Machilipatnam (Krishna District) , ANDHRA PRADESH :
Mansion where noblewoman Khair-Un-Nissa stayed is now a cattle shed
In April 1807, Hyderabadi noblewoman Khair-Un-Nissa was given shelter in a two-storey mansion with a mesmerizing view of palms, fishing canoes and breakers of the Coromandal coast, according to ‘White Mughals; Love and Betrayal in 18th Century India’ by William Dalrymple.
Now, the view of the mansion, which was then residence of East India’s agent in Masulipatam, Alexander, resembles a small jungle, with a cattle shed within the stonewall in the Bandarkota area in Machilipatnam.
Khair-Un-Nissa, most excellent of the women had stayed in the mansion with her mother Sharaf-Un-Nissa for nearly two years during her exile. After Mir Alam, Hyderabad Nizam, died in January 1809, Khair-Un-Nissa and her mother appeared to have returned to Hyderabad.
Outlawed after love affair
Colonel James Achilles Kirkpatrick, the British Resident in Hyderabad (1797-1805), fell in love with Khair-Un-Nissa, and married her in January 1801. Citing disgrace to her family, Khair-Un-Nissa was ordered by Mir Alam that she would not be allowed back to Hyderabad on her way back from Calcutta, where she spent some months, mourning the death of her husband Kirkpatrick. He was 41.
Widowed at 19, Khair-Un-Nissa had to live outside the Nizam’s dominions and thus she had to stay in Masulipatam as suggested by her husband’s assistant, Henry Russel. Nestled between the Dutch fort and an armoury, the mansion has been erased from the memory of the people of Masula and become home for cattle.
The Machilipatnam Municipality’s survey records show that the nearly two-acre site of the mansion is now under the control of private people. “We do not know any history attached to the land. The entire site has been distributed among the 12 members of our family, Vemoori family,” Vemoori Badri toldThe Hindu . Mr. Badri’s family uses this historical site as shelter for their cattle.
“Until 1979, the two-storey British building was in good shape with rooms with spiralling space. It has disappeared on the site over the years. Possession and transfer of right over the site by locals remains a puzzle for me,” local historian and then Masula Revenue Inspector Mohammed Silar told The Hindu . Most of the protection wall and entrance gates to the British site were collapsed. A thatched cattle shed raised on the pillars of the old construction welcomes the visitors.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / T. Appala Naidu / Machilipatnam – July 02nd, 2016