Author: Benjamin B. Cohen
File Type: pdf
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 Hyderabads 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 pamphlets printer, prompting a trial that would alter their lives.Based on private letters, courtroom transcripts, secret government reports, and scathing newspaper accounts, Benjamin Cohens riveting reconstruction of the couples 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 Hyderabadis a powerful reminder of the perils facing those who tried to rewrite societys rules. In the struggle of one couple, it exposes the fault lines that would soon tear a world apart.**ReviewA 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 IndiaAbout the Author bBenjamin B. Cohenb is the author of Kingship and Colonialism in Indias Deccan (a major contribution to South Indian history Choice ) and In the Club Associational Life in Colonial India , an exploration of Indo-British civil society through the lens of social clubs. Cohen is Professor of History at the University of Utah.