An Appeal to the Ladies of Hyderabad: Scandal in the Raj

Benjamin B. Cohen

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An Appeal to the Ladies of Hyderabad

Scandal in the Raj

Benjamin B. Cohen

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2019

About this book

The dramatic story of Mehdi Hasan and Ellen Donnelly, whose marriage convulsed high society in nineteenth-century India and whose notorious trial and fall reverberated throughout the British Empire, setting the benchmark for Victorian scandals.

In April 1892, a damning pamphlet circulated in the south Indian city of Hyderabad, the capital of the largest and wealthiest princely state in the British Raj. An anonymous writer charged Mehdi Hasan, an aspiring Muslim lawyer from the north, and Ellen Donnelly, his Indian-born British wife, with gross sexual misconduct and deception. The scandal that ensued sent shock waves from Calcutta to London. Who wrote this pamphlet, and was it true?

Mehdi and Ellen had risen rapidly among Hyderabad’s elites. On a trip to London they even met Queen Victoria. Not long after, a scurrilous pamphlet addressed to “the ladies of Hyderabad” charged the couple with propagating a sham marriage for personal gain. Ellen, it was claimed, had been a prostitute, and Mehdi was accused of making his wife available to men who could advance his career. To avenge his wife and clear his name, Mehdi filed suit against the pamphlet’s printer, prompting a trial that would alter their lives.

Based on private letters, courtroom transcripts, secret government reports, and scathing newspaper accounts, Benjamin Cohen’s riveting reconstruction of the couple’s trial and tribulations lays bare the passions that ran across racial lines and the intimate betrayals that doomed the Hasans. Filled with accusations of midnight trysts and sexual taboos, An Appeal to the Ladies of Hyderabad is a powerful reminder of the perils facing those who tried to rewrite society’s rules. In the struggle of one couple, it exposes the fault lines that would soon tear a world apart.

Reviews

A deftly told tale of colonial prejudices, legal skullduggery and dubious justice.
-- Sumit Ganguly India Today

Makes for absorbing reading that is also immediately recognizable in the modern day. In the 21st-century world of ‘cancel culture,’ when rumors and innuendo can spread rapidly from smartphones to laptops and careers can be damaged at the whim of social-media mobs, the fate of Hasan and Donnelly has an appalling relevance.
-- Steve Donoghue The National

The value of the book lies in its angles of vision, its understanding of the social complexity of India under the Raj, and its revelations of unexpected links between people of all races, usually on the fringes of society…[A] fascinating work.
-- David Gilmour The Oldie

Cohen’s meticulous reconstruction of the accusations and counteraccusations at the trial offers a compelling glimpse into the entanglements of race, class, gender, and sexuality during this period…A story that is both thought provoking and well told, and one that will draw in specialist and nonspecialist readers alike.
-- Mytheli Sreenivas American Historical Review

Cohen gives us a detailed description of the trial from both sides, and the story is both riveting and sad…[He] brings the people to life as they lie, connive, exaggerate and, occasionally, try to tell the truth…This isn’t just a salacious sex story, but a revelation of a society plagued by moral ambiguity and political chicanery.
-- John Butler Asian Review of Books

A charming, captivating book. Cohen has a marvelous feel for the doomed couple at the heart of a now-forgotten scandal. The princely state of Hyderabad comes vividly to life within the world of British India.
-- Prince Azmet Jah of Hyderabad

In this elegantly written book, Cohen shows how a sexual scandal of a relationship between an English woman and a Muslim man in colonial India reveals a surprising story, of many twists and turns, about social mobility, racial uncertainty, and gendered respectability.
-- Durba Ghosh, author of Sex and the Family in Colonial India

The time has truly arrived for the Hyderabad pamphlet scandal to be told, not only for readers interested in South Asian history, but also for those interested in the history of race, gender, and colonialism more broadly. Cohen has a gift for cultivating a strong sense of place, often with evocative and perceptive descriptions of a room, a photograph, or a cluster of political actors.
-- Chandra Mallampalli, author of Race, Religion, and Law in Colonial India

An engaging narrative of the infamous pamphlet scandal and its revelations about social, cultural, sexual, and political life in the British Raj and princely India. Cohen offers a thoughtful and persuasive analysis on key issues of race, religion, gender, and colonialism.
-- Michael Fisher, author of An Environmental History of India

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Frontmatter
i

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Contents
vii

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Note on names
ix

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Cast of characters
xi

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Prologue
1

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1. New Beginnings in Hyderabad
5

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2. A Grand Tour to the Heart of Empire
27

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3. The Pinnacle of Power
61

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4. The Scandal Unleashed
76

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5. The Prosecution’s Charge
105

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6. I Have Seen This Lady Before
136

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7. Star Witnesses and a Verdict
176

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8. Pink and Yellow Accusations
203

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9. Turned Adrift
238

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Notes
283

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Glossary
319

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Bibliography
321

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Acknowledgments
333

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Illustration credits
341

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Index
343

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Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

June 17, 2019

eBook ISBN:

9780674239210

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674239210

eBook ISBN: 9780674239210

Keywords for this book

Server Jung; Mahbub Ali Khan; Yusuf-uz Zaman; Indian history; John Seymour Keay; Trevor John Chicheley Plowden

Harvard University Press

An Appeal to the Ladies of Hyderabad

Overview

About this book

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Frontmatter

Contents

Note on names

Cast of characters

Prologue

1. New Beginnings in Hyderabad

2. A Grand Tour to the Heart of Empire

3. The Pinnacle of Power

4. The Scandal Unleashed

5. The Prosecution’s Charge

6. I Have Seen This Lady Before

7. Star Witnesses and a Verdict

8. Pink and Yellow Accusations

9. Turned Adrift

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Illustration credits

Index

Bibliographic data