Dalrymple's account of James Achilles Kirkpatrick — the British Resident at Hyderabad who converted to Islam, married a Mughal noblewoman, and built a palace blending British and Mughal architecture.
The 'white Mughal' phenomenon: before 1800, British and Indian cultures mixed more freely than is usually acknowledged — hundreds of East India Company officers adopted Indian customs, languages, and religions. Kirkpatrick's story as the fullest and most documented example. Dalrymple's archival research: discovered Urdu court records and family letters that fully documented the story. A challenge to the standard narrative of British-Indian relations as purely exploitative from the beginning.
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