Lyn Innes, Emeritus Professor of Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, is the great-granddaughter of the last Nawab of Bengal, Mansour Ali Khan. In this family memoir, she vividly brings the period to life through the stories of her antecedents, using both family history and source materials from the time, while giving a fascinating insight into the British Raj in India from the perspective of a local prince who was mistreated, and ultimately deposed, by the British authorities.
Charting the course of two diverse and multiracial generations of the family, which stretches from the palace in Murshidabad to London and rural Australia, Innes found a commonality in their lives. She writes in the introduction:
I was struck by ways in which both generations were involved in a resistance to and a dialogue with the political priorities, and the particular racial and class attitudes that dominated Britain, India and Australia during their lifetimes: priorities and attitudes which continue to affect present generations in all three countries.

Born in 1830, the ninth Nawab Nazim of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa “ruled” an area almost three times the size of the British Isles. He was, in reality, a puppet king in a sequence starting after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 when the British East India Company had installed its choice of figurehead. Back then, an annual stipend of 530 million rupees (equivalent to £5 billion today) had been promised. It never manifested, mysteriously decreasing with each new Nawab so that when Mansour Ali Khan ascended to the throne, in 1838, it was worth just 750 thousand rupees (£4.5 million in today’s money).
“Supervised” by the British at every step, the Nawab was nevertheless determined to restore the family’s rightful fortunes. He decided to travel to England where he believed he would receive a fairer hearing. After years waiting for permission, he finally arrived in London in April 1869.
British society reacted all too predictably, treating him either as an intriguing exotic (while not bothering to cater for his religious practices) or with sneering racial prejudice. Over several years, the Nawab courted the press and persuaded some notable figures to support his case. Sadly, he was unsuccessful, although in matters of the heart there was a surprising development.
While staying at the Alexandra hotel at Hyde Park, the Nawab encountered and eventually married one of the chambermaids, Sarah Vennell. Propelled from pauper to princess, it is unclear whether Sarah knew the Nawab already had other wives in Murshidabad (legal under Shi‘i law). The crunch came when he planned to marry another: their maid, Julia, in 1879. Sarah was devastated and the relationship broke down. At this point, the British forced the Nawab to abdicate and clipped his stipend further. He returned to India, taking Julia (who had converted to Islam) and Sarah’s four surviving children.
One of those children, Nusrat, is the subject of the second part of the book. He enjoyed an English gentleman’s education but, unlike his father, forswore his hereditary title. He too married an Englishwoman, Elsie Algar, in 1907 and they pursued a bohemian lifestyle, moving to Paris in 1910 to study painting. They retreated to England as the First World War loomed. The meager British pension allotted to Nusrat was not increased so Elsie pursued a career in journalism and children’s books to make ends meet. In time, the couple decided to emigrate with their children, Myriam and Syed, to Australia and try farming. Pale-skinned and blue-eyed, Nusrat nevertheless came up against the White Australia Policy and required special dispensation from the British government. He also changed his name to the more English-sounding Norman Mostyn.
The hardship and isolation soon drove a wedge between the couple, as did Elsie’s affair with a farmhand, Ian Troup (later Innes) who ended up marrying Myriam (the mother of the author). Nusrat moved to Sydney and continued to support Elsie at the farm. She died in 1964.
Innes herself didn’t escape the racism and class attitudes which affected her forebears. Growing up in 1950s Australia, she recalls being called “Black Princess” by the school bullies and being deemed inferior for not being Irish or Catholic enough—the two dominant cultures of the time. She notes however that, having Scottish ancestry, she escaped the shame of being a New Australian, a recent immigrant from Italy or Poland. By adding her own experiences, Innes shows with unsettling effect how historical prejudices are still prevalent in modern times and how little we have actually progressed.
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