{"id":166,"date":"2006-03-10T04:20:03","date_gmt":"2006-03-10T09:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=166"},"modified":"2018-08-23T16:00:43","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T20:00:43","slug":"14615-%c2%a0-dean-mahomet-the-travels-of-dean-mahomet-an-eighteenth-century-journey%c2%a0through-india-ed-with-an-intruction-and-biographical-essay-by-michael-h-fisher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=166","title":{"rendered":"14615. (Dean Mahomet) The Travels of Dean Mahomet, An Eighteenth-Century Journey Through India [ed. with an intruction and biographical essay by Michael H. Fisher]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"06-03-10<\/a>This is a fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading doc\u00adu\u00adment. Dean Mahomet came from a mod\u00adestly suc\u00adcess\u00adful Mus\u00adlim fam\u00adily in India in the 18th Cen\u00adtury, just at the peri\u00adod when the East India Com\u00adpany was absorb\u00ading and tak\u00ading over the crum\u00adbling Mughal Empire. At the age of eleven, he became the friend and con\u00adfi\u00addant of a teenage British offi\u00adcer, and for the next six\u00adteen years they advanced togeth\u00ader in that curi\u00adous enti\u00adty, the Indi\u00adan Army. Togeth\u00ader, they saw action at the siege of Gwalior, the Great Mutiny, and oth\u00ader key events. When a sud\u00adden (though appar\u00adently unde\u00adserved) dis\u00adgrace end\u00aded his friend\u2019s career, D.M. chose to accom\u00adpany him to his native Ire\u00adland. He seems to have been per\u00adson\u00adally charm\u00ading, and was thor\u00adoughly self-edu\u00adcat\u00aded in the lit\u00ader\u00adary cul\u00adture of England.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Cork, Ire\u00adland, he mar\u00adried into the local Anglo-Irish gen\u00adtry. He wrote and pub\u00adlished his book, which is an account of his mil\u00adi\u00adtary career, with an empha\u00adsis on describ\u00ading the sights and cus\u00adtoms of the regions in North\u00adern India that he tra\u00adversed. It must be remem\u00adbered that, for him, most places in India were just as \u201cfor\u00adeign\u201d as Bel\u00adgium or Den\u00admark would be to an Eng\u00adlish\u00adman. The descrip\u00adtion of a famine is par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlarly engrossing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"06-03-10<\/a>This book is a re-pub\u00adli\u00adca\u00adtion of his account, but it does not end there. The most fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading part of the book is the bio\u00adgraph\u00adi\u00adcal appen\u00addix, fol\u00adlow\u00ading his activ\u00adi\u00adties after the pub\u00adli\u00adca\u00adtion of the Trav\u00adels<\/em>. Dean Mahomet drew on his famil\u00adiar\u00adity with Ayurvedic med\u00adi\u00adcine to estab\u00adlish him\u00adself as a masseur and pri\u00advate doc\u00adtor. Even\u00adtu\u00adally, he moved to Lon\u00addon and built a large estab\u00adlish\u00adment, a kind of high soci\u00adety bath-house, and became wide\u00adly known as the \u201csham\u00adpoo\u00ading sur\u00adgeon\u201d. It appears that he intro\u00adduced the word \u201csham\u00adpoo\u201d into the Eng\u00adlish lan\u00adguage [from Hin\u00addi, \u201cchamp\u00adna<\/em>\u201d = to press], through his sec\u00adond book, a pro\u00admo\u00adtional trea\u00adtise for his techniques.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first thing the read\u00ader notices in this account is the absence of the kind of eth\u00adnic racism that sat\u00adu\u00adrated Eng\u00adlish soci\u00adety in the next cen\u00adtury. Dean Mahomet had no trou\u00adble attract\u00ading and mar\u00adry\u00ading a wealthy Euro\u00adpean woman, and the issue of his colour or eth\u00adnic\u00adity does not seem to have been sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant. Eigh\u00adteenth Cen\u00adtury Britain was a stew of prej\u00adu\u00addice, snob\u00adbery and injus\u00adtice, but you get the clear impres\u00adsion that wealth and social class were the lan\u00adguage of prej\u00adu\u00addice at the time. There is no hint that he encoun\u00adtered any obsta\u00adcles mere\u00adly for being Asian. Racism, as we are famil\u00adiar with it in the 19th and 20th cen\u00adturies, had not yet come into being. There was no cult of racial supe\u00adri\u00ador\u00adity, but there was a def\u00adi\u00adnite cult of class divi\u00adsion, and by suc\u00adcess\u00adfully insert\u00ading him\u00adself into the class of edu\u00adcated, gen\u00adtle\u00admanly soci\u00adety, Dean Mohamet was total\u00adly sep\u00ada\u00adrated from the Indi\u00adan las\u00adcars who worked in the docks of Lon\u00addon, or the sailors who wan\u00addered through British ports.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anoth\u00ader inter\u00adest\u00ading aspect of this book is the glimpse it pro\u00advides into the East India Com\u00adpany. Con\u00adtrary to what peo\u00adple are uni\u00adver\u00adsally taught, the Cor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtion is not a \u201cfree mar\u00adket\u201d enti\u00adty, and has no con\u00adnec\u00adtion what\u00adso\u00adever with lais\u00adsez-faire eco\u00adnom\u00adics, pri\u00advate prop\u00aderty, or free mar\u00adket prin\u00adci\u00adples. Its ori\u00adgins lie entire\u00adly out\u00adside of free mar\u00adket process\u00ades and the\u00adory. Dean Mahomet\u2019s account pro\u00advides clear evi\u00addence of this.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading doc\u00adu\u00adment. Dean Mahomet came from a mod\u00adestly suc\u00adcess\u00adful Mus\u00adlim fam\u00adily in India in the 18th Cen\u00adtury, just at the peri\u00adod when the East India Com\u00adpany was absorb\u00ading and tak\u00ading over the crum\u00adbling Mughal Empire. At the \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bu-reading-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9713,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions\/9713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}