White Mughals (40 page)

Early the following morning, 28 December, Bâqar Ali Khan did indeed visit the British camp, but not to turn fakir. Instead he sought out Colonel Bowser, who was thought likely to succeed Dalrymple as the commander of the Subsidiary Force, and urgently begged him for his help and protection against both Kirkpatrick and the Minister. Bowser was at breakfast when the Khan entered, and as he did not speak either Persian or Hindustani, and realised the importance of the matter, he agreed with Bâqar Ali that it would be best to go and find the force’s fluent-Persian-speaking doctor. Dr Kennedy was at home, and once the three were gathered behind closed doors, Bâqar Ali explained the ‘delicate’ matter he had come to discuss with them. He described how

With this formal public complaint of Bâqar Ali’s, the dice were thrown. From this point, the affair clearly had to be properly investigated, and what had been up to this point a very private matter suddenly became very public indeed.

That evening Bowser sent a note to James, telling him about the very serious charges Bâqar Ali had made against him. He suggested that all the parties in the dispute should meet face to face at the Residency two days later on the morning of the thirtieth so that they could attempt to find out the truth of the accusations and to settle the matter in as civilised a manner as possible.

James agreed to the meeting, and in the meantime, the following morning, the twenty-ninth, sent Munshi Aziz Ullah straight over to Aristu Jah’s
deorhi
to tell him what had happened, and to show him Bowser’s note. He particularly wanted Aziz Ullah to find out whether it was true that the Minister’s daughter-in-law, Farzand Begum, had been sending threatening messages to Bâqar’s womenfolk as the old man had claimed.

By chance, Munshi Aziz Ullah arrived just five minutes after Mir Abdul Lateef Shushtari had turned up to petition the Minister on behalf of his exiled cousin, Mir Alam. The two men were friends—Shushtari talks warmly of Aziz Ullah in his memoirs, saying what an excellent Urdu poet and sympathetic companion the
munshi
was
⁵⁶
—and a full account of what transpired survives from Shushtari’s pen:

Aristu Jah then gave the paper detailing Bâqar’s charges to Shushtari to read, muttering that Bâqar Ali Khan deserved to have his nose cut off for spreading such damaging and obviously untrue libels. As Shushtari read it, Aristu Jah sent to his harem summoning his daughter-in-law, Farzand Begum and the two
aseels
whom Bâqar said had threatened Sharaf un-Nissa. One by one they were brought and questioned in front of Shushtari and the
munshi.
According to the former, ‘they severally declared, with a hundred oaths, that they were entirely ignorant of the circumstance, and that it was a calumny on them’.
⁵⁸

This only deepened the confusion—had they or had they not threatened Sharaf un-Nissa?—but James took it as a vindication of his innocence. He knew he had threatened no one, and he believed that Bâqar Ali was not as ignorant as he made out of his wife and daughter’s concerted attempts to draw Khair un-Nissa and himself together. He therefore assumed that Bâqar Ali was up to something, and suspected that it might not be unconnected to Mir Alam’s exile and the manoeuvres of the Shushtari clan to get their kinsman returned to power.

For Mir Alam was now encamped just thirty miles to the north of Hyderabad and was making one last desperate attempt to be returned to favour before he set off into exile and obscurity in Berar. He even wrote to James attempting to make up, saying that ‘the silly reports relating to the family of Aukul Oo Dowlah [Bâqar Ali Khan] are now entirely effaced from my mind by the discovery of their falsity … Friends cannot harbour malice against one another any more than a drop of rain can remain on the surface of the water.’
⁵⁹
Mir Alam also sent to the Nizam claiming that he was suffering from extreme ill health and begging the Nizam to take pity on him; though Abdul Lateef Shushtari ‘had the candour to acknowledge [privately to James] that it is more a pretext than anything else, observing that a man cannot well be at death’s door who like M.A. travels with a seraglio of
fifty five
concubines with one or other of whom he is said to have daily or nightly connection’.
⁶⁰
Though this made James warm to Abdul Lateef, whom he had begun to like and even trust, it made him all the more suspicious of the motives of Bâqar Ali.

So when, on the following morning, 30 December 1800, Colonel Bowser, Dr Kennedy and Bowser’s Persian interpreter Captain Orr rode into the Residency gardens as agreed, they found James angry, suspicious and in no mood for compromise. The soldiers had gone over Bâqar Ali’s claims as they cantered the seven miles from the cantonments, and had come to the conclusion that ‘some gross mistake or deception existed between the parties’; but James was convinced that there was more to Bâqar’s absurd story than met the eye. He told Bowser that he believed

Shortly afterwards, Bâqar Ali Khan arrived at the Residency gardens. He had barely dismounted and been ushered into the Residency before James had angrily confronted him, asking ‘how he came to involve his name in such a business, and demanded that he should produce proofs of what he had alleged. To this the Khan replied by asserting, that the [threatening] messages he complained of had indeed been sent from the Minister’s family, and added “If you were not the cause of them, how could they have been sent?” ’
⁶²
Munshi Aziz Ullah was then called for, who relayed verbatim what had transpired at Aristu Jah’s the day before, and how Farzand Begum and her
aseels
had all denied sending any threats or messages to the Khan’s house. This only added to the confusion. As Bowser later wrote in his report of the meeting:

They were still arguing the point when there was a knock, and ‘a Person presented himself at the door. Upon seeing him the Resident said, that a message from the Begum [Sharaf un-Nissa] must have been brought. He went out immediately, and on his return observed that he had just received a message of a complexion very different from the Khan’s story.’

At this the three British soldiers agreed that there could be only one solution to the mystery: they would have to send someone to Sharaf un-Nissa’s
zenana
to question her and find out her version of events. The question was who? Bâqar Ali suggested Mrs Ure, the doctor’s amply proportioned wife, ‘who, from speaking the Hindostany language, might be able to satisfy herself of what the females had to say’; but this proposal was vetoed by Lieutenant Colonel Bowser, who said the matter was too delicate to involve a European woman. Sending all three of the soldiers with Bâqar Ali was then suggested, but vetoed on the grounds that it would make too public a spectacle, and also that, as James pointed out, ‘by the Khan being present also, the women might be overawed from declaring themselves, or even find themselves under the necessity of saying whatever he might wish them. The Khan objected to Captain Orr or Dr. Kennedy going to his
zenana
unless he himself was with them: and Dr. Kennedy objected to going alone unless the Khan gave his assent to the enquiry being made in this way, which he would not do.’

At this point of impasse, it occurred to them all to question the messenger who had just delivered the message from Sharaf un-Nissa; but he had just left, so a boy was sent to fetch him back. While they waited they went through to eat at the Residency dining hall, where, according to Bowser, ‘The necessity of ascertaining the points in question became every moment more evident. It was accordingly proposed that Dr. Kennedy as a medical man & less liable to excite observation, should visit Sheriffe ul Nissa Begum [alone], and enquire about the [threatening] message and the [story of the fakir’s]
cuffuny.
’

This seemed an especially suitable solution, as apart from anything else Dr Kennedy had been to Sharaf un-Nissa’s mansion before: a year earlier Khair un-Nissa had been struck down with what appeared to be smallpox, and her horrified mother had prevailed on Bâqar Ali to consult an English physician. Kennedy had paid a visit to the family
deorhi,
after which Khair un-Nissa made a full recovery.
⁶⁴
Bâqar Ali finally agreed to send Dr Kennedy to his women, and a note was duly dispatched to Aristu Jah requesting permission for the doctor to enter the city. While they were waiting,