White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India

From the early sixteenth century, it was common for British colonizers in India to embarrass the Crown by "turning Turk" or "going native." Few caused greater scandal than James Kirkpatrick, a British resident in the Court of Hyderabad, who converted to Islam and spied on the East India Company in the midst of an affair with Khair un-Nissa, the great-niece of the region's prime minister.

White Moguls is rich with many eccentric characters, from "Hindoo Stuart," who traveled with his own tea...