James Achilles Kirkpatrick

2022-08-13T06:30:25Z

2A01:8B81:5400:C000:1CBA:9339:62E5:372D:

{{Infobox person
|name=James Achilles Kirkpatrick
|image=James Achilles Kirkpatrick.jpg
|alt=
|caption= James Achilles Kirkpatrick, an oil painting by [[George Chinnery]], {{circa|1805}}.
|birth_name=
|birth_date=1764
|birth_place=Fort St. George, [[Madras]], India
|death_date=15 October 1805
|death_place= [[Calcutta]], India
|death_cause=
|resting_place=
|nationality=[[British people|British]]
|occupation= [[Lieutenant-Colonel]]<br />[[Resident Minister|Resident]] at [[Hyderabad state|Hyderabad]]
| known_for=Built the historic [[Koti Residency]] in Hyderabad, a landmark and major tourist attraction.<br />Documented [[Race (classification of human beings)|interracial]] love affair and marriage between him and Indian noblewoman Khair-un-Nissa Begum.
|party=
|spouse=Khair-un-Nissa
|children=[[Kitty Kirkpatrick]]<br>William Kirkpatrick
|father=Colonel James Kirkpatrick
|footnotes=
|url=
}}
[[Lieutenant-Colonel]] '''James Achilles Kirkpatrick''' (1764 – 15 October 1805) was an [[East India Company]] officer and diplomat who served as the [[Resident minister|Resident]] at [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad Deccan]] from 1798 until 1805. Kirkpatrick also ordered the construction of the [[Koti Residency]] in [[Hyderabad]], which has since come to serve as a major [[Tourism in India|tourist attraction]].

==Biography==
James Achilles Kirkpatrick was born in 1764 at [[Fort St George]], [[Chennai|Madras]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sumgenius.com.au/kirkpatrick_family_tree.htm |title=KIRKPATRICK Family Tree |website=www.sumgenius.com.au |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060820154729/http://www.sumgenius.com.au/kirkpatrick_family_tree.htm |archive-date=2006-08-20}} </ref> He replaced his brother [[William Kirkpatrick (East India Company officer)|William]] and arrived in [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad]] in 1795 to assume the position of [[Resident minister|Resident]], which had previously been held by his brother. During his initial few months in Hyderabad, James became enamoured with the Indo-Persian culture at the [[Nasir-ud-Daulah|Nizam of Hyderabad]]'s court, and substituted his [[Dress#18th century|European dress]] for [[Persian clothing|Persian attire]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050305080540/http://www.hindu.com/mag/2005/02/27/stories/2005022700420700.htm Colonial Grandeur], ''[[The Hindu]]'', 27 February 2005.</ref>

Although a [[colonel]] in the [[Presidency armies]], Kirkpatrick wore [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]]-style clothing at home, smoked a ''[[hookah]]'', chewed [[betelnut]], enjoyed ''[[nautch]]'' parties, maintained a small [[harem]] in his ''[[zenana]]khana''. Kirkpatrick, born in India, educated in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]], spoke Tamil as his first language, wrote poetry in Urdu, and added Persian and Hindustani to his "linguistic armoury".<ref>[http://www.theartsdesk.com/tv/love-and-betrayal-india-white-mughal-bbc-four] – theartsdesk.com, best specialist journalism website, 4 September 2015</ref>

With fluent [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] and [[Persian language|Persian]], he openly mingled with the [[Elite|social elite]] of Hyderabad. Kirkpatrick was [[Adoption|adopted]] by the [[Nizam of Hyderabad]], who invested him with many titles: ''mutamin ul mulk'' ('Safeguard of the kingdom'), ''hushmat jung'' ('Valiant in battle'), ''nawab fakhr-ud-dowlah bahadur'' ('Governor, pride of the state, and hero').<ref name="Kirk"/>

During the reign of [[George III of the United Kingdom|King George III]], Kirkpatrick's ''hookah-bardar'' (hookah servant/preparer) was said to have robbed and cheated Kirkpatrick, making his way to England and stylising himself as the ''Prince of Sylhet''. The man was waited upon by the [[Prime Minister of Great Britain|Prime Minister]] [[William Pitt the Younger]], and then dined with the [[Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany|Duke of York]] before presenting himself in front of the King.<ref>{{cite book|title=Life of the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone|first=Thomas Edward|last=Colebrooke|pages=34–35|year=1884|author-link=Sir Edward Colebrooke, 4th Baronet|chapter=First Start in Diplomacy|isbn=9781108097222|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tSoMEJ-_Nx0C&q=hookah&pg=PA34}}</ref>

==Marriage==
In 1800, after falling in love with a local Hyderabadi [[Sayyid|Sayyida]] noblewoman called Khair-un-Nissa, Kirkpatrick not only married her, according to Muslim law, and "''adopted Mughal clothes"'' and ways of living, but had actually "''converted to Islam"'' and had become a double agent working against the East India Company and for the Hyderabadis.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC Four - Love and Betrayal in India: The White Mughal - A love story that broke the conventional boundaries of Empire |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/18SDBJqWwgc7VLDM7MhGK2S/a-love-story-that-broke-the-conventional-boundaries-of-empire |access-date=2022-06-09 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Kirkpatrick had an extremely private, Muslim marriage ceremony in which he wed Khair-un-Nissa, who was fourteen years old, not an unusual age for the marriage of girl of her social class. She was the granddaughter of Nawab Mahmood Ali Khan, the prime minister of Hyderabad. However, the marriage was not recorded and does not appear to have been legally valid; in his will he described the offspring of the relationship as his "natural" children, a polite euphemism for illegitimate children that a father recognized as his own offspring.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dalrymple|2004|p=6}} "Finally, and perhaps most shockingly for the authorities in Bengal, some said that Kirkpatrick had actually, formally, married the girl, which meant embracing Islam, and had become a practising Shi'a Muslim."</ref> In his will, Kirkpatrick emphasized his devotion to Khair-un-Nissa, stipulating that he left her only a token bequest in light of the fact that in addition to her jewels, she possessed a large, landed fortune inherited from her father, leaving large fortunes to their two children instead. Before their father's unexpected, early death, at ages 3 and 5, the children had been sent to be reared by Kirkpatrick's relatives in England, as was usual among the British families in India in that period.<ref name="Dalrymple 2004">{{Harvnb|Dalrymple|2004}}</ref>

"''Hashmat Jang'' was believed by some of his Muslim staff and by the bride's female relations to secretly embraced Islam before a Shi'a ''Mujtahid'' (cleric); he is said to have presented a certificate from him to Khair-un-Nissa Begum, who sent it to her mother." Towards the end of autumn of 1801, a major scandal broke out in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] over Kirkpatrick's behaviour at the Hyderabad court.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/dec/09/britishidentity.india White mischief] - The Guardian, 9 December 2002</ref> A scandal arose due to the fact ethnically and racially mixed nature of the marriage.<ref name="Dalrymple 2004"/>

[[File:Khair-un-Nissa.jpg|left|thumb|200px|An oil painting of Kirkpatrick's wife, Khair-un-Nissa, by [[George Chinnery]]. ''Circa'' 1805.]]
[[File:Interior of St. John's Church, Kolkata9.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Memorial of James Achilles Kirkpatrick at [[St. John's Church, Kolkata|St. John's Church]], [[Kolkata]] by [[John Bacon (sculptor, born 1777)|John Bacon]]]]

The conditions under which Kirkpatrick operated as [[Resident minister|Resident]] were affected by [[Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley|Lord Richard Wellesley]]’s appointment as [[Governor-General of India]]. Wellesley favored taking a assertive diplomatic stance with the Nizam, which included reducing the amount of autonomy he wielded. In addition, Wellesley strongly disapproved of Kirkpatrick's marriage to Khair-un-Nissa.<ref name="Dalrymple 2004"/>

After Kirkpatrick died in Calcutta on 15 October 1805, Khair-un-Nissa, who was only 19 years old, had a brief love affair with Kirkpatrick's assistant, [[Sir Henry Russell, 2nd Baronet|Henry Russell]], who would become the Resident in Hyderabad in 1810. After what Russell appears to have regarded as a brief fling, he abandoned Khair-un-Nissa who, with her reputation now ruined, was unable to prevent greedy relatives from taking over the valuable landed estates she had inherited from her father.<ref name="ChatterjeeUnfamiliar">{{cite book|last1=Chatterjee|first1=indrani|title=Unfamiliar Relations: Family and History in South Asia|date=2004|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=0813533805|page=147}}</ref> Russell married a half-Portuguese woman. Although she, as a disgraced woman consequent to the love affair with Russell, she was not allowed by her family to return to Hyderabad for some years, with the death of a senior male relative she was eventually allowed to return, and died in Hyderabad on 22 September 1813 aged 27.<ref name="Kirk">[http://www.telegraphindia.com/1021130/asp/opinion/story_1429564.asp Lolita of the Mughal Times] - The Telegraph, 30 November 2002</ref>

Kirkpatrick and Khair-un-Nissa together had two children: a son, Mir Ghulam Ali Sahib Allum and a daughter, Noor-un-Nissa Sahib Begum. Their father had sent them to England to live with their grandfather Colonel James Kirkpatrick, in London and Keston, Kent, shortly before his own, unexpected death at a young age. The two children were baptised on 25 March 1805 at St. Mary’s Church, [[Marylebone Road]], and were thereafter known by their new Christian names, William George Kirkpatrick and [[Kitty Kirkpatrick|Katherine Aurora "Kitty" Kirkpatrick]]. William was disabled in 1812 after falling into a copper of boiling water and had to have an arm amputated;<ref name="Dalrymple">{{Harvnb|Dalrymple|2004|p=xx}}</ref> he married and had three children but died in 1828 aged 27. Kitty was for a few years the love interest of the Scottish writer and philosopher [[Thomas Carlyle]], then a young man of no fortune working as a tutor and an ineligible match for an heiress. She married Captain James Winslowe Phillipps and they had seven children. She died in [[Torquay]], [[Devon]], in 1889.<ref>[http://www.pakistanlink.com/Opinion/2006/Jan06/06/04.HTM East Did Meet West - 3 - Pakistan Link.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120130745/http://www.pakistanlink.com/Opinion/2006/Jan06/06/04.HTM |date=2008-11-20 }} - Dr. Rizwana Begum</ref>

==Popular culture==
A large part of ''[[White Mughals]]'', a book by the historian [[William Dalrymple (historian)|William Dalrymple]], concerns Kirkpatrick's relationship with Khair-un-Nissa.

==Citations==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book
|last=Dalrymple
|first=William
|author-link=William Dalrymple (historian)
|publisher=Penguin Books
|title=White Mughals: love and betrayal in eighteenth-century India
|year=2004
|isbn=978-0-14-200412-8
}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
*[http://www.rangan-datta.info/photo/viewpic.php?gallery=41&id=200 James Achilles Kirkpatrick's Memorial at St. John's Church, Calcutta (Kolkata)]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirkpatrick, James Achilles}}
[[Category:1764 births]]
[[Category:1805 deaths]]
[[Category:Administrators in British India]]
[[Category:British East India Company people]]
[[Category:British East India Company Army officers]]
[[Category:British Muslims]]
[[Category:Indian Muslims]]

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James Achilles Kirkpatrick