The Famous Interracial Couple Who Stunned Britain And Colonized India: James Achilles Kirkpatrick And Khair Un-Nissa
Wikimedia CommonsBritish ambassador James Achilles Kirkpatrick’s marriage to Khair un-Nissa, a Mughal noble, angered both of their respective communities in the early 19th century.
The early 19th-century relationship between a British ambassador and a Mughal noble may not be as well-known as other famous interracial couples from history, but their story is arguably just as compelling.
Lieutenant-Colonel James Achilles Kirkpatrick was the British Resident at Hyderabad, a city in colonized India, from 1798 to 1805. It was a fitting position for an ambitious soldier of the British East Indian Company. He had been born in Madras (now modern-day Chennai) so he spoke the language of the locals and had an understanding of their culture.
During his service in Hyderabad, he fell in love with an Indo-Persian girl named Khair un-Nissa. She was the great-niece of the city’s Nizam (or ruling monarch), who was believed to have been the direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. The couple married in January 1801.
“Kirkpatrick had gone out to India full of ambition, intent on making his name in the subjection of a nation; but instead it was he who was conquered,” wrote historian William Dalrymple of the relationship.
Indeed, Kirkpatrick had gone above and beyond for un-Nissa ahead of their wedding, converting to Islam and adopting Mughal clothing and tradition. His total embrace of Mughal culture was not entirely unusual among white Brits in India who were dubbed “white Mughals,” according to The Guardian.
By the 1870s, about one-third of white British men in India had left an inheritance to their Indian wives. Interracial couples, then, were not an uncommon occurrence. But Kirkpatrick and un-Nissa still faced pushback.
HSBC Asia Pacific ArchivesThe couple’s children, Sahib Allum and Sahib Begum, who were later sent to be educated in Britain.
Some accounts of the interracial couple alleged that un-Nissa had given birth to a child before they were married. This alarmed both British officials and un-Nissa’s noble family. Her grandfather was reportedly so outraged by the news that he threatened to lead an uprising against the British.
Worse yet, their matrimony cast doubt on the young ambassador’s true allegiance. Colonel Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, wrote that Kirkpatrick seemed to be “under the influence” of the Hyderabadis and that “it was to be expected that he would attend more to the objects of the Nizam’s court than those of his own government.” Today, some suspect that Kirkpatrick was indeed a double agent to the Hyderabadis.
The couple had two children, Sahib Allum and Sahib Begum, who were brought up as Muslims in Hyderabad. They were later sent to London, where they were baptized and adopted Western names, James and Kitty.
James Achilles Kirkpatrick died from hepatitis in 1805. His will referred to his wife as “the excellent and respectable Mother of my two children for whom I feel unbounded love and affection and esteem.” Un-Nissa, widowed and without the protection of Kirkpatrick’s job, was exiled from Hyderabad. And though she was eventually allowed to return years later, she died soon after.
