Woman's Eye, Woman's Hand

Making Art and Architecture in Modern India

D. Fairchild Ruggles

• Publisher: Zubaan Books
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9789383074785
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: History of Architecture

With independence, India experienced a dramatic social rupture but also a recuperation of political autonomy and a new sense of optimism that promised opportunities. The country became a crucible for experimentation in modern and utopian architecture with new buildings, cities and museums giving public face to the nation. Indian architects and architectural projects claimed international attention, and a generation of women entered professions such as architecture and design that had previously been closed to them. They emerged as a pronounced political force, and important patrons of art, architecture and public space.The mid-19th and 20th centuries saw a significant increase in women acting as arbiters of taste and shapers of the built environment. The emerging groups of female designers and female patrons were enabled by new norms for women.The essays in this volume address these developments, posing the important question: did, and do, women produce art and architecture that reflect a feminine perspective? How did women, otherwise invisible and denied attention in the public sphere, gain voice? The writers look at these questions through both the political frame of gender as well as through family lineage and dynastic connections, and their importance in women's patronage of the arts.

1

Reading Place through Patronage Begum Samru’s Building Campaign in Early Nineteenth-century India Alisa Eimen

Begum Samru, a minor Indian official of the early nineteenth century, was an active patron of the arts.1 She commissioned paintings and monumental works of architecture, in keeping with her political position as an important landholder and military leader in the vicinity of Delhi. Although until quite recently the Begum has been largely overlooked in modern scholarship, she was remarkable to her contemporaries, who commented on all aspects of her history, comportment, and wealth.2 In addition to the commentaries by British observers, her arts patronage provides a corpus of material that enables some reconstruction of Begum Samru’s self-styled life as a public figure. Through a close reading of this material, it is possible to discern the extent to which she was constructing an authoritative identity that was as variegated as India’s ethnic and devotional landscape.

Art and architecture reflect identity, especially when they serve to intentionally promulgate cultural, historical, and communal positions. Around the world, but especially in India, the twentieth-century politics of identity increasingly targets works of art and architecture to proclaim or suppress competing identities. From the destruction by right-wing religious zealots of the Babri Masjid in 1992 to vandalism enacted in the past decade on artworks by M.F. Husain, works of cultural patrimony are particularly strategic targets. As India’s conservative Hindu right attempts to rewrite the history of the Taj Mahal as a Hindu temple,3 a study of Begum Samru’s identity provides a noteworthy case of the kind of complex, rich syncretism that has long been part of Indian cultural identity. Recent reconstructions of the past according to imaginative ideological positions—and the Taj case is an outstanding example of such politically motivated fiction—are predicated upon a perceived separation of identity—its traditions and history—that reifies distance and dissolves common ground. This case study from the first half of the nineteenth century, the period that immediately preceded British colonization of India in 1857, sheds light on an understudied era when the Other was of interest and the notion of difference was, perhaps, a virtue.

Begum Samru (c. 1750–1836) of Sardhana lived a long and colorful life that remains somewhat shrouded by time’s passage and, quite likely, by her own design. It is clear, however, that she was particularly attuned to issues of representation and marshaled her resources to frame her own aspirations and legacy. From military battles to large-scale architecture projects, the Begum was an intrepid leader who carefully navigated her way in what was a particularly uncertain historical moment at the close of the eighteenth century.

Begum Samru’s jagir, or landholding, was at a nexus of regional contests just north of Delhi.4 For nearly sixty years, she strategically maintained her authority in this area that included the parganas (administrative units) of Sardhana, Baraut, Barnawa, and Kutana in the district of Meerut, as well as five parganas in the adjoining district of Muzaff arnagar, and three parganas on the western side of the Jamuna River, some of which occasionally changed hands depending on the political situation. A list of her close associations suggests the range of her reach, including European mercenaries, the Mughal imperial court, Catholic clergy, and British leaders. Considering contemporary sociopolitical upheaval, her ability to negotiate the changing political tides, shifting loyalties, and differing cultural contexts is certainly noteworthy, and since the nineteenth century, scholars have briefly acknowledged this. Despite these passing mentions, however, it is only recently that scholars have begun to seriously consider her arts patronage, and there has been very little analysis of the lasting ways the Begum asserted her rulership through her built works.

The expense and visibility of her patronage demonstrate clearly that Begum Samru wished to articulate her own authority as a model ruler. By examining this body of built material alongside contemporary textual evidence, we can see that Begum Samru was participating in a long-standing tradition of expressing authority and identity through art and especially architecture. Moreover, the utilization of a variety of artistic tropes and architectural elements portrays a figure of regional significance, who was keenly aware of her multiple audiences, including Mughals and Marathas, Muslims and Christians, as well as British Company men and their wives. In summary, Begum Samru’s narrative of authority, as articulated in art and architecture, suggests a fluidity of artistic tropes, the malleability of identity, and a sovereign space that elite women were able to claim in the decades preceding the uprising of 1857.

The Begum’s life

Begum Samru’s rule was exceptional with respect to her political machinations, gender, and longevity. Even while alive, the Begum was a legendary figure, whom travelers hoped to glimpse as they made their way across northern India. Thus, there are a variety of secondary sources about her life, but they are complicated to read because discerning history from legend is difficult.5 The absence of a personal memoir or journal penned by the Begum herself adds further difficulty to the task of ascertaining accurate details of her life, especially the years preceding her political career. A history of Begum Samru was commissioned by the British around 1820, but as it was written by her head secretary, Lalla Gokul Chand, it recounts official political and military engagements and betrays little by way of personal information (Shreeve 1994). Whether due to time’s passage or by intention, the origins of Begum Samru are obscure.

She seems to have been born in or around the year 1750. Most sources agree that she was given the name Farzana and was born in the town of Kutana (50 miles north of Delhi along the Yamuna River) to a Muslim father of uncertain descent.6 Upon her father’s death, she and her mother fled to Delhi because of the ill-treatment they received from her half-brother, and it is in Delhi where she met her future partner, Walter Reinhard, also known as Samru, a notorious mercenary.7 It is not known whether Farzana caught his eye while dancing for him or while her mother worked for him, but sometime around 1765 she became his mistress.8Reinhard already had an Indian wife (apparently mentally unstable) and son, who were destined to remain under Farzana’s care9 after Reinhard’s death in 1778, when she emerged as Begum Samru, assumed control of his wealthy and well-positioned jagir of Sardhana, and controlled it for an impressive fifty-eight years, until her death in 1836.

Throughout her five decades as leader, Begum Samru maintained and deployed military forces, kept up correspondences with major leaders, and oversaw the general administration of her jagir. Her prominence as a political figure, and in particular as a female ruler, has ensured the preservation of many anecdotal accounts about her. Thus we know that during Reinhard’s life, she often acted in consort with him in battle and political negotiations, earning the esteem of his forces. After his death in 1778, Begum Samru continued to display keen acumen through various political contests that underscored her loyalty to the Mughal ruler, Shah Alam II (r. 1759–1806). In one instance, two of his subordinates attempted to usurp his authority, but the Begum, leading her army, intervened and the challengers retreated (Banerji 1925: 29; Francklin 1973: 118–20; Shreeve 1994: 300–30). After these confrontations, Shah Alam gave Begum Sarmu the appellation, Farzand-i Azziza, “his most beloved daughter” (Francklin 1973: 120; Shreeve 1994, line 295; Sleeman 1915: 604). These events gave the Begum political stature as well as tremendous influence at Delhi’s Mughal court.

Begum Samru gained similar favor among the British. In 1791, she aided in the release of a British colonel by paying a ransom to his Sikh captors. British regard for her actions was recorded in a letter of appreciation, thus setting a precedent of relatively amiable relations between the British and Begum Samru (Banerji 1925: 74). Nonetheless, the following years brought several challenges to the Begum’s authority, including a rebellion of her forces in the face of her secret marriage to a Frenchman in her service.10 This dramatic event resulted in his death, nine months of captivity for the Begum, and much fodder for legend. However, she eventually regained her position and command of her troops, and continued to negotiate with the adjacent and opposing powers of the Marathas, Mughals, and British. She seems to have turned this intermediating role to her advantage. But as tensions turned to war between the Marathas and the British in 1803, the security of the Begum’s position was threatened. Yet despite her support for the Marathas during the conflict, she managed to negotiate with the ascendant British, securing her position from Lord Cornwallis in 1805 through an exchange of letters with British officials.11 These documents clarify the importance of Begum Samru’s jagir both in terms of its agricultural prosperity and its geopolitical location, which placed her at the crux of a contest of power and made her very wealthy.12 At a time when indigenous leaders in South Asia were being assigned a British Resident, the British officially acknowledged the Begum’s authority over her own jagir. The fact that Begum Samru was a shrewd and sagacious politician certainly contributed to her continued preeminence and relative independence throughout her life. It is also quite likely that the British calculated that her gender and advancing age would keep the well-known and popular ruler malleable, though her longevity and willfulness no doubt surprised them.

The accounts sketch a portrait of a ruler whose authority was astutely crafted and tenaciously maintained. However, due to the absence of any firsthand personal accounts or reflections, Begum Samru’s understanding of her own authority can only be understood at a remove. Fortunately, one other public record of her authority— her artistic patronage—is available for scrutiny, a record that is arguably more personal and revealing than secondhand sources written by British observers or the official account commissioned from her head secretary. Like the events of her life relayed by others, art and architecture are also mediated forms of expression that result from hands other than the Begum’s. Nonetheless, the expense, visibility, and the very act of patronage suggest a source from which can be gleaned significant ideas about the messages Begum Samru intended to convey, and from these it is possible to deduce something about the Begum’s identity and her sense of place in early nineteenth-century India.

The Begum’s Patronage

The Begum’s interest in visually representing her authoritative role has been convincingly demonstrated by Alka Hingorani through a series of paintings commissioned by Begum Samru. Hingorani’s thesis is that the Begum functioned as an Other from many vantage points, which aided her ability to negotiate her own authority with a wide array of prominent political figures. In one image, now in the Chester Beatty Library Collection (see Figure 1.1), Begum Samru is depicted at the center of her well-appointed court, a depiction typical both in Mughal and Company painting. She appears as a diminutive figure with a shawl over her head, surrounded by her retainers, both Indian and European. The viewer’s attention is drawn to the Begum through a number of devices, including her centrality in the picture’s field, her singularity as the sole woman in a gathering of men, and the huqqa, which is placed in front of her, drawing the viewer’s attention to the Begum through its coil (Hingorani 2002: 66). The huqqa is one of several motifs Hingorani traces through a series of portraits in order to examine the various ways that Begum Samru’s authority was presented. With one interesting exception to be addressed later, the paintings do not function as documents of specific events. Rather they seem to summarize her considerable strengths and ...