The subtitle of this engaging book is 'How an Indian ruler took on the
might of the East India Company' which is a more accurate description
of how the Nawab of Surat, Mir Jafar Ali Khan restored the family
fortunes which had been taken by the Company. The story starts
slowly, discursively, with probably too much background material. But
it builds to an exciting conclusion that will have the reader cheering along with the British MPs when Jafar, as he is called here, won his
case in Parliament against the Company. The port of Surat had risen to
prominence during the Mughal period, attracting traders from all over
India and abroad, including the Dutch, the Portuguese and the British.
Parsi and Jewish merchants were welcomed, with their fire-temples and
synagogues and Sufi shrines were popular places of pilgrimage too.
Charles II had acquired a number of small islands to the south at
Bombay, which he sold to the East India Company in 1668. It was the
development of Bombay which led to the decrease in Surat's trade and
importance. Almost inevitably Surat and its Castle fell into the
Company's hands and by 1800 it had effectively bought off the ruling
Nawab Nasir-ud-din Khan. The Nawab was forced to agree that 'the
whole civil and military government of the city shall be vested for ever
and entirely and exclusively with the English Company'. In exchange
the Company agreed to pay the Nawab and his heirs a pension of a lakh
of rupees (£10,000) annually as well as a proportion of the annual land
revenue (£5,000). Jonathan Duncan, acting as agent for Richard
Wellesley, the governor general, assured Nasir-ud-din that the Company
would support his heirs 'in perpetuity' and so the treaty was signed.
The Nawab's heir, Afeal-ud-din who succeeded his father in 1821
produced no sons, only a daughter, Bakhtiar-un-nissa. As was common
practice in these cases, a boy from a good family was adopted as heir.
This was Jafar who consolidated his position by marrying Bakhtiar and
the couple had two daughters. On the death of Afzal-ud-din in 1842,
the Company tried to wriggle out of its financial obligations by using
the 'Doctrine of Lapse' which allowed it to seize petty kingdoms like
Surat and Jhansi where there was no male heir. The annual pension was
stopped and the bulk of the properties and estates owned by Jafar and
his wife were seized. After dignified but fruitless protestations to the
governor general, Jafar decided to travel to England and lay his case
before the Directors of the East India Company in Leadenhall Street, in
person. It was not unprecedented. Indians seeking redress for real or
perceived wrongs had made journeys to London before, including the
Nawab Iqbal-ud-daula, from Lucknow who felt he had been unjustly
deprived of the throne of Awadh.
Jafar's first visit in 1844 is well documented by his interpreter
Lutfullah, who was later to write his account of the time spent in
London. Jafar's party, including Lutfullah, his two secretaries and his
physician, took lodgings in Sloane Street. The case for restoring the
pension and the estates was dismissed by the Company who refused to
discuss its decision. Frustrated, Jafar returned to Swat only to see his
wife die of tuberculosis, leaving his two little girls motherless. Lord
Dalhousie's aggressive forward policy as governor general and a paltry offer from the Company to restore only half the estates with a small
pension impelled Jafar to England again. His father, Sarfarez,
mortgaged his own property and borrowed money to support his son
while abroad. This time a powerful brace of liberal MPs, Sir Richard
Bethell and Sir Fitzroy Kelly were on hand to help and advise Jafar
who returned to London in December 1853 and who was to stay for
another four years. The story of his eventual success in Parliament is
well told. It was undoubtedly in the interests of Bethell and Kelly to
have a stick with which to beat the Company and they were not alone in
their condemnation of the monolith that it had become. Jafar was the
perfect figurehead for their fight - articulate, handsome and with an
unimpeachable cause. There is much of interest in this book, written by
a relative of the Surat family. The publicity machine surrounding Jafar
which orchestrated his appearances at the Opera House, Ascot, the
Royal Society of Arts and Hyde Park, among others, is fascinating, as
is his tender relationship with the English actress Mary Jane Flood, who
did her best to integrate into Indian life as Jafar's unofficial wife.
Recommended.
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