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For the love of India
Salman Rushdie and William Dalrymple in a book reading session at Oxford Book Store in Delhi.
HE WAS born in Scotland. He wrote highly acclaimed best sellers like "In Xanadu" when he was just 22 and then he moved to Delhi in 1989 where he lived for six years researching on his second book "City Of Djinns" which won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award. "Form the Holy Mountain", his acclaimed study on the demise of Christianity in its Middle Eastern homeland, was awarded the Scottish Arts Council Autumn Book Award in 1997.
Any guesses now? Yes, he is William Dalrymple who was in the town this past week at Oxford Library to share his experiences in life while writing the book and his current work on the "Last Days of Mughals" on Bahadur Shah Zafar. "It is the second version of White Mughals", says William.
Days of yore
Based once again upon historical writings, it will describe the period under the last emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, who organised a Mutiny that culminated in genocide by the British in Delhi. "It was rather like Stalingrad set in the ruins of renaissance Florence," he says. "If White Mughals is about the forgotten love affair this is the story of the divorce. The story of British who have unlimited powers which they exercise on Indians and there developed the feeling of hatred, understanding between them had disappeared." Excited about his Indian sources he discloses, "They are mainly from National archives." Written in a difficult late Moghul shikastha script, they tell the story of a doomed Mutiny and were used by the British as evidence during the emperor's trial.
"It's a five-year project and now I have completed almost three years of fascinating research on the book. The book will be out by 2007," he informs excitedly.
On the occasion he feels glad to share his readings with Salman Rushdie and says, "These are some old lollypops from my bestsellers" and then starts reading making everyone laugh with his act. Back to his good old days of "White Mughals" William explains, "I love the book as the characters such as David Ochterlony, who would take his 13 wives out every night, each on their own elephant, or Major General Charles Stuart also known as `Hindoo Stuart' were the British who were assimilated in the Mughal society. And believe me, it took long to complete the book."
Living in Delhi since 20 years he thinks Indians have little pride in their heritage. There is destruction of great monuments everywhere. Yet he loves Delhi and speaks, "In India there is explosion of fiction and facts and one can get brilliant stories to write on."
On the eve was present Salman Rushdie who read out the story of metamorphosis from "Telling Tales", a book on HIV AIDS and "will soon be published in India," he informs. Ask him about his favourite book and he says, "I am a great admirer of `White Mughals' as William is that rarity: a scholar of history who can really write. I am from historian background and his story of cultural collisions is beautifully told but is also a tale with many contemporary echoes."
BHAWNA SATSANGI
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