.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19Despite the fate of his friend, William Palmer,
0:36:19 > 0:36:24James could not tolerate living apart from Khair un-Nissa.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26He had genuinely become a family man.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30He finally decided to bring her to live in the Residency
0:36:30 > 0:36:33in the summer of 1801.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37The reason he later gave for taking this politically risky decision
0:36:37 > 0:36:42was that he did, "Hearken to the voice of nature, pleading
0:36:42 > 0:36:48"eloquently in the engaging form of a helpless and innocent infant."
0:36:48 > 0:36:50He missed his little boy.
0:36:52 > 0:36:57James built them a Mughal-style zenana, or women's quarters,
0:36:57 > 0:36:59in the Residency grounds.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02Known as the Rang Mahal, or palace of colours,
0:37:02 > 0:37:05it was later described as a very elegant
0:37:05 > 0:37:09and highly finished specimen of Hindustani architecture.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14I love this painting depicting the women arrayed
0:37:14 > 0:37:17around the fountain of a Deccani pleasure garden
0:37:17 > 0:37:19on a hot afternoon.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23I imagine that James's zenana would have been set in a garden
0:37:23 > 0:37:25very much like this, with a veranda whose walls
0:37:25 > 0:37:28and ceilings were gilded with great taste.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32Indeed, it was painted by the Nizam's court artist,
0:37:32 > 0:37:35Venkatchallam, who was a good friend of Kirkpatrick's.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38The detail is a delight, especially the three women dancing
0:37:38 > 0:37:42and the others gossiping while the musician plays her sitar.
0:37:43 > 0:37:48Sadly today only the entrance gateway to Khair's zenana survives.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51She may have been a secret from the government in Calcutta,
0:37:51 > 0:37:54but this zenana was a measure of his commitment to his young wife.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57Well, I'm just astonished by this building,
0:37:57 > 0:38:02I've been here before but seeing it again, this amazing harem
0:38:02 > 0:38:05built by a British diplomat for his Indian wife.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08And these solid walls around me here are living proof of this
0:38:08 > 0:38:10world of the White Mughals.
0:38:10 > 0:38:15It was destroyed in the 19th century by a Victorian Resident
0:38:15 > 0:38:18who described it as 'smacking of native immorality'.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21But even at the time, it didn't make Kirkpatrick any friends.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24He was saying very firmly that he was allying himself culturally
0:38:24 > 0:38:27with the people of Hyderabad,
0:38:27 > 0:38:28and with his Muslim wife,
0:38:28 > 0:38:31and the British officers in the army cantonment to the north
0:38:31 > 0:38:34regarded this as tantamount to treason.
0:38:36 > 0:38:38Already unpopular for his Mughal lifestyle,
0:38:38 > 0:38:42James now uncovered systematic embezzlement
0:38:42 > 0:38:46among the British military, and relations between the Residency
0:38:46 > 0:38:49and the garrison deteriorated further.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55James very honourably exposed the corruption
0:38:55 > 0:38:59and was immediately grassed to Calcutta by the embezzlers.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02His marriage to Khair was exposed.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05When Lord Wellesley discovered that he had been lied to for two years
0:39:05 > 0:39:09he was, not surprisingly, hopping mad.
0:39:10 > 0:39:12900 miles away in Calcutta,
0:39:12 > 0:39:16Governor General Wellesley fumed that James behaviour was,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20"An outrage upon the general principles of normality,"
0:39:20 > 0:39:25and that he had, "Debauched the granddaughter of Baqar Ali."
0:39:25 > 0:39:28He launched an immediate inquiry.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32In what must be one of the most sexually explicit manuscripts
0:39:32 > 0:39:36to survive from the East India Company, witnesses to the affair
0:39:36 > 0:39:39are asked incredibly detailed and intimate questions
0:39:39 > 0:39:42about what passed between Khair and James.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45And to read it is a slightly uneasy sensation you get
0:39:45 > 0:39:49like opening Kirkpatrick's bedroom windows and peering in.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54All the most intimate details are recorded -
0:39:54 > 0:39:57when and where sex took place, the pregnancy,
0:39:57 > 0:40:01James' last-minute intervention to prevent an abortion.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06There's also Kirkpatrick's incredibly romantic declaration
0:40:06 > 0:40:09that whatever the results of this investigation,
0:40:09 > 0:40:13he was determined not to desert this woman or her offspring.
0:40:13 > 0:40:18These are moments when the whole remoteness of history evaporates,
0:40:18 > 0:40:22these are immediately recognisable and human and familiar situations.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28The inquiry concluded that James had been lying
0:40:28 > 0:40:31to his superiors for over two years.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33He faced an almost certain dismissal
0:40:33 > 0:40:36and would have been forced leave Hyderabad in disgrace.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43In the end, it was his brother William who took the rap.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47He had been ill for some time and had now decided to resign.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50He told Wellesley that James had shared all the relevant information,
0:40:50 > 0:40:53but that it was he who had failed to pass it on.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56In other words it was William's fault, not James'.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58This did the trick.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00Wellesley acquitted James and announced that he had resolved
0:41:00 > 0:41:04to continue him in the station he has filled with so much credit.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07In this portrait painted shortly afterwards,
0:41:07 > 0:41:11James' thinning, grey hair and tired expression
0:41:11 > 0:41:14betray the stress he had been living under for so long.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19Henceforth, he takes refuge in domesticity,
0:41:19 > 0:41:21in his beloved wife, in his little son,
0:41:21 > 0:41:25and now a daughter, born in the middle of this latest trouble.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29Noor un-Nissa, Sahib Begum, the Lady of Light,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32the little lady of high lineage.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38James loved his children,
0:41:38 > 0:41:43and you can see evidence of this throughout the Residency's grounds.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45At the back of the women's quarters where Khair un-Nissa
0:41:45 > 0:41:48and the children lived, there is another intriguing survival
0:41:48 > 0:41:52from this period, though in an even worse condition than the Residency.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59When I was working on the Kirkpatrick papers in London,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02in the British Library, I found a letter from James
0:42:02 > 0:42:07asking for dolls to be sent out to India in court dress,
0:42:07 > 0:42:10perhaps to show his children what Europeans dressed like,
0:42:10 > 0:42:13they'd never seen it. So that's what I think we have here.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16We have a gorgeous 18th-century doll's house
0:42:16 > 0:42:19built by Kirkpatrick for his beloved children.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23James' designs can still be seen today.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26He laid out the sort of informal parkland that was
0:42:26 > 0:42:28fashionable in the England of his youth.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31He had a paddock well stocked with deer
0:42:31 > 0:42:35of nearly a mile in circumference and, to keep them company,
0:42:35 > 0:42:39he ordered from Bombay some elk and a herd of Abyssinian sheep.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Creating a Capability Brown-style parkland in the middle of India
0:42:45 > 0:42:47was not without its problems.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Kirkpatrick's lawns soon withered in the Deccani heat
0:42:50 > 0:42:51and he was forced to write to Bombay for,
0:42:51 > 0:42:56"An English fire engine, or two, in order to water my pleasure grounds."
0:42:57 > 0:43:00James was now comfortably established.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03His diplomatic skills had brought peace to his station and a
0:43:03 > 0:43:08grateful Nizam had set him up in a building that befitted this success.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11This picture shows a state visit by the Nizam's court
0:43:11 > 0:43:13to the completed building.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16The somewhat busty sphinxes were later torn down
0:43:16 > 0:43:21by prudish successors and replaced with a pair of suitably dull lions.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24But James' political legacy was more secure.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28The treaties he had negotiated ensured Hyderabad never suffered
0:43:28 > 0:43:31a military confrontation with the British
0:43:31 > 0:43:35and it remained a sovereign state for the next 150 years.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42There follows five years of real domestic bliss.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45The children were brought up as Hyderabadi Muslims -
0:43:45 > 0:43:49they spoke Persian, they went to all the Shia ceremonies
0:43:49 > 0:43:52in the Old City, they ate Indian food, they wore Indian clothes.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55They did not mix with the other children in the Residency,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58but they did mix with aristocratic families from the Old City,
0:43:58 > 0:44:02and it's as if there is a little island of the Old City of Hyderabad
0:44:02 > 0:44:06erected here in the Rang Mahal in the middle of the British Residency.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10James continued to have grave misgivings about the way
0:44:10 > 0:44:14Wellesley was running things from Calcutta but he only voiced
0:44:14 > 0:44:18these privately in his letters to his friend, General Palmer.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23Things, however, were about to change to his advantage.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31Ever since he arrived in India, Governor General Wellesley had
0:44:31 > 0:44:36seemed unable to accept that he was employed by a mercantile enterprise.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40Instead, his aggressive policy of expansion had turned
0:44:40 > 0:44:44the company into empire builders - at vast expense.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49What Lord Wellesley in his arrogance had forgotten
0:44:49 > 0:44:53was that the East India Company was, ultimately, a business.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57His extensive wars across India and his extravagant building projects,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00such as the massive Governor General's House behind me,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03had left them £30 million in debt.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05The directors had had enough.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08Using the excuse that he had turned his office into a despotism,
0:45:08 > 0:45:10they had him sacked.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15The new Governor General was Lord Cornwallis,
0:45:15 > 0:45:18a man after James' own heart.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22Kirkpatrick had endured five years of hostile investigations
0:45:22 > 0:45:25into his public attitudes and his private life.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27Now he hoped it would be different.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30He'd been out of touch with Lord Wellesley and his incredibly
0:45:30 > 0:45:33aggressive imperial ideas, but Lord Cornwallis announced
0:45:33 > 0:45:37that he wanted justice, moderation, and, above all, he wanted peace.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43James was profoundly pleased by this new appointment,
0:45:43 > 0:45:46but his pleasure was tinged with personal sadness.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50In Hyderabad, the Light of the World, little Sahib Allum,
0:45:50 > 0:45:53was now four years old.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56Khair un-Nissa had always known that her children would be sent away
0:45:56 > 0:45:59to be educated in England,
0:45:59 > 0:46:04but it was an idea to which she was instinctively and bitterly opposed.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09James and Khair un-Nissa meant to travel with the children
0:46:09 > 0:46:12as far as the port of Madras.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14But James was struck down with a fever,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18and Khair remained behind in Hyderabad to nurse him.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23On the 9th September 1805, little Sahib Allum
0:46:23 > 0:46:26and Sahib Begum set off to Madras.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30James and Khair would never see their children again.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35In Madras, the children were to have their portrait painted
0:46:35 > 0:46:39by the Anglo-Irish artist, George Chinnery.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41While Chinnery was at work on this picture,
0:46:41 > 0:46:45a letter arrived from the new Governor General in Calcutta.
0:46:45 > 0:46:47Lord Cornwallis wanted Kirkpatrick to go and brief him
0:46:47 > 0:46:49on the diplomatic situation.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52But at this crucial juncture, Kirkpatrick's big moment,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56he's lying upstairs with severe rheumatism and terrible hepatitis.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58He hasn't left his bedroom for a month.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01But he knows he has to go, so he hauls on his uniform,
0:47:01 > 0:47:04he gets onto his horse and he heads off down the coast road to Madras
0:47:04 > 0:47:07through pouring monsoon rain.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13He had hoped to see his children off in Madras,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16but they sailed the day before he arrived.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20His fever was now worse and he was sufficiently worried
0:47:20 > 0:47:23to write a will, dividing his now considerable fortune
0:47:23 > 0:47:28between his children and beloved wife Khair un-Nissa.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31He then boarded a ship for Calcutta.
0:47:32 > 0:47:38James sailed up the Hooghly River on the evening of October 7th 1805.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42At the quayside, he was taken off the ship on a stretcher
0:47:42 > 0:47:44and carried to the house of his niece.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47He was now critically ill.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49He slipped in and out of a coma.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53A week later, he died.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55He was only 41.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00The same evening he was buried here, in Park Street cemetery.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04Just before he passed away, he heard the news that Lord Cornwallis,
0:48:04 > 0:48:09on whom all his hopes of a new era in India were pinned, had died too.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12The journey that killed him had been in vain.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18Death was everywhere in Calcutta.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21Two monsoons was the average lifespan of a European,
0:48:21 > 0:48:24but for a man who had risked everything for love,
0:48:24 > 0:48:28Kirkpatrick's end was especially lonely and tragic.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31He died far from everyone who cared for him, his children,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34his brother, his friends, his beloved wife, Khair un-Nissa.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37None of them even knew he was dead as his coffin was
0:48:37 > 0:48:40lowered into the wet Bengali earth.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43There was a cold military salute in place of tears.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54But what of Khair un-Nissa?
0:48:54 > 0:48:57What happened to her after her husband,
0:48:57 > 0:49:00the love of her short life, had died?
0:49:00 > 0:49:03James's death meant that, in all likelihood,
0:49:03 > 0:49:07she would never see her son and daughter again.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17I have been researching this for four years,
0:49:17 > 0:49:20scouring libraries and archives for an answer to this question,
0:49:20 > 0:49:22but it seemed as if there was no-one who thought it sufficiently
0:49:22 > 0:49:24important to record her fate.
0:49:24 > 0:49:29She had been edited out of the official documents,
0:49:29 > 0:49:32but following a lead to James' executor, Henry Russell,
0:49:32 > 0:49:35the vain, cocky assistant at the Residency,
0:49:35 > 0:49:37I found a single letter
0:49:37 > 0:49:41that revealed the final chapter of the story.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43In the autumn of 1806, Khair un-Nissa,
0:49:43 > 0:49:45who had previously never left Hyderabad
0:49:45 > 0:49:49took an extraordinary decision for a Muslim woman and travelled
0:49:49 > 0:49:52to the other end of India to grieve at her husband's graveside.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05Calcutta was at the peak of its golden age,
0:50:05 > 0:50:09but it was a very different place to Hyderabad.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11In the punishing humidity of the monsoon,
0:50:11 > 0:50:16Khair found a city governed by the British from white stucco palaces
0:50:16 > 0:50:18lining the streets and the river banks.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23Bewildered in this alien environment, she consoled herself
0:50:23 > 0:50:27with the painting of her two children that she had carried
0:50:27 > 0:50:28all the way from Madras.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31Initially, Khair un-Nissa is in deep mourning.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34She spends her days near her husband's grave
0:50:34 > 0:50:38but after a year or so she returns to life and, at the centre of that
0:50:38 > 0:50:43new life, is her husband's ambitious former assistant, Henry Russell.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Russell was in Calcutta to settle the business of James' will
0:50:51 > 0:50:54and was probably the only other person in the city
0:50:54 > 0:50:56that Khair un-Nissa knew.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00His correspondence become filled with references to Khair
0:51:00 > 0:51:04and they are clearly spending a great deal of time together.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07This young, vulnerable woman, who had suffered
0:51:07 > 0:51:12such a series of tragic misfortunes, is drawn in by Russell's attentions.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15She had this picture made in Russell's house,
0:51:15 > 0:51:18it did not do justice to her beauty, Russell felt.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22Soon afterwards they become lovers,
0:51:22 > 0:51:25but Khair had made a dreadful mistake.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28Henry Russell's a very different man from James Kirkpatrick.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31He's definitely a social climber in a way that James Kirkpatrick
0:51:31 > 0:51:35is not and my guess is that Henry Russell saw her
0:51:35 > 0:51:38as a vehicle towards some kind of social mobility,
0:51:38 > 0:51:39which worked for him.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44Eventually, they set off on the long journey back to Hyderabad.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48But news reached them en route that after taking up with another
0:51:48 > 0:51:52British suitor, Khair was not welcome in her home city.
0:51:54 > 0:51:59With nowhere to go, she found a house in a mosquito-ridden backwater
0:51:59 > 0:52:02called Masulipatnam and there she waited for Russell to join her,
0:52:02 > 0:52:04but Russell had other plans.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08Shortly afterwards, he married an Anglo-Portuguese heiress, and,
0:52:08 > 0:52:10too ashamed to tell Khair face-to-face,
0:52:10 > 0:52:11he sent his brother instead.
0:52:11 > 0:52:16Like Madame Butterfly, Khair wasted away.
0:52:16 > 0:52:21By 1808, Khair un-Nissa was permitted to return to Hyderabad.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25Henry Russell had now become the Resident himself
0:52:25 > 0:52:29and was living in her old home, but the pair did not meet.
0:52:29 > 0:52:34Then five years later, he received a brief note from his former lover.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37It simply said, she was dying.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41For once, Russell rose to the occasion.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45He allowed her back to the zenana where she had once been happy.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50There was no obvious reason for her condition he said,
0:52:50 > 0:52:52she'd just turned her face to the wall.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55She died on the bed where she'd once given birth to her daughter,
0:52:55 > 0:52:56the little lady of high lineage.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59She was aged only 27 years old.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07Her mother, Sharaf un-Nissa, was at her bedside to the end.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11Russell wrote, "You cannot imagine anything
0:53:11 > 0:53:14"so distressing as the grief of the old lady.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17"She was quite wrapped up in her daughter and seems to
0:53:17 > 0:53:21"feel that the only object she lived for was taken from her."
0:53:23 > 0:53:26Khair un-Nissa, most excellent of women,
0:53:26 > 0:53:28had the saddest of lives.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31In a society where women have few choices,
0:53:31 > 0:53:35she had risked everything to be with the man she loved.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39This fiery, passionate woman died of a broken heart.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48A quarter of a century later,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51on the staircase of Henry Russell's Swallowfield House,
0:53:51 > 0:53:57Kitty Kirkpatrick, the girl in the painting, dried her tears.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01All this time, she believed herself forgotten by her Indian family.
0:54:01 > 0:54:06But this encounter with the painting was to set her on a new trail.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10The name of Henry Russell meant nothing to Kitty.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13Since arriving in England, when she was three,
0:54:13 > 0:54:16she had been forbidden all contact with her Indian family.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18Russell was not there at the time,
0:54:18 > 0:54:22but he later claimed to have been given the portrait by Khair
0:54:22 > 0:54:25and promised to leave it to Kitty in his will.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28The picture was just one part of the loot
0:54:28 > 0:54:30with which he returned from India.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34He had amassed a fortune far in excess of his salary
0:54:34 > 0:54:36and resigned from his post
0:54:36 > 0:54:39just as he was about to get sacked for corruption.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43Kitty smelt a rat and began to investigate Russell.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45In the course of her research,
0:54:45 > 0:54:50she discovered that her grandmother, Sharaf un-Nissa, was still alive.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55The moving letters she then wrote to Sharaf are still in the possession
0:54:55 > 0:55:00of David Vaughn, Kitty Kirkpatrick's great-great-great-grandson.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04So this is Kitty writing to her grandmother...
0:55:04 > 0:55:08"How dreadful it is to think that
0:55:08 > 0:55:12"so many, many years have passed when it would have done my heart
0:55:12 > 0:55:15"such good to think that you loved me.
0:55:15 > 0:55:19"I often think of you and remember you and my dear mother too.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22"I often dream that I am with you in India
0:55:22 > 0:55:25"and that I see you both in the room that we used to sit in.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28"I can well recollect her cries when we left her
0:55:28 > 0:55:34"and I can now see the place in which she sat when we parted,
0:55:34 > 0:55:37"and her tearing her long hair.
0:55:38 > 0:55:43"What worlds would I give to possess one lock of that beautiful
0:55:43 > 0:55:45"and much-loved hair."
0:55:45 > 0:55:48And she ends the letter with this wonderful ending.
0:55:48 > 0:55:50"Will this reach you
0:55:50 > 0:55:52"and will you care for the letter of your grandchild?
0:55:52 > 0:55:56"My own heart tells me that you will.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00"May God bless you, my own dear Grandmother.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02"Your affectionate daughter."
0:56:02 > 0:56:06How wonderful. It's a tremendous ending, isn't it?
0:56:06 > 0:56:08So this is mother and daughter,
0:56:08 > 0:56:13Kitty and the gorgeous, gorgeous image of Khair un-Nissa.
0:56:13 > 0:56:15Kitty had the same eyes and the same eyebrows
0:56:15 > 0:56:17and the same centre parting.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19A Muslim woman in a zenana
0:56:19 > 0:56:23and an evangelical Christian in Torquay are such different worlds
0:56:23 > 0:56:25and yet they're almost the same person physically.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33Kitty now lived with her family
0:56:33 > 0:56:36in the Victorian seaside resort of Torquay.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39Her brother had died several years earlier.
0:56:39 > 0:56:43Now she was renowned for her beauty and even inspired a novel,
0:56:43 > 0:56:46Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50He had done nothing to disguise his inspiration.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53Both the real Kitty and Carlyle's fictional Blumine
0:56:53 > 0:56:56share the same middle name, Aurora.
0:57:02 > 0:57:04Several months after Kitty wrote,
0:57:04 > 0:57:08her grandmother's reply arrived at her home above the town.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12It had been written in Persian and dictated to a scribe.
0:57:12 > 0:57:17It was sprinkled with gold dust and delivered in a velvet bag.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20All these years, her grandmother had kept a lock of her mother's hair
0:57:20 > 0:57:24and now she sent it with her letter.
0:57:24 > 0:57:27But despite the two women exchanging letters for several years,
0:57:27 > 0:57:29their planned reunion never took place
0:57:29 > 0:57:32and Sharaf un-Nissa died without ever seeing Kitty again.
0:57:32 > 0:57:34Their worlds were not moving closer together,
0:57:34 > 0:57:37they were in fact moving further apart.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45James Kirkpatrick and the other White Mughals attempted to bridge
0:57:45 > 0:57:49these two worlds and, to some extent, they succeeded in doing so.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55But embarrassed Victorians erased this period of fusion and hybridity
0:57:55 > 0:57:58from the history books and, even today,
0:57:58 > 0:58:01we still have rhetoric about clashing civilisations.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07As the story of James and Khair shows,
0:58:07 > 0:58:11East and West are not irreconcilable and never have been.
0:58:11 > 0:58:16Only bigotry, racism, prejudice and fear drive them apart,
0:58:16 > 0:58:20but they have met and mingled in the past and they will do so again.