European
Husbands & dessi wives...Some historical facts
We usually
read history of Kings, power players, resistance masters, mythical charterers
yet we often miss many aspects which are equally important. For your
information here we reproduce some information from a book " Mushahidaat e
Farhang" compiled by Mahmood Ahmad Barakati with additional notes by
Mazhar Mahmood Shirani Son of poet & intellectual Akhtar Shirani. It is a
travelogue of M Hassan Londani yet additional notes made the book more
interesting. When you read it , you may be astonished to know how many local
ladies had spend their lives with Europeans, some time by marriage and many
times without marriage. Change of religion and reversal to old religion was
also common which reminds us the life at power corridors. No doubt, Mughals,
Central Asians, Nawabs, Rajas had harams with lady servants and concubines yet
even employees or officers of East India Company too had same category
of ladies. The other interesting study is their kids. Living in harams without
marriage was a fashion at that time and it was reflection of slave society
which was there not only in our lands but also in other parts of the world.
From Maunochhi to Dalrempel , many Europeans pinpointed Mughals, Afghans and
Punjabis who had harams but they did not talk about Europeans who were in same
practices. It created a misconception and even some smart local historians used
their one sided approach in writings. Next time i will share list of European
ladies too who married with local men and sometimes played important role in
power struggle too. In this piece the author narrated many stories regarding
European husbands. I reproduced few examples, one was Mr Water Hard who was
born in 1720 and at early age came to South India. he first joined with Syed
Qasim (Mir Qasim) and then joined Sirajud dullah and finally allied with E.I C.
He got land in Meerut (merth) where he married with daughter of Lutaf ullah
khan and she turned Christian. Water Hard had a militant group (lashkar) with
him and he supported Shah Alam. After his death, his wife took the
command and Shah Alam gave her title of Zebun Nisa. She remained loyal to the
powerless King yet when Britishers were ready to annex Delhi (1803) she
supported general Lake. She left 7 Lak pounds which were distributed, according
to her waseat to missionary institutions. Mr Gokal Chand wrote his biography in
poetic form which is preserved as "Zeb ul Tawarikh". The other
example is Skins, a french who married with a rajput lady. Mrs R D was from
that mixed family who constructed a Church in Delhi. His son James too married
with Muhammadi Begum. Similarly Mr James headily was a son of a European rich
person. He joined Fort William College and then got special services in
different cities. He did marriage with a muslim lady who gave birth to a child
Alexander. Alexander was a captain, hakim & poet. He did his Urdu poetry
with the name AZAD. In an early age of 30, he died yet his brother Thomas
published his work in 1863. Example of Wlliam Fraser is also there
in the book who often visited Nawab Luharo family. According to author he had
some relation with a lady of the family and one day he was short dead. Fraser’s promotion to the post of the British Resident
at Delhi also became the cause of his death. On 22 March 1835 he was shot twice. Shams u din, son of nawab was
hanged to death by the authorities. In the last there is a story of Sir
David Ochterlony, 1st Baronet GCB (12 February 1758 – 15 July 1825) who was a
British general. He was reputed to have thirteen Indian concubines. Every
evening, he used to take all his thirteen wives on a promenade around the walls
of the Red Fort, each on the back of her own elephant.The most prominent among his wives was Bebee Mahruttun
Moobaruck ul Nissa Begume, a former Brahmin dancing girl from Poona who had converted to Islam. Nicknamed"Generallee
Begum", she was Ochterlony's favorite wife and mother of his
youngest children. You may declare her General Rani of that time. As such,
she took clear precedence over the others. It was Ochterlony who defused Gorkha power and enforced
an humiliating agreement on Nepalies (1816) yet Maharaja Ranjeet
Singh of the Punjab acted smartly and timely and saved Punjab China border by
establishing his writ in Hamachal pardesh and Kashmir. Now read the
piece here
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