Farzana: The Tumultous Life and Times of Begum Sumru

by Julia Keay

Language: English
Pages: 356 (24 Color Illustrations)











About the Book

 

Farzana: The Tempestuous Life and Times if Begum Sumru tells the rags-to-riches story of one of the most colourful characters in Indian history. In a life that panned the chaotic years between the collapse of the Mughal Empire and the advent of the British Empire, this child of the streets beguiled her way to the command of a private army, becoming confidante of the emperor, and ruler of the most progressive principality in northern India. Her troops often held the balance of power. Her hospitality was the talk of the age. And, converting to Christianity, her piety found her corresponding with the Pope and building a church that may still be the largest basilica in the country.

 

The secret of Farzana's success lay in her infinite ability to reinvent herself ever reluctant to bestow her favours, the diminutive nautch girl proved an inspirational military commander, a ruthless adversary and then the wiliest of courtiers. Acknowledging her beauty, loyalty and bravery, Emperor Shah Alam II bestowed on her the titles Zeb-un-Nissa, jewel among Women', then Farzand-i-Aziz, 'Most Beloved Daughter', and finally Umdat-al-Arakin, 'Pillar of the State'.

 

In this scrupulously researched account, julia Keay restores to an easily over-romanticized life all the peril and complexities of a treacherous age. With larger-than- life paramours like the 'Alsatian butcher' Walter Reinhardt and the 'Tipperary Rajah' George Thomas, Farzana mixed history-making with adventure. Authoritative and compelling, this long-awaited biography does the same.

 

About the Author

 

Julia Keay was the author of several acclaimed biographies including The Spy

Genres: Biography

370 pages, Hardcover

First published November 25, 2013

Reviews

[Sajith Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The British emerged as the foremost territorial power in India in the latter half of the eighteenth century. This was facilitated by the disintegration and fractionalization of the Mughal Empire. Provinces like Bengal and Awadh came into prominence which accepted Mughal sovereignty only in name. The British also decimated French colonial ambitions in the Deccan peninsula around this time. At this point, the French bowed out of the race and settled contentedly with whatever little possessions they enjoyed. A lot of Frenchmen and other Europeans had fought in the French army in India when they battled against the British. The French fiasco dashed their career prospects but they were not willing to go back home emptyhanded. Many drifted to interior kingdoms and took up employment with Indian princes and the Mughals who were also eager to take them on to train their forces in European drill and discipline. These jobs were lucrative and these foreigners were not averse to mix with local people. Many of them married Indian women and even practised polygamy. Living in the style of local aristocrats, these mercenary troops was a passing phase of India’s march to modernity. We see a fusion of civilizations in this era. The Muslim empire had fallen and the British one not yet reached ascendancy. The ancient spirit of India to absorb everyone and everything once again shone through. May be this was how the Sakas got interwoven in Indian society around the beginning of the Common Era. This book is the story of a Muslim nautch-girl who came into the possession of a European military commander. She steadfastly stood by him and his troops to gain leadership of the brigade and administration of his estates after his death. Her exploits around Delhi in giving protection to the weak Mughal emperor Shah Alam II is recorded in history. As the British tightened their hold on Delhi, she transferred her allegiance to them and was allowed to keep her estates till her death. She is known by her Mughal title Farzand-i-Azizi (beloved daughter of the state), shortened to Farzana. This story is refreshingly told by Julia Keay, wife of the famous historian John Keay, and herself the author of many historical books. The text of this book was completed just before her death in 2011.

Our heroine was the daughter of an Arab father and a Kashmiri dancing girl. The father died when she was only six and the mother and child were thrown out of the establishment by the senior wife. Being a courtesan once, her mother returned to that profession and settled in Delhi. But a young daughter is jetsam for a mother trying to swim for her life in the turbulence of Delhi. Under the doleful eye of the Mughal ruler, a thriving trade on child virgins was being conducted. Mothers did deeds on the virginity of their daughters, sometimes three or four years before they reached puberty. When the time came, they delivered their children to the purchaser to fulfil the terms of the deal (p.18). It was the time when the Jats of Bharatpur made an incursion on Delhi under their leader Jawahar Singh and the little dancing girl caught the eye of Walter Balthazar Reinhardt, a European mercenary described as a morose, ill-conditioned ruffian. It’s not known how exactly Farzana came into his possession, but slowly she became his consort. Because of his unusual mood, he was often called General Sombre which was Indianized to Sumru and so our lady came to be called Begum Sumru. A mercenary was always ready to change sides and cheated on their masters without batting an eyelid. When a reinforced Delhi attacked the Jats back, Reinhardt defected to the Mughal side and became a servant of the emperor Shah Alam II. He entrusted the jagir of Sardhana on him. Farzana had meanwhile charmed the emperor himself with her demeanour and became indispensable to her troops by riding and fighting with them. As a result, when her master died, Shah Alam conferred the jagir on her and allowed her to remain as the leader of the military brigade. In 1781, after Reinhardt’s demise, she converted to Christianity and assumed the name of Joanna at the age of thirty.

The role of European mercenary soldiers in Indian history is not generally discussed and remains unknown to most people. Their interactions with native sepoys were much more cordial than in the English East India Company’s army. In the armed forces of native principalities, a Christian contingent of European descent was always available. The nawabs and rajas realized the superiority of European tactics and discipline in firing drill in the unsettled political conditions of north India. Keay provides a very good overview of the state of various armies. Fifty odd warring factions had regular units and mercenaries who possessed a professional dedication to fight for whoever would pay them with a further recompense in victory – a euphemism for loot. But they were notoriously unreliable for changing sides in the thick of battle or retreating to save their skin. Poor state of transportation technology was what tied these vagrants to India. However, with the rise of smoother and faster sailings, better domestic sanitation, the strictures of evangelical missionaries and a heightened sense of moral purpose and racial superiority, prevented liaison with native women in the nineteenth century. When white memsahibs took over the residences, native bibis were banished.

Though the Mughals had ruled roughshod over India for close to two centuries, their end was very pathetic and evoking sympathy. Keay gives a detailed but gruesome account of the conquest of Delhi by Ghulam Qadir in 1788 and the blinding of the emperor. Qadir was a Rohilla Afghan and of course, the Mughals were Chaghtai Turkish. The Afghan-Turkish rivalry was itself centuries old. Babur writes in his journal about how he made Afghan nobles who surrendered after a battle to approach him on all fours with grass held in their mouths as if to signify they are his humble cows. It was another Afghan – Sher Shah Suri – who had defeated Humayun to bring about a brief interlude of Afghan supremacy. With Ahmed Shah Abdali’s raid in 1761, Afghans again claimed prominence, but the Mughals managed to side-line them soon. Ghulam Qadir was determined to humiliate Shah Alam II. At a time when the Marathas – who protected the emperor – were away, Qadir occupied the Red Fort and took Shah Alam prisoner. He used to sit down by the emperor’s side on the throne, pass his arm familiarly round his neck and blow tobacco smoke into his sovereign’s face (p.169). Qadir asked the venerable old man to hand over the hidden treasure. Either there were none or Shah Alam didn’t want to part with them, so he refused. Qadir thoroughly searched the palace and the zenana and took away personal treasures and family jewels. Ladies of the harem were dishonoured and degraded by the brutal Rohillas. Asking to disclose the hidden wealth, Qadir flogged the emperor. When this failed to elicit any information, Shah Alam’s daughters were brought out of their private apartments and made to dance naked in front of their father for the entertainment of the leering Afghans. Eternally disgraced, many women threw themselves over the ramparts and drowned in the Yamuna river. After his daughters, it was the turn of his sons. They were brought from prison and made to dance to the merriment of the Afghans. When they protested that dancing was for women, noses of some were cut off. Still finding no treasure, Shah Alam was again brought to the palace and made to kneel before Qadir. He drove two red-hot needles into the unfortunate emperor’s eyes. Writhing in agony, the old man was then taken away. By the evening, he was brought back and Qadir had arranged a court painter to depict the scene which was to follow. The Afghan then knelt on the lying Mughal emperor’s chest and with his dagger scooped out one of his seared eyeballs. He then handed the dagger over to one of his lieutenants to repeat the procedure on the other eye. The light of the Timurid royal house went out that day in India forever. The dynasty groped their way in the darkness for seven more decades to their eventual doom at the hands of the British.

Farzana’s service to the Mughal emperor reached its peak after his blinding at which time she was not present in the capital. Her brigade did faithful service to the emperor till he died. She also assumed responsibility of Reinhardt’s jagir after his death. However, her martial and administrative talents withered after some time and she entered into many amorous liaisons with European officers in her brigade. She also swayed with the wind and served the Marathas and the British who established their ascendancy over the Mughals. She married a stubborn officer in her army who was resented by others. They rose in rebellion against both of them. It was by pure luck that she could escape with her life. As years went by, she faded into irrelevance, but kept her estates till she lived. Her adopted son dissipated the inherited wealth and died penniless in London.

The book is adorned with an excellent foreword by William Dalrymple both because of his physical presence in Delhi and also due to his own interest in eighteenth century India. His book ‘The Anarchy’ (reviewed earlier in this blog) also covers the period in question. There is an afterword by the author’s husband John Keay as she died in 2011, immediately after the first draft of the book was completed. Just like Dalrymple does in his works, Julia Keay also keeps the native powers at arm’s length with a touch of contempt and disdain. The desperate efforts of the Marathas, Jats, Sikhs and Rajputs to assert their power in their own homeland is portrayed as aggression and transgression on rightful authority. Even though with a disapproving heart, she grudgingly accepts their military might and de facto supremacy on the land. The book displays a remarkably masterful use of language full of aphorisms that condense the character of the protagonists aptly in a few words. Delightful word play is also seen in many places. Eventually, the author has done her duty in full to present a historical personality in rich colours and sharp focus. To readers who find travel close to their heart, I would suggest to take a day’s trip to Sardhana when they are in Delhi to visit the church which is still intact and the palaces built by Farzana around 230 years ago.

The book is highly recommended.

[Subodh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Mughals were the last powerful dynasty to rule India. From the 1520s to the first decade of the eighteenth century they were arguably the richest and the most powerful ruling house in the world. Signs of trouble had started even during the life of the last of the great Mughal - Aurangzeb; and the fabric unravelled dramatically fast with his death in 1707. Central authority more or less disappeared, regional satraps became kings in their own right, petty conflicts became commonplace as different forces, including the French and the British, vied for a share of the pie. This climate was conducive to the growth of adventurers. Anybody who could put together a band of soldiers and find some way of equipping and paying them could look forward to profitable employment with one or the other regional potentate, set up a small principality of one's own or just go robbing and looting. Most of them did all three at one or the other time in their careers.

One such adventurer was Walter Reinhardt with the moniker of le Sombre - changed to Sumru by the Indians. He was on the run from the British, as he was responsible for the cold-blooded massacre of many British in Patna. He hired himself out to many Indian rulers - including the nominal Mughal Emperor whose writ didn't go much beyond the walls of his palace. His own career was mercifully short, but it launched the career of his Indian 'bibi' Farzana or Begum Sumru: one of the most remarkable and colorful women in India's history.

Rising from an obscure background - she was probably sold into child prostitution by her mother - she got into a succession of liaisons with different men and rose rapidly in power and influence. She became close to the 'Emperor' who treated her as a daughter, and helped him out of a few tight corners. 'Farzana' was a title bestowed on her by the Emperor. She outlasted Sumru by a few decades and proved to be an able leader of men. She took care of her soldiers - paying them well and in time, providing a measure of support to those who suffered. This was an exception to the prevailing trend in those times when the soldiers had to extort their pay from their leaders. She also proved to be an enlightened administrator of the small principality of Sardhana conferred on her by the Emperor and it flourished under her leadership. She lived to a ripe old age and became the center of the prevailing social circle. Accounts by contemporary British and French men and women paint her in a positive light.

While providing interesting information on Farzana, the book also gives a vivid picture of the times - the disorder, the decadence and lawlessness. There were oases amid this desert. Sardhana was one. Indore, ruled by another lady - a pious one - Ahilyabai was another. We also learn a lot about George Thomas, Farzana's companion, lover, rival and rescuer; and a personality colorful enough to have a book on himself. There are accounts of jockeying for power between the English and the Marathas and local warlords like the satanic Ghulam Qadir, while the poor Emperor was little more than a pawn in the hands of forces that he couldn't control. It is a highly readable book. Although it is regular, well-researched history; it reads more like a historical novel.

The author Julia Keay succumbed to cancer soon after completing the draft. Her untimely death is a great loss to book lovers.

[Trinity · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I delved farther and farther into the pages of this slim novel, I found myself getting less and less willing to break from the book to do other things, namely, eating and sleeping. :) Farzana's many personality changes that she undergoes throughout the book kept me involved and interested- wondering, what will this former nautch girl do next? I am planning to reread so that I can more fully understand the many interesting characters scattered throughout the story.

[Pam Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptionally good read and brilliant story how Began Sumru of Sardhana saved an empire, how she was originally a Kashmiri dancing girl who converted to catholicism and built the largest church in Northern India and hybrid courts.;