Begums, Thugs and Englishmen : The Journals of Fanny Parkes

Contents: Introduction. 1. Departure from England. 2. Carnicobar. 3. Life in India. 4. Residence in Calcutta. 5. Residence in Calcutta. 6. Residence in Calcutta. 7. Departure from the presidency. 8. Life in the Mofussil. 9. Residence at Allahabad. 10. Life in the Zenana. 11. Residence at Prag. 12. Sketches of Allahabad. 13. Removal to Cawnpore—confessions of a Thug. 14. Residence at Cawnpore. 15. The Thug’s dice—execution of eleven Thugs. 16. Residence at Cawnpore-the Dewali. 17. Scenes in Oude. 18. Revelations of life in the Zenana. 19. The return to Allahabad—execution of twenty-five Thugs. 20. Scenes at Allahabad. 21. Life in the Zenana. 22. Adventures in the east. 23. The great fair at Allahabad. 24. The nut log. 25. The Cholera. 26. The Muharram. 27. White ants and cold mornings for hunting. 28. Pilgrimage to the Taj. 29. Pilgrimage to the Taj. 30. The Taj Mahal. 31. Pleasant days at Agra. 32. Revelations of life in the Zenana. 33. Life in the Zenana and Chita Hunting. 34. Fatehpur Sikri and colonel gardner. 35. The marriage. 36. The Barat. 37. The Chaotree. 38. The Mahratta Camp and Zenana. 39. The Nawab Hakim Mehndi and the city of Kannauj. 40. The Mahratta Camp and scenes in the Zenana. 41. The Mahrattas at Allahabad. 42. Tufans in the east. 43. From Ghazipur to Ballia. 44. Sketches in Bengal—the Sunderbands. 45. The famine at Kannauj. 46. Pleasant days in Camp. 47. Ruins of Delhi. 48. Ancient Delhi—the Zenana Ghar. 49. Departure for the hills—landowr. 50. Picturesque scenes in the hills. 51. Life in the hills. 52. Departure from the hills. 53. Departure from Allahabad. 54. Arrival in Calcutta—the Madagascar. 55. Departure from St. Helena. The farewell.

"Fanny Parkes, who lived in India between 1822 and 1846, was the ideal travel writer—courageous, indefatigably curious and determinedly independent. Her delightful journal traces her journey from prim memsahib, married to a minor civil servant of the Raj, to eccentric sitar-playing Indophile, fluent in Urdu, critical of British rule and passionate in her appreciation of Indian culture.

"Fanny is fascinated by everything, from the trial of the thugs and the efficacy of opium on headaches to the adorning of a Hindu bride. To read her is to get as close as one can to a true picture of early colonial India—the sacred and the profane, the violent and the beautiful, the straight-laced sahibs and the more eccentric 'White Mughals’ who fell in love with India and did their best, like Fanny, to build bridges across cultures.

"Fanny Parkes, a redoubtable English woman who cocked a snook at the English Raj and delighted in Indian India, is one of the greatest travel writers of all times."