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A Princess’s Pilgrimage: Nawab Sikandar Begum’s “A Pilgrimage to Mecca” A Pilgrimage to Mecca was written in 1870 but soon went out of print. Sikandar Begum’s Urdu text had been translated by the wife of a British colonial officer, Emma Laura Willoughby-Osborne. Women Unlimited have unearthed it for contemporary audiences and reacquainted us with a woman’s account of her hajj to Mecca, a religious injunction all Muslims are exhorted to perform at least once in their lifetime. Lambert-Hurley, as the editor, rechristens the book A Princess’s Pilgrimage and, on her part, believes that exhuming life into this extinct book will highlight the Islamic dimension of travel writing which is further situated within a colonial context.
The narrative of Sikandar Begum, who was the Nawab of Bhopal from 1860-68 and earlier its regent, gives us enough subject matter for analysis: was the hajj motivated by personal or political reasons? What was the begum’s perspective about the Arab world? How much does her narrative vary from that of an orientalist? These are some of the questions to which we hope for answers in this memoir. One thing is clear—very few women risked the perils of such a long journey. Even the great Emperor Akbar was advised to not take his female relatives to Mecca. Sikandar, we hear, was accompanied by a thousand pilgrims. Embarking from Bombay on 6 May 1864, the Nawab and her entourage arrived in Jeddah eight months later. The text is one long saga of grievances: there is no sincerity and friendship among the Arab people who are "miserly and covetous", prone to begging and cheating, and extremely dissatisfied. Upon arrival, her irritation with custom officials for demanding to examine her enormous luggage and for exacting taxes despite the bribe they are given upsets are enormously. Her protracted and arrogant interchange with the Sherif of Mecca on the subject of the lodgings he arranges for her which are not to her liking, reads like a treatise on the apologetic manners and customs of the Arabs. We are told: "Almost all the bad characters that have been driven out of India, may be found in Mecca." As if that was not enough, she goes on to add: "Cheating and lying prevail to a great extent; and the children are very disorderly and noisy. There are no colleges or schools for affording them instruction, and the men and women are a worthless set of people." Long inventories of complaints, expenses and customs allow the Begum little time for spiritual introspection, presumably the motivation for this journey. Her account of Mecca is concise and brief, giving way immediately to a recordation of her problems with the local Sherif. But on the subject of residence and other arrangements, the Begum devotes numerous pages. She is perhaps interested in showing herself as an agent of modern reform and able administration as borne out by her objections and the forthrightness of her views. I tend to agree with Lambert-Hurley that Sikandar Begum strives to create a distinction between herself as an Indian Muslim against the Muslim "other" and thereby "constructs" the Orient arguably to please the British who had installed her as Nawab owing to her unflinching loyalty during the rebellion of 1857. Although the narrative is not chronological, relying on memory and reminiscence, her description of Jeddah, its population, amenities and infrastructure is a minefield of anthropological detail. But what comes as a surprise is that the Begum does not visit Medina, and ends her account with a series of letters indicating the risks posed by the roguish Bedouins as well as the expenses involved. This sense of expectations unfulfilled leaves the reader with a sense of anti-climax. But then, it has to be understood that the Begum’s spirit of adventure can in no way be compared with a Kalpana Chawla’s expedition into space. As Barbara Metcalf has put it appropriately: hajj narratives are often "less about the hajj and more about the hajji."
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Although A Pilgrimage
to Mecca belongs to the genre of travel writing, it is an account of
gender bias, colonialism and all forms of patriarchy existing in the
Islamic world in the 19th century as recounted by our female pilgrim,
Sikandar Begum. What struck me is how different this description is from
the travel narratives of English memsahibs writing about India who
exhibit a self-confidence, assurance and freedom unknown to their
Eastern counterparts.