Jun 18, 2006 03:57 PM
2077 Views
(Updated Jun 18, 2006 05:10 PM)
The title I gave this review is a reaction to the way this book was marketed. Potential readers were led to believe that it was a 'love story'...and little else. We were also made to think that the protagonists of this book were the two lovers...Khair-un-Nisa and James KirkPatrick. Now if you pick up the book with these two assumptions in mind, and hoping for a riveting romance, you are in for disappointment.
I, for my part, was not disappointed because I was 'forewarned' by someone who'd read 50 pages and had dismissed the book as nothing but a mundane work of history, where the supposed protagonists don't even make an entrance till 1/3rd of it is over.
The book is partly a love story between two people from entirely different backgrounds, both influential in their own circles, but mostly an account of specific interactions between the rulers and the ruled in India during the British Raj.
This book has made me want to revisit the city I live in (it’s mostly set in and around Hyderabad). Most sites and landmarks we take for granted (Irani Gulli, Mount Moula Ali, Kothi Women’s College, Secunderbad etc.) have a surprisingly colorful past, which this book amply highlights.
The writer has both made history and written history. He made history by making his book one of the most readable history books of all time (in my experience with historical books). White Mughals is one of the most compellingly readable books I’ve ever come across (forgive the cliché) and I recommend it to both serious history buffs and casual readers.
Kudos to William Dalrymple for his painstaking effort in collecting reliable data across two continents to weave a compact tapestry of interesting and multi faceted characters in a tale set in 18th century India.
