From soldier to spectacle: Africans and the langar procession in Hyderabad

ABSTRACT

In this article I explore the role of Africans in the Nizam of Hyderabad’s armed forces at the end of the nineteenth century. In particular I focus on their representation in newspaper and eye-witness accounts during their participation in the annual langar procession in Hyderabad city. Tens of thousands of local Hyderabadis as well as Britons and other foreign guests witnessed this procession that involved thousands of individuals drawn from the Nizam’s military members. I argue that by this time Africans in Hyderabad city had transitioned from active soldiers in the Nizam’s forces to a form of spectacle. Accounts of Africans reveal the ways in which their racial identity marked them as different from their Indian counterparts and how they embodied a kind of spectacle that was consumed by both Indians and Britons alike during the procession.

Keywords:

• Hyderabad
• African
• langar
• procession
• racial identity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In part the timing of this transformation has to do with India’s larger political scene. In the years after 1857 as the Indo-British Raj brought a form of pax Britannica to India, the princely armed forces were no longer needed to defend their own borders or participate in internecine warfare. As Denis Judd has written, India by the 1870s ‘stood pacified and, to some extent, reformed.’ Judd, Empire. The British Imperial Experience, 1765 to the Present, 76.

2. Langar is spelled in a variety of ways: langar, lungar, lungur, and lunghur. I have used ‘langar’ as found in: Platts, A Dictionary of Urdū, Classical Hindī, and English, 965.

3. Myerly, British Military Spectacle From the Napoleonic Wars through the Crimea, 1.

4. References to the langar procession can be found in many sources, see subsequent notes for a sampling of this.

5. Hawley, India in Africa, Africa in India: Indian Ocean cosmopolitanisms, 204. See also: Chauhan, Africans in India: From Slavery to Royalty.

6. For instance, see: Mengesha, “The Habshis”.

7. For instance, work on Malik Ambar. See Omar Ali’s work, especially p. 30 on Ambar’s shift to India. Ali, Malik Ambar Power and Slavery Across the Indian Ocean. See also Chapter Five: Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan, 1300–1761: Eight Indian Lives.

8. Ali, The African Dispersal in the Deccan, 3. See also: Khalidi, “The Habshis of Hyderabad,”; Cohen, “The African Guard of Wanaparthy and Hyderabad”. See also the multi-part series on Hyderabad’s army beginning with: Ashraf, “The Hyderabad Army”.

9. Accounts of the langar procession appear in English language newspapers published in colonial South Asia. I have accessed these through the World Newspapers online database (https://www.readex.com/content/south-asian-newspapers-1864-1922) between March and August 2019. The newspapers from this database include: Amrita Bazar Patrika (Calcutta); The Leader (Allahabad); The Madras Mail (Madras); The Pioneer (Allahabad); and The Tribune (Lahore). Other newspaper accounts are from archival collections or are available publicly and cited as such.

10. There are many accounts of this story and what follows is an amalgamation. The accounts vary only in the level of detail they provide but are otherwise remarkably consistent. Among many, see: Rajaram, “The “Langar” Festival of Hyderabad,” and, A.N., “The Lungur Procession At Hyderabad (Deccan)”.

11. On the Qutb Shahi era, see: Sherwani, “The Qutb Shahis of Golkonda-Hyderabad,” 483. This particular date is identified in: Bilgrami and Willmott, Historical and Descriptive Sketch of His Highness the Nizam’s Dominions, 577.

12. On the neighbourhood where this shrine exists, see: Leonard, Social History of an Indian Caste, 107 and 109. Also 182–183. On the ways in which the shrine was patronized over time, see: –, “Hindu temples in Hyderabad: state patronage and politics in South Asia,” 354.

13. Thévenot, The travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant in three parts, viz. into I. Turkey, II. Persia, III. the East-Indies/newly done out of French, 106.

14. Processions have long been used to publicly display social order. Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre And Other Episodes In French Cultural History, 116, 120, 124.

15. Even this simple act was, at times, contested. During the 1886 langar procession, the Nizam seems to have intentionally delayed the start of the procession to disparage then Minister Sir Salar Jung. One newspaper states, ‘the delay was meant to annoy, if not publicly insult, Salar Jung before the British Resident. Great indignation was expressed by all present at the childish way in which the Nizam had chosen to show his antipathy to his Minister…’ Secunderabad. The depiction of the Nizam as ‘childish’ fits with late nineteenth century portrays by Britons of colonized peoples as in some way childish. Sinha, Colonial Masculinity.

16. Bilgrami and Willmott, Historical and Descriptive Sketch of His Highness the Nizam’s Dominions, 575. The order of participants, or of their followers, was sometimes at the centre of disputes. During the 1895 langar procession, a question of precedence erupted between Kurshed Jah and Asman Jah and went all the way to the British Resident’s desk. See: India Office Records, R/1/1/163. 1895. Foreign Department. Secret – I. Oriental and India Office Library, London.

17. Cohen, Kingship and Colonialism in India’s Deccan: 1850–1948; Saksenah, Qadim Dakani Saltanaten aur Samastan and Donappa, Andhra Samasthamulu Sahitya Poshammu.

18. “ The “Lungur” Procession at Hyderabad, Times of India 29 May 1866,” 179. For a history of Wanaparthy’s African soldiers, see: Cohen, “The African Guard of Wanaparthy and Hyderabad”.

19. Burrows, The Muharram Festival in Hyderabad, 591.

20. On the invaluable role of events in history, see: Sewell, Logics of History. Social Theory and Social Transformation, 197.

21. On the ways in which narratology take up the use of space, see: Ryan et al., Narrating Space/Spatializing Narrative. Chapter 2.

22. I am basing my definition of the term on that of the Oxford English Dictionary. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/186057?rskey=B2aptN&result=1#eid. Accessed 14 May 2019.

23. I thank an external reader for directing me to Omar H. Ali’s sensitive description of the latter process in Lima, Peru. See: Ali, “A Legacy of Black Labor and Culture“.

24. Ryan, “The American Parade: Representations of the Nineteenth-Century Social Order,“ 133. Ryan says that the first notable procession in the United States was in Philadelphia in 1788, 193 years after langar began in Hyderabad!

25. Ibid., 133.

26. On the ways in which narrative inflects literary analysis, see: Sommer, ‘“Contextualism” Revisited: A Survey (and Defence) of Postcolonial and Intercultural Narratologies.’ On how the study of Africans in India in the post-colonial era might be viewed through the lenses of narratology, ethnic studies and/or postcolonial studies, see: Kim, “Introduction: Decolonizing Narrative Theory,“ 234.

27. Ryan et al., Narrating Space/Spatializing Narrative, 2.

28. “The Lungur Procession at Hyderabad, Times of India 7 February 1876“.

29. Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions, 265.

30. Telangana/Andhra Pradesh State Archive, Hyderabad (T/APSA) Newspaper Cuttings 1897–1901. The Lungar Festival At Hyderabad.

31. Secunderabad.

32. T/APSA Newspaper Cuttings 1894–1896. The Lunghur. As Seen by a ‘Funny Man’.

33. The langar procession waxed and waned over the late nineteenth century. External factors sometimes marred its celebration. In 1900 tension between the city’s Sunnis and Shias significantly impacted the number of guests in attendance. See: T/APSA Newspaper Cuttings 1897–1901. The Mohurrum In Hyderabad. A Tame Ceremony. See also: Lungar Celebration at Hyderabad. In a different year, the procession was the site of possible nefarious deeds as a young Hyderabad nobleman, Keshav Pershad, fell or was possibly pushed from his elephant during the procession and died. A vague account of this is as such: ‘One accident only marred the Mohurrum festivities. A young Hyderabadi of good position had the misfortune to fall off his elephant. He was picked up unconscious and died the same evening.’ Secunderabad. For a more detailed telling of what happened, see: Leonard, Social History of an Indian Caste, 182–3 and also footnote 25.

34. Nearly eight thousand kilometres to the west, in London in 1897, the British Government was preparing its own form of a grand and spectacular procession the Diamond Jubilee celebration of Queen Victoria. Here too the Empire was akin to a great organization with, as Denis Judd notes, ‘the British and their white colonial cousins’ as the ‘natural leaders.’ Judd, Empire. The British Imperial Experience, 1765 to the Present, 133–4.

35. A.N., “The Lungur Procession At Hyderabad (Deccan),“ 626. Chamberlain’s visit prompted rumours that he was sent to Hyderabad by the British Indian Government to ascertain the strength of the Nizam’s forces, including its African soldiers. See: “The “Lungur” Ceremony at Hyderabad“.

36. The Langar Festival. Unique Indian Spectacle.

37. The Lungar Procession At Hyderabad.

38. T/APSA Newspaper Cuttings 1894–1896.

39. Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions, 268.

40. Burrows, The Muharram Festival in Hyderabad, 588.

41. Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions, 266.

42. Myerly, British Military Spectacle From the Napoleonic Wars through the Crimea, 8, 139.

43. In 1891 Hyderabad State had roughly 11.5 million people. Of those, 88.6% were Hindu and 10.4% were Muslim. In the same year, there were 5261 Europeans in the state. Imperial Gazetteer of India. Provincial Series. Hyderābad State, 20, 24. For some account of the political diversity within the state, see: Leonard, “The Hyderabad Political System and its Participants“.

44. “The Lungur Procession at Hyderabad, Times of India 7 February 1876,“ 184.

45. Ibid., 184. It should be noted less than two decades after 1857, the memory of these mostly north Indian ethnic communities as particularly troublesome had not yet been lost.

46. Bradley, Lady Curzon’s India, 143.

47. This account makes special mention that Arabs, Africans, and Rohillas were employed by ‘chiefs of Hyderabad.’ A.N., “The Lungur Procession At Hyderabad (Deccan),“ 627. In a different account, ‘Deccanees’ are identified as a separate group. See: The Lungar Procession, Hyderabad.

48. In one account, while the chiefs and nobles are a ‘gay and pleasing sight’ their ‘ragged followers and retainers make the scene quite grotesque.’ Mudiraj, Pictorial Hyderabad, 351.

49. Munson, Jungle Days, 193.

50. Ahmed, Life’s Yesterdays, 131–2.

51. Mudiraj, Pictorial Hyderabad, 351.

52. Canetti, Crowds and Power, 73.

53. A.N., “The Lungur Procession At Hyderabad (Deccan),” 628.

54. Ibid., 629. Other accounts of an African band exist. They performed ‘sweet music’ in the langar procession of 1878. “The “Lungur” ceremony at Hyderabad, Bombay Gazette 24 January 1878,” 352.

55. Law, Modern Hyderabad (Deccan), 6.

56. Rajaram, “The “Langar” Festival of Hyderabad,” 253.

57. Ibid., 253.

58. “ The “Lungur” Procession at Hyderabad, Times of India 29 May 1866,” 179. Other accounts echo similar sentiments, for example, the African Cavalry, ‘show up well’ during the procession. See note 41 above.

59. T/APSA Newspaper Cuttings 1897–1901. Notes from Secunderabad.

60. Burrows, The Muharram Festival in Hyderabad, 589. In this same account, Burrows also refers to the “Zanzibaris in bright Zouave costumes,“ 590. The term Zouave generally refers to North Africans or Algerians.

61. The Lungar Procession. A subsequent account from the same year refers to the uniforms of the Africans as ‘prominent and striking.’ Trouble in Hyderabad.

62. Bilgrami and Willmott, Historical and Descriptive Sketch of His Highness the Nizam’s Dominions, 576.

63. The Viceroy’s Tour.

64. Cohen, “The Delhi Durbar: The View from Hyderabad“.

65. Departure of the Nizam. In a further sign of the demilitarizing of the Africans in the Nizam’s forces, on this same trip to Delhi, the Nizam brought with members of the African Guard. However, fearing their ‘militancy,’ British officials insisted that they carry only dummy cartridges in their weapons. Khalidi, “The Habshis of Hyderabad,“ 250.

66. See above 50.132.

67. Cameron, The Prince of Wales at Hyderabad 1922, 17.

68. A Cheerful Procession.

69. Burrows, The Muharram Festival in Hyderabad, 590.

70. Cannadine, “The Context, Performance and Meaning of Ritual: The British Monarchy and the “Invention of Tradition”, c. 1820–1977“.

71. See Chapter Four, ‘The Empire on Parade’ for a discussion of this. Mitcham, Race and Imperial Defence in the British World, 1870 − 1914.

72. A.N., “The Lungur Procession At Hyderabad (Deccan),“ 623. Large portions of this article appear earlier and presumably by the same author. For the earlier version, see “The “Lungur” ceremony at Hyderabad, Bombay Gazette 24 January 1878,“ 350–2.

73. A.N., “The Lungur Procession At Hyderabad (Deccan),“ 624.

74. Ibid., 624.

75. T/APSA Newspaper Cuttings 1897–1901. The Lungar Festival At Hyderabad.

76. See above 49. 193.

77. See note 53 above.

78. See note 41 above.

79. See note 69 above.

80. Mitcham, Race and Imperial Defence in the British World, 1870 − 1914, 99.

81. The Lungar Procession.