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Literary Review
White Maharanis
THE British Raj is definitely one of the more interesting periods in Indian history. If not economics and politics, the social mores of that time hold much attraction not only for the serious-minded but also for the frivolous lover of gossipy titbits. Coralie Younger's book Wicked Women of the Raj falls into the latter category.
It is an account of the various White women — British and European — who fell for the varied "charms" of the Indians. The Introduction has a riveting account of the White prostitutes in Indian brothels and the attempts of the European authorities — missionaries, government and police — to "rescue" them.
However the focus of the book is on those women who married Indians, more specifically Indian princes. One of the major lures seems to have been the money and the jewellery bestowed on them by the besotted princes. In most cases, these women were looked down upon by their own society and were often itinerant circus performers and barmaids. Few of these marriages succeeded. Notable exceptions were Morag Murray who married Syed Abdullah Khan of Koh fort, Joan Falkiner who married Taley Khan of Palanpur and Nancy Miller who married Tukoji Holkar of Indore.
Social ostracism was what followed the marriage in most cases. The European women were not only up against their own kind but also the prince's other wives, palace functionaries and subjects. This was definitely a losing battle and most European women lost it all right. But the book makes no attempt to explore that. There is a kind of breathless rendering of the courtship, marriage, a brief honeymoon period and then the end of it all. A long line of one unfortunate woman after another ending her life with "drink and the devil done for the rest" begins to pall.
Younger seems awestruck by the magnificence of the jewellery that the princes threw around. Each story has a long list of "magnificent" diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies... that the prince wore and also gave to his favourite of the moment. She does not try to condone or condemn — this is just a recitation of a story as she heard or read it.
Moreover, the get-up of the book is also disappointing. Black-and-white pictures have a charm that's all their own but not when they look like badly reproduced photocopies.
In the end, it is a book that you might read as a light amusement. Definitely not the potent mix of "the end of the British Raj and the downfall of the pompous and extravagant Indian aristocracy", as the blurb has it.
Wicked Women of the Raj, Coralie Younger, HarperCollins, Rs. 295.
R. KRITHIKA
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