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DOWN MEMORY LANE

Kurt Reinhardt was a remarkable man and hard to forget even after 30 years. He made several visits to India along with his wife. A thickset bearded man of average height, he looked the typical image of a German professor. No relation of Walter Reinhardt Sumroo, he got interested in him after coming across a reference to the soldier of fortune in his home town.

His researches led to several libraries, including the National Archives in Delhi, and eventually he was able to produce the most up-to-date work on Sumroo.

Written in German, it is exhaustive, with rare illustrations of the man and his family. A native of Treves, in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, he came to India in the early 18th Century and initially served the French as a carpenter. Some say he was an Alsatian who later joined the British in Calcutta, then went back to the French before shifting his loyalty to Nawab Mir Kasim of Bengal.

It was at this time that he was accused of the murder of three British gentlemen at the behest of the Nawab – and ever since he was hunted by the British.

Najaf Khan, wazir of Shah Alam, after whom Najafgarh in Delhi and the jheel (lake) in it are named, befriended Sumroo, who was camping in Chandni Chowk. Incidentally, it was there that he met his future wife at a kotha, where she came to be known as chudiwali. The mansion Begum Sumroo built in the area sure enough came to be known as Chudiwali-ki- haveli. Now of course it is known as Bhagirath Palace.

Gen. Sumroo was called upon by Najaf Khan to win back Panipat, Karnal and Sirhind from the Sikhs, who had captured these places during a raid which luckily Delhi escaped. Sumroo proved more than a match for them as he became a notorious soldier of fortune, operating through the length and breadth of the country, sometimes with the Marathas, sometimes with the Jats and sometimes with the Rajputs and Moghuls.

He also served Shuja-ud-Dowlah of Awadh and was supposed to have amassed enormous wealth as booty and by way of jagirs given in lieu of services rendered. In the course of his stay in north India he married Zebunissa Begum, daughter of Nawab Latif Ali Khan, who later became the famous Begum Sumroo of Sardhana.

It was the ardent desire of Najaf Khan to win him over to the emperor’s side and in this he was successful. Despite the big protest made by the British, Sumroo did achieve some success in his mission.

He took part in many other exploits and died at Agra in May 1778, leaving behind his young son Aloysius alias Nawab Zafar Yab Khan. But soon after his death most of Sumroo’s wealth was seized by Najaf Khan, who took his son under his protection. Aloysius Sumroo died at Sardhana on October 30, 1802.

However the most interesting feature of the book concerns the fortunes of David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre (born December 18, 1808), the adopted son of Begum Sumroo who went to England and married Mary Anne Jervis, the daughter of Viscount St Vincent in 1840. She later accused him of insanity and as a result he was sent to an asylum from where he escaped to France and published his famous defence, A Refutation of the Charge of Lunacy, accusing Mary of cruelty and infidelity.

Dyce Sombre, though plump, was quite a handsome man whose portrait painted in Kolkata occupies pride of place in Dr. Reinhardt’s book. He died in London on July 1, 1851 and his remains were brought back to India and interred in Sardhana below the vault of the Begum in 1867.

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