N January 27, 1839, a memorial OMass was held in Rome to com- memorate the third death anniversary of Her Highness the Begum Le Som- Crossing Boundaries bre of , . The celebrant, the very Rev. D. Wiseman, Rector of The Life of the English College at Rome, was aware that the occasion represented a Brijraj Singh meeting of several cultures since here was an expatriate Britisher delivering an eulogy in Italy on a woman who had lived in India; he recognised, too, can unite. I would argue that though conditions in mid to late eighteenth- that such multiculturalism (to use a the Church may have been responsible century India and the character of the modern word) was appropriate in cel- for the multiculturalism on the occa- Begum herself which resulted in the ebrating a person whose career had sion of the Mass in Rome, it was not multiculturalism of her remarkable been shaped by a meeting of the East the Church but rather the life. and West. So he chose as his text Mat- thew 8.2: “Many shall come from the East and the West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven.” What he was not able to indicate sufficiently in his sermon was that there were many other boundaries that Begum Le Som- bre, or Begum Samru, to give her the name by which she is best known, crossed and transgressed in her career besides the more obvious one of the East and West. Begum Samru was a woman who performed roles that men may envy as warrior, general and ruler; a Muslim, she became a devout Catho- lic; an Indian, she was married in turn to a German and a Frenchman; born poor, she died an enormously wealthy woman; possessed of an extremely generous nature, she also became no- torious for acts of horrifying cruelty; determined to defend her indepen- dence, she shifted alliances, now join- ing the Mughals, now the Sindhias, now the French, till finally she became friends with the British in India and helped them to consolidate their hold on north India. The Rev. Wiseman ascribed the meeting of the East and the West in the life of Begum Samru to the uni- versality of the Catholic church, the fact that the Church provides an um- brella under which people of all races Begum Samru in old age

No. 87 13 At that political game, that made her Farzana at birth, though as a grown time many multicultural. However, in this respect woman she hardly ever used this powers repre- she could hardly be called unique, for name. Her father, an impoverished senting di- the same conditions that imposed a Arab (whether nobleman, trader or sol- verse na- multicultural imperative on her oper- dier is uncertain) either died or aban- tions, races, ated also in the case of the other Indi- doned his wife when Farzana was just Begum Samru’s Seal cultures and ans or Europeans engaged in politics a child, whereupon mother and daugh- world views and in preserving or extending their ter migrated to where the mother were vying for control of an India domains, for instance Mahadji Rao would seem to have become a prosti- which was so fragmented that it could Sindhia or the British general Lord tute, and apprenticed the daughter as hardly be called a nation. After the Lake. What marked her as being so a dancing girl. battles of Plassey (1757) and Buxar unusual was an openness and daring Farzana had just entered her teens (1765) the British had become the in her character which made her wel- when she came to the notice of a Eu- dominant power in India, but they were come the opportunity of crossing cul- ropean mercenary in his mid-forties by far from occupying the whole coun- tural boundaries. the name of Walter Reinhardt. try. The Mughal emperor Shah Alam While for some people an encoun- Reinhardt’s origins are shrouded in still sat on the throne in Delhi. But his ter with other races, religions or cul- mystery. A German, he came to India power had waned and rival contend- tures is like water off a duck’s back, so in the service of the French, then ers and power brokers battled against, that they remain unchanged by it, briefly served the British, whom he or formed uneasy alliances with one some others are so overwhelmed that deserted in favor of Gregory Khan, the another as they sought to carve out they lose their bearings and no longer Armenian general of Mir Kasim, the areas of control in the plains of north know who or what they are. Yet others Nawab of Bengal. At Mir Kasim’s or- India. The Sindhias possessed a pow- are like chameleons: they transform ders he slaughtered 62 Englishmen at erful artillery commanded by French themselves so completely into the im- Patna in cold blood in 1763. After the generals with whose help they sought age of another culture that their origi- battle of Buxar, when the British de- to dominate the petty chieftains of nal selves can hardly be found. Begum feated Mir Kasim, Reinhardt fled to Rajputana and Malwa, who in turn Samru was different from all these north India in order to escape British squabbled among themselves end- types. Forced early in life to fend for revenge. lessly and formed and broke alliances. herself and make the most of whatever The territory a little further to the north By now Reinhardt had acquired a and the east was occupied by the opportunities came her way, she de- common-law wife, a Muslim named who had come as invaders veloped a remarkable quality of be- Bahaar, by whom he had a son. He had from Afghanistan with Ahmad Shah ing able to create a harmonious whole also come to be known as Le Sombre Abdali and, after the third Battle of out of her disparate experiences. or Samru. It is unclear how he obtained Panipat (1761), stayed back in India. Consequently her multicultural expe- this sobriquet. Some biographers sug- Other parts of north India were in the riences, instead of throwing her off gest that when he entered British em- control of the Jats of Bharatpur or the balance or making her a deracinee, ploy in Calcutta he took on the name of Punjab. Among the smaller became a way for her to realise herself Summers which his French comrades principalities was the Begum’s own at more fully. A review of her career can changed to Le Sombre and Indians to Sardhana, about fifty miles from Delhi help us understand not just the cross- Samru. A more commonly favored ex- (see map, which conveys the extent to cultural encounters of eighteenth-cen- planation is that he was nicknamed which India was politically frag- tury India, but the nature of such en- Le Sombre on account of his swarthy mented in the 1760s and far from be- counters in general. complexion and the fact that he rarely ing a nation). smiled, and this got corrupted to Begum’s Early Life Samru. In part it was her realisation that the survival of her kingdom depended Many details of Begum Samru’s Around 1767 Le Sombre or Samru upon her ability to cross boundaries, early life are conjectural. She was born met Farzana and she became his con- to abandon her role as a conventional in a small village called Kotana in the sort though his first wife was still liv- Muslim woman and to establish present district of Meerut sometime ing. It was not at all unusual for contact with all types of people in the between 1750 and 1753 and named Europeans in eighteenth-century

14 MANUSHI India to have two or more common- relative peace and security Le Som- Samru’s re- law wives or concubines called Bibis. bre established a menage a trois, for sponsibility. The custom was accepted by both In- his first wife Bahaar made her home She exhib- dians and Europeans, and bibis en- with him and Begum Samru. Bahaar ited a decided joyed not only social acceptability apparently suffered from a mental dis- preference for but also many legal rights. On becom- order which made her withdrawn and a life which ing his bibi Farzana gave herself the unable to take care of herself. She was a combi- title of Begum and came to be known never seems to have objected to her nation of the European and Indian. as Begum Le Sombre or Begum Samru. husbands getting a second consort, The house was furnished in European style and the Begum dined at table For the next several years Begum and Begum Samru, in turn, provided with her husband (which few Indian Samru led a somewhat nomadic exist- for her and ensured her well-being till women did) unless Indian guests were ence. Le Sombre had collected to- her death. present. Wine was served at meals. But gether a small ragtag army consisting Because the elder wife was inca- the food tended to be Indian and ev- of rowdy European mercenaries and pable of managing affairs, the running eryone dressed in Indian style and pre- ill-trained and ill-equipped Indian sol- of the household became Begum ferred to speak in Urdu rather than any diers, and he, his young bride and his European language. This army lived in the saddle as was just as well for the they went from place to Begum who never ac- place offering their ser- vices to the highest bidder. quired more than a smat- The instinct for self-pres- tering of English and ervation was strong in him. French. But she became When his troops were en- adept at keeping strict ac- gaged in action he would counts, learned a great form them into a tight de- deal about politics, man- fensive square from where aging men, and planning they would shoot in all di- military campaigns from rections without engaging the conversation of her the enemy. When the battle guests, and became a good was over, he would offer judge of character. From his services to whichever her husband the most im- side had prevailed. portant lesson she learned was that of self-preserva- For a while he served tion, of knowing where Jawahar Singh, the Jat ruler one’s best interests lay, of Bharatpur. Then, when and doing everything to Jat fortunes waned, he further them. switched allegiance to the Mughal emperor, who in Chief of Sardhana 1774 granted him the prin- cipality of Sardhana, a vil- Perhaps it was for these lage about 50 miles from qualities that when Le Delhi and 10 from Meerut. Sombre died in Agra in The following year Le May 1778, his troops ac- Sombre and his troops were cepted Begum Samru as posted to Agra, and he and their leader. In turn, she Begum Samru were finally pledged allegiance to the able to enjoy their first Mughal emperor who semi-permanent home af- thereupon ratified her ter command of her marriage. In conditions of Map showing political fragmentation in the 1760’s husband’s troops and

No. 87 15 transferred was to marry the Begum’s stepson. his judgement of Begum Samru was possession of wholly favourable. He was willing to While living in Agra with Le Som- the principal- leave the defence of the doab, or the bre, the Begum had got to know the ity of territory between the rivers Jamuna Jesuits who had maintained a mission Sardhana to and , to her. there since Akbar’s time. Le Sombre her. In July had made contributions to the upkeep Nor did she fail him. In 1787, while 1778 she en- of their church, the head of the mis- his forces were away in the south and tered Sardhana as its chief. sion visited the Samrus frequently, and she was deputising on his behalf on a For the next few years she busied the Begum had expressed curiosity military mission, a rebel named herself in administrative tasks, in rais- about Christianity and on one occa- Ghulam Qadir marched to Delhi with ing revenue, and in keeping her lands sion asked for a Bible. These contacts a view to capturing the emperor. She secure from the depradations of neigh- continued after Begum Samru moved rushed to Shah Alam’s side and was boring chieftains. Begum Samru was to Sardhana, and in 1781 she was re- able to save him. For her pains the not the sovereign of Sardhana. Rather, ceived into the Roman Catholic emperor invested her with the title of Sardhana was her jagir or fiefdom. But church. Zeb-un-Nissa, the “ornament of her she enjoyed considerable autonomy. sex”. The following year she again She acknowledged the sway of the By the end of the 1780s Begum came to his rescue when he was am- emperor in Delhi whose levees she had Samru had become a respected and bushed by another renegade Najaf therefore periodically to attend and to Quli Khan. Again it looked as if the whose aid she was duty-bound to emperor would be taken, but then the come when need arose. For the rest, so She ordered her chair to be Begum was carried into the midst of long as nothing that she did went set down on their graves the fray in a palanquin and her small counter to the interests of the emperor, contingent succeeded in repulsing the she was in absolute command. She and calmly smoked a enemy. This engagement earned her a could impose and collect taxes, try hookah while they second title of “dearly beloved daugh- cases and impose punishment. She suffocated. ter”. could negotiate with and even engage in hostilities against other powers. Cruel Justice Begum Samru did so frequently. powerful player in north Indian affairs. Sardhana was surrounded by Rohillas, Her troops were commanded by Euro- Around 1790 (though the exact Sikhs and others who coveted the ag- pean officers who drilled the soldiers date is uncertain) an incident occurred riculturally rich territory that the well, so that her army, though not as which, while it may have helped to Begum possessed and who therefore disciplined, well led, well equipped consolidate her power by putting ter- continually raided her borders, and or large as those of the British to the ror into anyone who might have been she, too, carried east or the Sindhia’s further south, inclined to challenge her authority, skirmishes into their territory. Over a came to be regarded as being superior also brought her obloquy. Two of her period of time she developed a repu- to those of her nearest rivals. Begum slave girls in Agra set fire to a resi- tation as a brave warrior and fine mili- Samru’s reputation for skilled leader- dence and a nearby storehouse caus- tary strategist. ship, personal courage, wealth, and ing considerable loss to the Begum’s property. Begum Samru’s justice was A number of Europeans heard administrative acumen spread widely. stunningly cruel. She had the girls about her and joined her retinue. Two She also enjoyed the admiration of flayed and then buried alive and had such who entered her service around Mahadji Rao Sindhia, one of India’s her bed placed on their graves so that this time and remained for the rest of most able men in the eighteenth cen- nobody could dig them out surrepti- their lives were the Frenchmen tury. When his power was at its height tiously. Another story has it that she Francois (?) Bernier and Jean Remy in the 1780s his domination from the ordered her chair to be set down on Saleur; the latter would eventually Deccan to the Ganges was complete their graves and calmly smoked a become her commander in chief. A and his arms kept the Mughal throne hookah while they suffocated. third, Mme. Le Fevre, the widow of a propped up. He could not have man- French soldier of fortune, became part aged these achievements had he been The incident shocked the British. of her household; later, her daughter in a habit of misjudging people. And Several years later Sir Walter Scott was

16 MANUSHI to recall the fate of the “Circassian ransomed a Britisher called Col. Stuart cause of the slaves” in The Surgeon’s Daughter who had been captured by the Sikhs quarrel was (1827), as was Col. William Henry in Punjab. The British were gratified Levassault or, Sleeman, and throughout the nine- by this action. The Governor General as the name is teenth century British historians (see in Calcutta, Sir John Shore, met in perhaps more bibliography) highlighted it. There Council and it was decided to reim- properly writ- can be no question that the Begum’s burse the Begum the ransom money. ten, Le punishment was cruel and inhumane Vasseau. by any standard. However, it must be Personal Life Le Vasseau served in the French remembered that under Muslim rulers army in India under Dupleix and later in India punishments were not codi- Her closest contacts with the Brit- in the Sindhia’s forces before entering fied and judges were at liberty to cre- ish at this time were those that she had the Begum’s service towards the end ate punishments that they thought with George Thomas. Born in of the 1780s. Haughty and distant, he best fitted the crimes. Akbar, who was Tipperary in 1756, Thomas had landed in Madras in 1782 in the ser- was not popular with her other Euro- hardly a cruel man, had criminals’ pean officers and did not get on well heads crushed under the feet of el- with Thomas. Partly the antipathy had ephants. Sometimes prisoners were to do with their nationalities: the Brit- skewered. In the year following ish had bested the French in their Begum Samru’s defence of the emperor struggle for the Indian subcontinent Shah Alam against Najaf Quli Khan, and French and British officers often Ghulam Qadir had once again invaded found themselves on opposite sides Delhi, and this time, with Mahadji Rao in political and military encounters. Sindhia still away in the south and But partly it was also personal, for Le Begum Samru otherwise engaged, he Vasseau was constitutionally very dif- had succeeded in capturing the em- ferent from the dashing and cavalier peror. Thereupon he had proceeded to Thomas. gouge out the emperor’s eyes. When Sindhia heard about this he rushed In 1791 Begum Samru married Le back to Delhi, restored the blinded Vasseau. Realising that it would not emperor to the throne, and devised a be politic to make her marriage pub- series of shocking punishments for lic, Begum Samru did not change her Ghulam Qadir. On successive days he name though she added “Nobilis” af- had the victim’s limbs hacked off, ter it in acknowledgment of her nose chopped, ears lopped, and eyes Shah Alam II husband’s connections to French no- bility (see picture of her seal). She gouged before he was finally allowed continued to behave towards him in to die. Though Begum Samru acted vice of the East India Company but deserted shortly thereafter. In 1788 his public as she had always done. But Le cruelly towards her slave girls, she had wanderings brought him to Sardhana Vasseau was not able to keep the for- ample precedent in recent history. where his dashing good looks and mal distance from her that protocol If Britishers were appalled by courage soon made him popular. The demanded; and since her troops did Begum Samru’s cruelty, it did not Begum arranged his marriage to a not know that he was now her hus- stand in the way of happy relations Frenchwoman in her retinue and en- band, they took offence at the liber- between her and British officialdom. trusted him with several military mis- ties he permitted himself in her com- At this stage the British presence in sions against neighboring principali- pany. Another factor which worsened north India was not significant. Begum ties. However, around 1793 there was relations between Le Vasseau and the Samru had hardly any contacts with a falling out between him and the other officers had to with a custom that them. If she thought about them at all, Begum and he left her service. Some Begum Samru had followed since the she must have done so in a vaguely historians suggest that, jealous of days of her first husband. She favourable sort of way. Therefore she Thomas’s popularity, his enemies entertained them at dinner each night was probably acting out of charitable poisoned her ears against him. How- in her palace. This had been Le motives when around this time she ever, it seems more likely that the Sombre’s way of keeping a fractious,

No. 87 17 sometimes ing her own life failed (intentionally, the British in 1801; he died the fol- disgruntled say some biographers) and she was led lowing year while being taken to lot of soldiers back in captivity and thrown into Calcutta. Most importantly, the Brit- under con- prison. ish under the new Governor General trol, and now Lord Wellesley were now beginning a However, her instinct for self-pres- it was hers. concerted effort to dominate north In- ervation was strong. She was able to dia and if she did not come to terms Her new hus- smuggle a secret message to George with them she could well lose every- band put an end to this custom on ac- Thomas for help. In turn, he, regard- thing. So she entered secret and pro- count of the bad manners of these daily ing his recent falling out with her as tracted negotiations with the British guests and his belief that dinner should being of little consequence when her and let Wellesley know that she was be a family affair. This caused them to life was threatened, proceeded to willing to hand over Sardhana to the turn further against him and the Begum Sardhana and entered the town with British and put herself under their pro- and a mutiny broke out led by her step- fifty cavalrymen, leaving equally tection. Wellesley replied that he son, Reinhardt’s issue by his first wife. small infantry to follow. Now the inci- would avail himself of the offer when dent took an operatic turn. The an opportunity presented itself. Deals with the British Begum’s captors, realising that the Le Vasseau and the Begum decided Sardhana army far outnumbered By the middle of 1803 the British to flee Sardhana. Late in 1795 Le Thomas’s cavalrymen, were about to and Sindhia were getting ready for a Vasseau requested the British Resident launch an attack on them when final showdown at Assaye in the at nearby Anoopshahar for safe con- Thomas’s infantry was spotted on the Deccan. The Begum had sent five bat- duct to British territory either in Bihar horizon. No one knew how many men talions to aid Sindhia. She now offered or Bengal where he and his wife could there were, and the quick-witted Wellesley to withdraw them from Sindhia’s side and have them go over spend the rest of their days. He de- Irishman spread the rumor that the secretly to his. Wellesley vetoed the clared that the Begum had grown tired whole of the Sindhia force was march- proposal because he thought that such of administering her territory and ing in his support. This was enough to a move would only expose her to the fighting wars for eighteen years and break the mutineers’ morale. They sur- wrath of Sindhia. But as soon as the now wished to hand over Sardhana to rendered without a shot being fired, British defeated Sindhia in Septem- the British. The Begum, too, ad- and Begum Samru was reinstated. ber 1803, thereby clearing the way for dressed a letter to the Governor Gen- Anti-British Activities the conquest of north and central In- eral in Calcutta saying that she had dia, his concern for Begum Samru’s always supported the British and As the eighteenth century drew to welfare evaporated. Lord Lake, the would like to spend the rest of her days a close, the Begum began to realise British commander stationed in Delhi, under their protection. Though only that her position as an independent peremptorily summoned her in tones in her mid forties, she referred to her- ruler of a small principality was daily very different from the cordiality with self as a tired old woman who did not becoming more precarious. To main- which Wellesley’s predecessor Sir have many days left to live. tain her independence she needed al- John Shore had treated her. “Immedi- The Governor General agreed to lies. But her patron Mahadji Rao ately on receiving this letter,” he wrote provide protection to her and Le Sindhia had died in 1794. The to her on 29 October 1803, “you will Vasseau in return for control of Mughal emperor’s writ no longer ran come alone to my presence.” Begum Sardhana. Finally, in May 1796 the beyond Delhi. George Thomas was Samru had no option but to comply. hounded from fort to fort by General couple set out in secret. But the pro- Lake informed the Begum that Perron, one of Sindhia’s French com- tracted nature of their negotiations Wellesley had now decided to accept manders, till he finally surrendered to with the British had caused the plans her offer of Sardhana. In return, the of their flight to become known to the British would recompense her with mutineers. Begum Samru and Le She had seen too much money and settle her on land on the Vasseau were just three miles out of western bank of the Jamuna under their Sardhana when the mutineers swept treachery and double protection. The Begum wrote to down on them. Le Vasseau committed crossing in her life to take Wellesley accepting these terms. But suicide. The Begum’s attempt at tak- the British at their word. when he wrote back that while she was

18 MANUSHI to hand over Sardhana immediately, it was her instinct for self-protection put it: “At the her compensation and resettlement that drew her to them. Treachery, pal- period that would have to await some future un- ace revolutions and sudden death were the English specified date, she balked. She had the norm in the court of the late gentlemen seen too much treachery and double Mughals. By contrast, from a distance have ac- crossing in her life to take the British British India must have appeared to quired pos- at their word. She therefore started be a haven of peace where the rule of session of engaging discreetly in anti-British law prevailed. A third reason is Hindustan I rejoiced that from a con- activities. She fomented disturbances glimpsed in a letter she wrote to her sideration of my being of the same race against their authority in the area of friend David Ochterlony, the British as theirs I should...be exalted in rank.” the doab, the agricultural land be- Resident of Delhi, in February 1804. tween the Ganges and Jamuna rivers, It appears that as a result of marrying The British, however, did not see and sent emissaries to Ranjit Singh of two Europeans in succession and her Begum Samru as one of theirs. It would Punjab and Holkar of Indore, the only daily intercourse with several others have made little difference to their two native powers of any consequence who were in her service, she had come plans even if they had. Wellesley was left in north India now and who were to see herself as being at least as Euro- adamant that the Begum carry out her both proving recalcitrant to the Brit- pean as Indian, and a sense of racial promises of handing over Sardhana. ish. It is this anti-British phase of her affinity drew her to the British. As she He was about to send an agent to take career that has caused some possession when fate inter- nationalist Indian historians vened. He was called back like Mahendra Narain to England and Lord Sharma to see Begum Samru Cornwallis was sent out to as an early freedom fighter. India as Governor General However, the reverse seems for a second time. to be the case. Far from want- Cornwallis was much ing the British out, she did more amenable to Begum what she could to welcome Samru’s entreaties. Lake, them. Her turning against too, intervened in her be- them temporarily was more half. He realised that a dis- the result of a feeling of be- affected Begum Samru, trayal than born of a vision while no threat to British of an India free of the Brit- interests in north India, ish. would make for a trouble- At this point the question some foe who would con- may be posed: Why was she stantly cause pinpricks and so pro-British? After all, till minor irritations. the end of the eighteenth Ochterlony threw in his century she had few per- weight behind the Begum sonal contacts with them, as well, with the result that and most of her close asso- in 1805 the British offered ciates like Le Sombre, Le her a treaty whereby in re- Vasseau, Sindhia and even turn for placing herself un- George Thomas had good der British protection, she reason to shun the British. was to be left “in the The answer is partly that be- unmolested possession of ing well-versed in military [her] Jaghire [i.e. principal- affairs, she admired the dis- ity], with all the rights and cipline and fighting quality privileges [she] had en- of their soldiers and the skill joyed hitherto.” She was of their generals. Partly also St. Mary’s Cathedral Church – Sardhana given the right to dispose

No. 87 19 of her move- trarily fixed an amount which they the credit which was bestowed on able property as were obliged to pay whether or not Plowden and later British administra- she pleased, their production matched this figure, tors for reducing taxes marginally but Sardhana with the consequence that the peas- needs to be placed in the perspective itself and her antry was further impoverished. of other facts enumerated by E.T. Atkinson, most notably that because other immove- Entrusted with managing the af- these administrators followed the ad- able assets were to pass into British fairs of Sardhana after the Begum’s vice of the Begum’s prime minister Rai control after her death since she had death, Plowden reduced taxes margin- Singh, who was a Taga by caste, they no children. ally. British historians reported with ended up undertaxing the Tagas and some jubilation that the move pro- Finally secure, wealthy and overtaxing the agriculturally more duced salutory effects: thus H.G. honoured, Begum Samru spent the last progressive Jats who were the Tagas’ Keene said that by the 1850s the popu- three decades of her life in assisting main rivals, and consequently harmed lation of her territories, which had the spread of Roman Catholicism, set- rather than helped agriculture by de- ting up or supporting many charities, shown a decline between 1820 and pressing Jat industriousness. and undertaking ambitious building 1830, had risen once again. The im- projects. She continued to maintain a plication was that the Begum was not The truth would seem to be that if Begum Samru’s economic policies large army, though she no longer had a good ruler and used the profits of were aimed more at self-enrichment need of it, at a cost of about Rs 6 lakh, her state for herself, while with the than at improving the condition of her or more than two thirds of her annual coming of the British had also come subjects, they were no different from revenue. To support this expense she those followed by other rulers in In- taxed her cultivators heavily and also No multiculturalism is dia at the time, whether Mughal, levied stiff customs duties on goods possible without some sort Hindu, or British. No one really had that passed through her territory ei- the interest of the Indian peasantry at ther by land or river. There were also of crossing of boundaries, heart. If she transgressed against the taxes on hides, silks, and a number of some cultural poaching or transgression. welfare of her subjects, so did every- other commodities. Consequently no one else, not least her British capital formation became possible detractors. among her people, and though there economic reform. were no shortages, existence remained Sardhana Cathedral pretty marginal for most citizens. There can be no doubt that Begum Samru’s economic policies were not Where Begum Samru differed from Economic Policies aimed at the good of the people. How- many of her contemporary Indian rul- ever, it is also true that British offi- ers was in the use she made of her Begum Samru’s economic policies cials had an axe to grind in denigrat- wealth. She spent liberally in the name call for some comment here. Shortly ing her. They exaggerated the condi- of religion. Besides Rs 1.5 lakh which after her death in 1836, T.C. Plowden, tions prevailing under her and she donated to the See of Rome and a British administrator and estates of- awarded themselves credit where none Rs 50,000 to Canterbury, she endowed ficer who was charged with making was due. Plowden’s report contrasts several Catholic seminaries, schools an inventory of her possessions, re- oddly with that of Fr. W. Keegan, a and colleges in Sardhana, Agra and ported that though the economic con- seminarian resident at Sardhana at the Meerut and contributed to Protestant dition of her territory seemed to be time of the Begum’s death and there- charities as well. Her most ambitious golden on the surface, everything was fore whose monograph called project was building a cathedral at rotten within. He ascribed this condi- Sardhana and its Begum, written in Sardhana for which she employed Ital- tion to years of rack renting and to the the 1840s, may be granted some cre- ian architect fact that in the last three years of her dence. The picture he paints of Antonio Reghlini. Some of the rule she had handed over the reins of Sardhana is very different. He says that workmen were brought from Agra, de- administration to her adopted son during periods of drought farmers were scendants of the builders of the Taj David Dyce Sombre who, instead of aided with loans, agriculture was pro- Mahal, others imported from Italy. The taxing farmers on the basis of what they ductive, and the administration was marble was quarried in Jaipur, the actually produced each year, arbi- lenient with tax defaulters. Similarly church clock brought from Switzer-

20 MANUSHI land, the gold communion chalice or- tion comfortably with people of var- cathedral dered from France. The building had ied backgrounds, beliefs, races, cul- done by an two Gothic spires, three domes and a tures and politics different from one’s Indian colonnade or verandah in the Indian own, and to grow from this experience, painter, she style. The cathedral was completed in then there is no doubt that Begum apologised 1822; and when in 1834 Begum Samru was so. for the poor Samru sent five lithographs and a large quality of the People who live at the borders of painting of it done by an unknown perspective saying that it was, after all, many cultures for a length of time of- Indian artist to Pope Gregory XVI, she not the work of a European. Yet she ten find it a creative experience, in that could justly claim that they were had no real command of any of the they are able (or forced) to create a views of the largest and finest church European languages nor did she try to lifestyle for themselves which no one built in India to date. learn any; her dress was always Indian culture permits. To be multicultural is as were her food habits and the obser- Begum Samru died in January to inhabit a hybrid culture which is vance of purdah. Had she gone to 1836 in an odour of great respectabil- man-made and the product of con- Europe she would probably have been ity if not sanctity, leaving behind more scious choices and actions rather than a total cultural misfit. than 700,000 pounds. something that has evolved organi- cally and naturally. In this sense there The fact is that Sardhana became In conclusion, I would like to re- is something artificial about an experiment in living in which turn to the theme with which I started people from different parts of India and and, in light of Begum Samru’s career, Europe came together with values and further explore her achievement as a The reason Begum Samru habits taken from both the Eastern and multiculturist. This much may be survived so well was Western worlds. The Europeans in her granted straight away: no because what she needed to service were restless men who had multiculturalism is possible without come to India seeking wealth, to be some sort of crossing of boundaries, do to survive was also what sure, but also a deeper fulfilment some cultural poaching or transgres- she enjoyed doing. which they were unable to find in their sion. Such crossings, even transgres- own cultures but hoped to achieve sions, came naturally to a woman multiculturalism: the word is not to through new roles in different cultures. whose mother was a prostitute and be understood pejoratively but as de- They found a home in Sardhana be- who was herself brought up as a noting an element of art in its fashion- cause the Begum shared the same dancing girl, and therefore whose early ing. years were spent beyond the pale, liv- traits. They were all of them--not just ing across the boundaries of what was The culture of the Begum’s court the Begum but also Reinhardt, Le socially acceptable. at Sardhana was of this kind. It was Vasseau, George Thomas, Saleur, not fully Indian; it was Europeanised Bernier and the others - crossers of These crossings were also neces- but not European and certainly not boundaries, even transgressors against sary for survival. Indeed, the reason English. It was an artificial construct, the norms of their cultures. In Begum Samru survived so well was the joint creation of the expatriate Sardhana they created some sort of a because what she needed to do to European who valued Indian culture meritocracy where the fact of race, survive was also what she enjoyed and the transgressive Indian who ap- though never forgotten, seldom doing. It was not just that the impera- preciated things Western. In many in- counted. Men of half a dozen Euro- tives of history demanded that she mix stances Begum Samru preferred Euro- pean nationalities commanded her with Indian, French, German and pean people and things to their Indian troops by turns; at her death her com- English men and women, or with counterparts. We have noticed how in mander of cavalry was the Muslim Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian. her letter to David Ochterlony in 1804 Inayatullah Khan while the Prime She seems to have done so with zest. she identified racially with the Brit- Ministership, which was the chief ad- It is almost as if she somehow sensed ish rather than Indians. She enjoyed ministrative and revenue collecting that these cultural contacts would en- the company of Westerners and enter- office, was in the hands of the Hindu rich her life and enable her to realise tained Europeans lavishly for which Rai Singh. Both of them were repre- herself more completely. If to be purpose she even kept a band. When sented on the beautiful tomb that her multicultural means to be able to func- she sent the Pope a painting of her stepson, David Dyce Sombre, com-

No. 87 21 missioned Tadolini, an Italian sculp- years, a culture that was neither East- Mr. George Thomas. London, 1805. Keegan, Fr. W. Sardhana and Its Begum, tor and a disciple of Canova, to ex- ern nor Western but partook of both. 6th. ed. Agra: St. Francis Press, 1932. ecute. Begum Samru deserves recognition as Keene, H.G. The Fall of the Mughal Em- one of the pioneers of international pire: An Historical Essay. London, 1876. Begum Samru was multicultural, living in the modern world. ! ------. Hindustan Under Free Lances then, both in her ability to cross from 1770-1820. London: Brown, Langham, culture to culture and also in her cross- 1907. Lerneuil, Michael. Roman de Begum ing cultures with one another in order Bibliography Sombre. Paris: A. Michel, 1981. to produce a hybrid, a new way of life (Note: Publishers are listed only for books Sarkar, Sir Jadunath. Fall of the Mughal which brought people of varied back- published in the twentieth century) Empire, vols. 3 and 4. Calcutta: M.C. Sarkar, 1938, 1950. grounds and experiences together. But A[nne] D[eane]. A Tour Through the Upper Provinces of Hindustan, 1804- Sharma, Mahendra Narain. The Life and there is another sense in which we in 14. London, 1823. Times of Begam Samru of Sardhana the late twentieth century use this Atkinson, E.T. N[orth] W[est] Provinces (A.D. 1750-1836). Sahibabad, U.P.: Vibhu Prakashan, 1985. word. Multiculturalism today also Gazetteer, 1st. ed., vol. 2. Calcutta, 1875. Banerji, Brajendranath. Begam Samru. Sleeman, Col. William Henry. Rambles means a celebration of diversity, a will- Calcutta: M.C. Sarkar, 1925. and Recollections of an Indian Official. London, 1844. ingness to welcome the other as the Beale, T.W. Oriental Biographical Dic- other. In this sense she was no tionary, ed. and rev. H.G. Keene. Lon- Spear, T.G.P. India A Modern History. don, 1894. Revised ed. Ann Arbor: University of multiculturalist. She obviously en- Michigan Press, 1972. Bidwell, Shelford. Swords for Hire: Eu- joyed diversity and welcomed others, ropean Mercenaries in eighteenth-cen------. Twilight of the Mughals: Studies tury India. London: Murray, 1971. in Late Mughal Delhi. Cambridge: Cam- but she had no use for the other as the bridge University Press, 1951. Chatterji, Vera. All This Is Ended: The other. Hers was not the culture of demo- Life and Times of HH the Begum Samru Umashankara. Dil Para Ek Dagh. cratic inclusiveness. It did not matter of Sardhana. New Delhi: Vikas, 1979. Kanpur: Pravira Prakashan, 1965. who you were when you came to Francklin, William. Military Memoirs of Sardhana; once there, you had to blend. You had to accept the cultural values by which the others lived. There was no place for the wayward- ness of a George Thomas or the aloof- MANUSHI ness and breeding of a Le Vasseau. This Bound Volumes is because, though Sardhana may have been a cultural experiment, in the fi- nal analysis it was not in this fact that Handsomely Bound in Maroon Leather in Six Volumes its value to the Begum lay but rather in its being the base, however frac- tious, uncertain and at times even vio- Price for India, Nepal and Bangladesh : lent, of her economic and political Vol. I : Nos 1 to 19 (1979 to 1983) : Rs. 300 power. She welcomed others not be- cause they were different but essen- Vol. II : Nos 20 to 37 (1984 to 1986) : Rs. 225 tially because they met her military or Vol. III : Nos 38 to 49 (1987 to 1988) : Rs. 200 administrative needs. Vol. IV : Nos 50 to 61 (1989 to 1990) : Rs. 200 From this point of view she would Vol. V : Nos 62 to 73 (1991 to 1992) : Rs. 200 not satisfy our modern definitions of Vol. VI : Nos 74 to 85 (1993 to 1994) : Rs. 200 multiculturalism, nor would she have had any patience with them. She was Postage : Rs. 20 per volume willing to use and exploit people, as others wanted to use and exploit her. US and Europe : US $ 60 per volume These were the realities of the power (includes airmail postage) game in late eighteenth-century India. But it was precisely these realities that Send payment by cheque, draft or MO in the name of Manushi Trust to : created the flowering of a remarkable Manushi, C-202, Lajpat Nagar I, New Delhi 110024. hybrid culture in Sardhana for a few

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