Intercultural Diplomacy at the Court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, 1770–1815

Abstract

Descriptions of Indian rulers’ diplomatic encounters with EIC officials reveal contempt for these ‘paltry merchants’. Despite these discourses in the practices of interaction, this article argues, we find surprisingly commensurable structures and rules of engagement. The fact that British diplomatic agents were not high-ranking royal ambassadors enabled them to adapt to Indo-Persian norms of comportment. Indian rulers understood the ‘Residents’ at their courts within the Mughal diplomatic function of a wakil, intermediaries between patrons and clients within the polity as well as with other regional rulers. Both Asian and European wakils were far from being bureaucratic functionaries. Their individual standing depended on personal performance and ties with both their employer and the local ruler they were despatched to. Consequently, Asian and British diplomatic agents moved within a double network of patronage and often found themselves in situations of ambiguous loyalties. However, the global mobilization during the French Revolutionary Wars intensified monopolistic claims of the British nation state. The Treaty of 1800 extinguished Hyderabad’s external sovereignty and the Resident came to represent the exclusive channel of foreign relations. These transformations in political power were not immediately reflected in courtly ceremonials, where Residents were displaying subservience well into the nineteenth century.