This story fascinated me as someone of Indian and British ancestry.
52
There's a movie in here somewhere.
198
Incredible. The ending gave me chills.
"If a person like this has gone into oblivion, and had this death of anonymity,” he said, wonderingly, “what can you say about the death of a commoner?”
It proves that at the end of your life, the truth rings. He e was not royalty, and how he ended up just like what he was, a commoner. And I think the unmarked grave, going "into oblivion" speaks volumes.
123
Thank you for this brilliant piece of journalism!
202
I agree with those who wrote "this is why we subscribe" ... this was an interesting and wonderful story. How the siblings must have suffered under the absolute control of their domineering mother 💔
168
Great story— the slap was well deserved.. it probably woke you up from the story you had probably dreamt up.. don’t blame you though .. India can do that to those who come with feverish hopes of a strange mystical world.. now you must go back and write with eyes wide open..
63
awesome reporting
50
Riveting piece of writing and very well researched as expected from a piece in NYT . My question is was it necessary ? stripping from that family the only thing they had left . Their delusion of a princely past and royal lineage were the only treasure they had . I have heard the stories of a queen who lived in the waiting room from my parents and aunts since I was little . This article made me feel like a child who learns for the first time that Santa Claus is not real . My sincerest hope is that their story stays alive at least in India as they wanted it to be . The story of queen Wilayat , Prince Cyrus and Princess Sakina .. RIP
113
I was amazed to read this story as a relative of my late father-in-law was a scribe to an illiterate member of the Oudh dynasty in Lucknow during the British occupation of India. My father-in-law's relative was a literate educated Hindu who helped with correspondence and reading for members of the family. Just fascinated by this piece and the six degrees of separation with my late in-laws who lived in Lucknow.
109
Interesting and sad story. Great job of reporting.
37
I'm wondering where did they get the doctors when the kids were sick? how can a family live without electricity, without water, and for so long? I'm really offended by the drone picture. Where were the doctors in Delhi, since they knew about the whole shenanigans. Where were the doctors in Delhi? Doing vaccinations, etc. On the dogs? The doctors in Delhi knew about this place. What about Dengue fever? Is that what he died of? Where were the doctors?
23
In Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story, “A Real Durwan,” her main character, Boori Ma, tells a story of the marvelous riches that she once enjoyed as she works cleaning the steps and sleeping on the roof as the building’s gatekeeper. All this displacement occurred as a result of Partition, but all her neighbors can say when she talks of her lost past is that she talks with a bucket of ashes. This is the story of displacement throughout the world.
477
A nice piece but you don't address how the family was taking care of simple health issues. What about vaccinations against Polio? How about the simple boosters against Polio, against measles, and certainly the Zika Virus that is running rampant there. Much as I loved your article there are things that should be explained. How did Indira Gandhi give them the place to live without taking care of their health. This is 20th century, yes? This is so breathtaking, and so appalling. at the same time.
23
Beautiful story. Divide and Conquer.
10
This is the best piece of journalism I have ever read. (That's no faint praise; I used to be a journalist.)
I hope it is made into a movie. It would be spellbinding. It could be magnificent.
173
Fantastic article.
26
This is Ellen Barry at her best. This is the Times at its best. For those who might have missed it, find Ms Barry’s story on young women in India migrating to cities and read it. It’s even more moving than this.
146
" How do you crush diamonds, anyway?" - Diamonds are brittle - extreme example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69fr5bNiEfc
8
The backstory, the partition of India, seems to be a final jackbooted kick by the hand washing Brits and that supercilious toad Mountbatten. Who are we to question the sanity of any of the Indian Muslims, who, like the Hindus, had become more British than the occupiers and were left to salvage dignity as they could. Harry Kumar anyone?
41
this story itself justifies my subscription to the NYT.. it is how journalism shall be done and shared.. thank you
87
A story worthy of a place as old as time...
Namaste
28
Nice bit of writing for sure but I just cannot get past this juicy passage the author quoted in her piece.
“Have you noticed that a factual error appearing in respected printed form tends to be copied by other researchers in the same field, until, inevitably, it competes with the truth for credibility?
180
This piece equals the story it tells.
20
This is so beautifully written. Please continue to write in this manner and tell the stories that go deeper then click bait provocative headlines.
68
Delightful! "How do you crush diamonds, anyway?"
19
Great article!
8
After reading this article this morning, I proceeded to email the link to all my friends. This is just great journalism and I can't wait to see this turned into a screenplay for a movie.. This is exactly why I pay for the New York TImes..
33
I loved this article.
How delusional are we all? What is our line of delusion?
What crazy dreams have we told ourselves to make everything make sense?
Thanks for being a lunatic to chase down this story.
I’m sure that many people (editors ) were very irritated by you.
49
Mickey Butt? Why not follow the thread of that name, allowing for the thought that the family might not have been Indian at all, or was at least half Brit? Those pictures! They all look possibly Brit or mixed, certainly in posture and at least somewhat in faces. Exiling the family from rail station to decaying hunting lodge did rid the government of a pesky problem. Wonder what DNA from the remains of Mickey aka Prince Cyrus or the brother in England might show? Some more truly investigative reporting seems in order. Sadly, it might undermine the miraculously maintained fantasy delightful to so many and the likely film treatment a possible financial delight someone. So much romantic self- bamboozlement at work from railway residence through all the decades on to this story. And as many comments point out, we in the US would be a great audience for some lightly politically allusive escape fiction just now.
31
A lot of newsprint, but some facts leap out: it took a NYT reporter to find the truth, from the fortuitous discovery of the Western Union receipts -- you can't beat good tradecraft. Sadly, this is largely absent in the Indian media, or even govt investigative agencies. So these leeches could feed off the Indian taxpayer for decades. And Indians have always been so flooded by junk news, thoughts, facts, science, education that they accept nonsensical claims without critical scrutiny. Sad.
20
So...I must agree the story was interesting and well written and researched... but to what end? Please explain to me how
-writer hears an enticing story about a family living in a ruined building in an overgrown jungle who claim to be royalty,..
-writer investigates and finds out their claims to be royalty are completely false as are the claims they have made to the Indian government...
-writer goes on to publish this story...
Has any relevance that would justify a section in the New York Times?
This entire effort seems more like “Writer investigates false story about people calling themselves Indian royalty...finds out they are lying...and writes the story anyway.”
What is the point about writing a story that turns out not to be a story at all?
20
The writer states plainly that she was offended that she was lied to.
30
“The Nepali servants, they would walk on their knees,” said Saleem Kidwai, a historian who sought them out at the time.
It seems that few want to stop and ponder on this. Three people demanded to be treated like divinity. Others walk on their knees. A brother and a sister that had no way to meet people, fall in love. This is so sad.
60
I could not stop reading this article.
30
Brilliant, hard work!
16
She reminds me quite a bit of Anna Anderson, who for most of her life passed herself off as Tsar Nicholas's daughter Anastasia.
While she most definitely was not, I believe that she believed she was.
14
Such powerful storytelling by Ms Barry! At once sensitive, poignant, respectful and stirring. Having spent my youth in the late-80's in New Delhi, never knew about this incident or the players or its far-reaching tangle of psychological, historical and cultural skeins. Dogged pursuit, compelling writing, brilliantly curated set of photographs, gently, persuasively unraveling the deeper interplay of human emotions and failings; this is beautiful.
While reams have been written on the Raj and the Partition and its aftermath, a thoughtful long-form story such as this, has a tangible, immediacy. And that it took a NY Times to crack a 40 yr old mystery, is, of course, no surprise. Kudos!
35
Though British enabled Indian Nation, history of India doesn’t start with them. World knows/talks very less of the Indian Empire of Ashoka or Mouryas because even our own Left leaning historians like Ramachandra Guha, Romila Thapar have ignored them. Instead, Moghuls were projected and glorified.
British took what they came for and wanted. But they were left wanting, in the manner in which they partitioned and left, leaving people with trauma unforgettable. I heard the partition border ran through the living rooms 😊.
Such was the disdain and cynicism of the British that their karma is finally catching up in Brexit. (even though the violence both Hindus and Muslims have endured won’t be felt even remotely.)
Tolerance of Hindus for invaders and the alien culture they bring is phenomenal, for the simple reason their parents never teach less of other faiths/paths and even encourage to understand them. And what more proof than the fact that they have mastered the language of their oppressors, which enabled them to once again ‘dominate’ the world, not with swords or guns but through the knowledge of IT.
22
This is journalism we subscribe to. This is why we keep getting the New York Times. The follow through on this story, reaching out to people ,collecting facts one city, one country to another only and only to get the truth across. In the end beautifully written. What a start to my Saturday morning.
22
Sometimes people can lie to themselves believing it to be true. This family tricked government officials to giving them a historical building to live in. Finally you brought the truth to the people everywhere. Thank you for a splendid report.
9
This is why I have subscribed to NYT for 30 years. Real journalism costs a lot of money and NYT gave Ellen Barry the financial freedom to pursue this terrific story. And then to give it a separate section of the paper!
28
This was by far, one of the best stories I have ever read. It should me made into a movie.
18
Prince Cyrus is so elegant in his Oxford top. Probably not a PC comment. Such an incredible and mysterious tale.The property could become a park to honor those who have suffered from strife.
14
I can't remember the last article that kept me as fixated on the characters as this.
Bravo !
19
Thank you for this amazing article! From the very first sentence I was hooked, reading every word, eager with anticipation about what happened next in this fascinating story.
Indeed, Ellen Barry's feature story, The Jungle Price of Delhi, is superb journalism and the reason I return to the NYT again and again. Bravo to both the journalist and the photographer for their excellence!
17
Book? There will be a book? Yes? This wonderful article only scratched the surface of the story: there is so much left to be said!
12
Great story! Truth is indeed stranger than fiction!
10
Less than a minute looking at Delhi on Google Maps and you can find this ruined palace. Simply look for the large green area in the center and then find the isolated radio telescope dishes ("Delhi Earth Station") that are seen in the background of some of the photos in the article. Just above it, "Malcha Mahal" is identified.
23
I grew up in the heart of Delhi in the 70s and travelled to and from the New Delhi railway station several times a year. I never heard about the jungle prince or his family's occupation of public property, but I am sure my teenage self would have despised these relics of the imperial past. They had no right to colonize whole rooms while ordinary people slept on the open platform. Of course they were imposters, and they would have been even if no actual pretence had been involved. The real Indians were the ones like my parents, who grew without a dime to their name, let alone indoor plumbing or electricity. They went to government schools and struggled to learn English. They were patriots who studied in the west but went back to build the country, not to steal a mansion that could have housed a dozen poor families. Why lavish so much attention upon these parasitic tragedians when the real workers and architects of modern India never even get a passing mention? It's appalling that Ms. Barry visited so many places over so many years to write this story. All that time and money would have been better spent on a comparably detailed and moving story about someone like Kailash Satyarthi, whose name, shamefully, most readers will fail to recognize.
57
Yes, such intrepid persistent research and dialogue. Thank you Ellen Barry, for this marvelous and sensitive reporting! Subsequent to the Partition, the mental hospital in Pakistan, the failed attempt return to Lucknow, and then squatting for nine years in the Delhi train station, the upgrade to Malcha Mahal in 1984 seems to have been without any government stipend. It was a more vegetated form of confinement where monetary support from Rashid kept them alive. Perhaps a relationship with a nearby mosque would reduced the inevitable loneliness? Amitav Ghosh describes a happier, more vibrant confinement for the royal family of Burma in Ratnagiri in his novel, The Glass Palace.
6
I’m from India currently in my early 20s. I can’t image much of partition or the ‘70s much apart from what I’ve seen in movies growing up.
The article tells that how Indian kids are persuaded by parents to believe something is still very true. Mostly in rural areas. I can relate how the kids must have felt, honouring their mother on every decision, the life long trauma and humiliation they must have felt. Their financial troubles, loneliness at the age when one needs someone in their life the most.
When I was a kid, I saw the movie named “Gadar - Ek Prem Khata” which showed the brutal partition and my parents told me it was one of the most accurate version of how the bloodbath happened. Hindus killing Muslims here, and Muslims killing Hindus in Pakistan. There were trains coming from both the side with just dead bodies. Anyone who have lived those years, knows how horrific those times were and certainly how people lost their life savings, their properties, their lands, their everything overnight with just one British decision. Maybe, that’s what made the mother unstable.
Anyway, this is one of the best articles I’ve ever read.
70
"The nawab’s mother, in seclusion, sailed to Britain in a desperate attempt to plead her case with Queen Victoria"
A remarkable fact about the mother of Wajid Ali Shah. His mother was willing to do anything for her son. She met Queen Victoria, but the effort was futile. FYI, her name was Janab-i-Aliyyah. She never returned to India, as she became ill on the return trip and died in France in 1858. She is buried in the same cemetery as Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison of The Doors.
Off topic, but it's always fascinating to read about these meetings between Asian royal family members and Westerners of historical significance (and sad too, knowing that many Asian royal families from India to Burma to Vietnam to Korea would end up dethroned). Remarkably, in 1787 in Paris (the same city where Wajid Ali Shah's mother would die 71 years later), Thomas Jefferson as a diplomat met a Vietnamese prince. The prince was a boy, and his father had traveled to Versailles to seek the aid of Louis XVI in dealing with a rebellion in Vietnam (this was decades before France would turn into an imperial menace that threatened and ultimately ended Vietnam's sovereignty). Jefferson met the boy because he was apparently interested in learning about Vietnamese rice seeds, which he believed would flourish in the climate of South Carolina.
39
This story raises more questions than answers
How did the family live so long with no visible means of support? Did Indian provide some kind of monthly assistance payments?
Story mentions’ No Running Water or Electricity’
How did they live and maintain themselves in such conditions??
May be there can be a follow up story answering the practical aspects
16
Wonderful story, sympathetically told.
Of course, we also see the role of irrational crowd emotion driving politics. These imposters were given this property and all this attention for no good reason. The government folded to demands based on lies. So, so familiar. A tale for our times.
8
The NYtimes just earned my subscription! A few times over. Kudos to Ellen Barry for such impressive journalism.
10
What an incredible story. Too real to be fiction. Cyrus and his sister, living in willful exile and fierce indignation, must have sincerely believed their mother's delusion.
7
A very well written piece. I never thought that a reporter would go in so much details, and do so much research for a story that is insignificant to present day politics ( or economy, or news of any type). Kudos to Ellen Barry. I only wish that Ellen had used the correct spellings for Awadh and not the British (Western) spellings of Oudh. As pronounced in Indian languages, it should be spelled as Awadh.
17
I think it is mysterious.
How about exporer there?
This. Just this.
This is why we get the New York Times. Waiting for a story like this to come along. The writing, the story, the voice, the passion, the reporting. The story. This. Just this.
15
Thank you for a very readable narrative. As an Indian I did find some of the material disconcerting, not because of anyone's pigmentation, but being born in a fully Independent India I have always been uncomfortable and wary of the "exotic Indians" angle, but realize it is a big deal for most folks in the world.
One observation for the author, she keeps referring to Cyrus and Sakina "living alone", etc... when in fact they seem to have had servants taking care of their needs for several years, setting the table, keeping up appearances, etc... It is fair to say they wer socially isolated, and that should have been the first clue that there was some mental illness or trauma at work there. Which was another thing that was disconcerting to me - if someone was living like this in the US, would you have shown the same curiosity and humored them? I do not know the answer, but I will leave it for everyone to consider for themselves.
My heart did go out to Shahid, the brother who tried to remain sane in a clearly insane situation, and had the generosity and spirit to help his mother and siblings. For those unfamiliar with the name, it literally means "martyr."
128
This was brilliant! The perfect mix of historical and emotional narrative. Questions of madness, reality, and fate will linger for all of us.
6
Terrific story, I loved reading it. And, for the most part, I concur with the letters written here in praise. However, I wish that people would dispense with the "blame colonialism" sentiment that seems to run through many of the comments.
How can one think that a system of hundreds of kingdoms with leaders who maintain over a hundred wives and concubines was better, if at all sustainable? How about the thousands of people enslaved by the Raj?
The idea of partition was created in an attempt to remedy the all ready divisive and violent relations existing between the Hindu and the Muslim people in India, wasn't it? The British were not responsible for that.
Along with hundreds of millions of other North Americans, I enjoy the highest standard of living on the planet because of British colonialism. And I'm not of British descent.
14
@vas Without getting into the merits of your other statements, which are your opinions, I must correct your claim that the British were not responsible for Partition. They very much were.
"Divide and Rule" was an official policy of the British, and they practiced it in the Bengal region of India first, then they promoted in the rest of the country. This same tactic was also used in the Middle East, exemplified by the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
As far as India's Partition was concerned, one could contend that the violence was worse in the Northern part of India, and almost negligible in the South. In turn, there was a much smaller exodus of Muslims from the South to Pakistan (East or West. East Pakistan went on to achieve Independence as Bangladesh in 1971.) This is so because a large portion of Northern India was under Mughal rule. The Muslim rulers had an Empire which consisted of a Hindu majority and even though they had some awful policies (Kafir tax, and forcible conversions, especially persecution of the Sikh Gurus, ...) the populace was largely peaceful and not craving for a partition by religious birth/belief.
So, Partition was not a remedy, it was a poison. Please get your facts straight. Look at Indians and Pakistanis in the US, you will see them get along fine. The division was exploited by the British and they poisoned the well. Pakistan, which was made of people who took the bait hook, line and sinker still suffers for that choice.
51
Take 5 minutes and Google "divide and rule" you might be pleasantly surprised.
3
Great story, well written and researched.
My mother's family was from Lucknow but the family lived in Agra. As a kid I remember vising Oudh Nawab's grand palaces in Lucknow.
10
This is a fabulous article that shows journalism in its highest form. Congratulations on such an incredible article. Thank you NY Times for providing such amazing in depth stories.
14
Thank you for sharing this incredible story with us! This story is one of my best reads in 2019!
7
This is an incredible story. I read the original and now the follow up is even more incredulous. Thank you. A beautiful and moving tale. This is India.
10
Ellen is terrific! I was hooked from the first sentence.
10
Thank you for this amazing article! From the first sentence, I was hooked, reading every word, eager with anticipation about what happened next in this fascinating story.
Indeed, Ellen Barry's feature story, The Jungle Prince of Delhi, is superb journalism and the reason I return to the NYT again and again. Bravo to both the journalist and the photographer for their excellence!
14
A beautiful and extremely well-written article. What struck me was the effect of the trauma of partition on the mental health of the protagonists. Especially the mother. I assume she wasn't faking it when she camped out in the Dehli Railway station for years. She really believed that she was part of the Oudh royal family. Just imagine there were probably millions of such people who lived through partition in 1947 and are now probably dead. But somehow the effects of that trauma linger on and manifest itself in the persistent animosity we see between India and Pakistan. As if we are all haunted by these ghosts from the past!
15
Mesmerizing story, beautifully told, I did not want it to end. What a rich tapestry of people, places, events with layer upon layer of surprises. One of the best stories I have read in the NYT this year. Thank you.
11
What an amazing story.
Thank you for sharing it with us.
4
This was absolutely marvelous. Like many others, I started reading and was utterly captivated by the story. Though I’ve traveled in India, I have to confess that the story of the partition is not one I know much about, except today’s modern borders. This article & the many comments stressing the gruesome aftermath have encouraged me to learn more. Can anyone suggest a good book on the subject?
7
Freedom at Midnight to start....Collins and Lapierre
8
@Annie Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh
6
I know little about India and was just asking my Pilates instructor, who is going on a yoga retreat to India and who studied there years ago, about the differences in regions etc. This article is fascinating and enlightening.
4
I was immersed in this story as I read it over breakfast and have re-visited it in my thoughts throughout the day. What an amazing story with spectacular writing from beginning to end. Thank you, NY Times!
8
This was just a great story! Wonderful mix of reporting, but also a glimpse of the personal side of huge reporter. Thank you for such an entertaining article.
2
I'll echo everybody else's thoughts - this was one of the most (if not THE most) well-written investigative stories I've read. Fascinating topic on it's own, but the way the author has written it really drew me into the story. The lengths she went to tracking down the family member and getting their story was incredible.
21
So beautifully done, and thanks for retelling the story of the brutal aftermath of partition.
3
In reply to Susan, this was NOT a story of the horrors of the Partition. No, not at all. The partition way after Awadh was forcibly taken over by the East India Company. These people were not connected to Awadh in any way. Many a people in Delhi and Lukhnow knew about it, but let it pass. PM Indira Gandhi gave the Malcha Mahal out of pity to a grieving women. That place was empty and was of no use to anyone. The area around the Malcha Mahal was to remain as a jungle ( as a lung for the Old Delhi Area). So no loss to any one if some mentally unstable person lived there. The stories about the self proclaimed Princess of Awadh were cooked and over cooked over time by people to creat a mystique about the area. Although every one knew that Wajid Ali Khan had more than a hundred wives and more prostitutes and dancing girls who begot his progeny that it was a running joke of those years that any one from Lukhnow was a relative of Wajid Ali Khan.
If you want to know the horrors of the partition, you must read some first hand accounts of the Partition, and the death of millions of Hindus and Muslims. Train loads full of dead bodies crossed the border. They were so many dead bodies that no one could keep a count. They just estimated the numbers.
22
Poignant.
2
great reading.
2
That people need myths to invent such bizarre tales is a bit over the top... I was looking forward to another tale about nature’s calamities during the time of CLIMATE CHANGE! I read one about hikers in Alaska and some skiers in Seattle not too long ago... I prefer those as they are grounded in nature and our times... please bring this back... the one you chose would make a bad movie, honestly bad 🍿
3
Amazingly written and investigated
4
Absolutely incredible story telling! I really felt for them and also realize how we can get lost in our own truths, beliefs, and the desire to escape from reality because sometimes it’s to painful! Amazing and mind blowing story! Thank you, and the New York Times.
10
I will wait for the movie..
3
Wow! Thanks!
2
Ellen, make sure you ask for points when you sell this for the movie. What incredible writing/ reporting. This is why there is nothing like The New York Times.
8
What happened to the dogs?
19
Outstanding story and journalistic work. I enjoyed it throughly. Thank you Ellen!
1
This is an amazing article. I am so happy my company buys a group subscription pf New York Times.
5
Personally, I love the idea of fully believing that you’re royal. What is ‘royalty’ anyway, other than a commonly-held belief? Kxo
8
People watching "The Crown" on Netflix should remember that those royals are descended from people who did a lot of harm and almost no good in the world. It wasn't the royal family that defeated the Nazis. And the partition of India is just a blip in their history.
25
I was deeply moved by this story. Maybe because we ARE all looking to find our past or who we are?
My mother, now ninety and with her memory fading, forces us to poke and pry to find some interesting detail that has not be told, that become part of our family story.
5
What an outstanding and fascinating piece. I so thoroughly enjoyed each word and twist in the tale. Thank you for this!
3
Thank you for this lovely, poignant story. I’m glad you followed your curiosity and shared this with us. Wonderful reporting.
2
A modern day Great Gatsby. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." F Scott Fitzgerald
6
Things hidden behind years of overgrowth are always interesting. I live near Cal Tech and once had a legendary neighbor who was supposedly a former brilliant researcher and inventor once there whose house was totally obscured from view by it. Occasionally sightings of him outside in his pink tutu pulling a weed or two would buzz around the neighborhood to keep the legend growing even more.
6
Such a fascinating article, showing the "real journalism". The story was binding and mesmerising. How the list for glory of a woman led her kids to die in perdition.
The author went after every clue possible resolve this mistery, which makes so intresting.
While reading i was being sad on the family's state of affairs but slowly this article busted the myth.
Just thinking, that the kids were inculcated and made to believe that they are royal blood.
The way princess spoke English, looked incredible, showing they had a good education. But they didn't have courage to tell the world about it.
Alas!
1
Magnificent. The lie was a beautiful story, like Grey Gardens, but it was a lie. It’s important for journalism and history for the whole story to be told. Do not worry about losing the illusion; anyone who wants to believe it can ignore the facts, as so many other journalists did in buying such a patently fake story in the first place.
5
What a tragedy! A mother's obsession denied her children a normal life, denied them love of a spouse, the joy of having children and for what? To live in a forest without running water or electricity just so she could imagine herself to be of royal blood.
13
Just incredible, maybe one of the best pieces of read on the NYT.
5
Excellent. Wel.Novel in the making.
More like this
1
A vivid and stark picture of the personal side of ruling Mughal Invasions upon the sub- Continent , the British penchant for dividing nations to feed their greed, and the decisions humans make during times of strife and stress.
India has been ravaged over the years and there are countless stories of its people left to pick up the pieces with rise and fall of her rulers.
Fantastic imagery of the need to be recognized as “royal”.
Sad.
So many lives fractured.
The reporter’s effort to follow up is commendable .
Would like to see more of this type of reporting.
8
I had so much to do just now, but this story grabbed me and I could not put it down....time stopped while I took this exotic trip ....great great writing....I think Spielberg should direct the movie. Congratulations.
13
To me, this is a tale of identity. Or more specifically, what happens when one’s identity is lost or changes and there is an unwillingness or inability to cope. You get something like Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Most of us are able to make the transition-after all, change is something we can count on. For those who cannot, it is a descent into madness or shame or worse.
4
Beautifully written! One can sense the hesitant caring in Ellen's voice as the words, i am sure, have poured out of her..
This only goes to show all of us live in our minds. Some more than the others. Wilayat seems to have been an astonishing woman.
3
Joining with many here to say thank you for this beautifully written and reported story.
3
In Brazil, we don’t have royalties anymore but our literature is full of magic realism, much alike this wonderful report. Thanks Ellen!
4
This was the best story I've read in a long time. Thank you so much.
8
Very interesting story. I admire Ms. Bary's tenacity to pursue the mystery and successfully solve it. More fascinating than a Hollywood script, and in fact could be turned into a movie. From what I understand the "palace" in Delhi is located in the most expensive diplomatic enclave in Delhi, and if Wilayat wanted she could have minted money by selling the wrongfully claimed property. In her case money couldn't buy her the happiness let alone provide a assuage the angst of losing the world she knew before the partition. I am sure there are many stories like hers of people uprooted from both Indian and Pakistan who suffered untold tragedies. Some coped better than others while others found solace by overcompensating themselves a make believe world of palaces and riches.
2
After Reading All the Comments from Reader Picks, I do not have Anything more to Add and just a Big Thank you. My Next Ten Years of New York Subscription will be paid in Advance soon. Many thanks Ms Barry for Great Work and I shall remember this for a very long time.
6
A well written and poignant story. Ultimately, it denotes the evils of British colonialism and its basis of divide and rule.
It took great leaders like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who single-handedly brought each of the hundreds of princely states into the folds of India post Independence. The fractured and perilous state the British had left India after their colonial rule cannot be underestimated.
A great book about Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is "The Man Who Saved India" by Hindol Segupta. The book won the Wilbur Award and is a must read for all who are interested in modern India.
13
I've read any number of books with a less compelling story than this. I'd love to see this become a full length book.
4
This is brilliant journalism. So well researched
and written. Well done!
3
What a terrific story . . but I have to get back to my duties.
2
Thank you so much for this story. Now I am eager to read more by this author. This is like poetry.
3
Anytime I read stories or articles about the partitioning of India and its consequences, I am overtaken by grieve and sadness. I don't know whether to be angry at religion (reason given for the partition) or to be angry at the senselessness and lack of compassion of people of religion. The tragedy and the ghost of the partitioning will forever haunt those who plan it, those who accepted for no reason other than political hegemony and those whose interest it is serving until this day. A well written report!!!
11
Well worth the read ! Thank you for this story.
1
Truth is perception. Perception becomes truth.
2
Blown away by this great reporting/storytelling. The more I read the more I wanted to read!
4
Thanks so much Ms. Barry for this marvelous, fairy tale reporting. In my youth in India, the story of the first class railway waiting room in Delhi that was unavailable to travelers because it was permanently occupied by a (so called) descendant of the Oudh family was quite well known. Travelers wryly waited on the platform for often delayed trains.
I always suspected that the claims were fake. But now that I know they are fake, I’m actually somewhat saddened. The world needs some romance to make it more interesting.
India has a way of taking prosaic stories such as mental illness and turning them into romantic fables. Your reporting will be forgotten quite quickly, while the fable of Wilayat Begum of Oudh and sahebzada Cyrus and Sakina will become ever more embellished. And perhaps it is better so.
20
Wow. Wowowow. I got chills after reading the last word. It really wasn't at all what I was expecting and it was magnificent.
7
A splendid and fabulous tale. The images, especially the video at the beginning add a wonderful touch to the magic of these sad and stubborn people.
3
Well. In the 60-plus years I've been reading the New York Times, this is the most extraordinary piece of reportage I've encountered. So far.
6
Brava, Ms. Barry. You got your epic story, and what a compelling one it is, full of human mystery and drama, grandeur and decline. A refreshing break from the quotidian tedium of political reporting. I was mesmerized. Thank you.
8
I read this piece in one sitting because its mystery and strangeness were so enthralling. But I finished it feeling like I was a voyeur and that the journalist had betrayed a friend. It is too intimate a piece to justify with the category "partition narratives". In fact, doesn't it abuse the psychological damage of Partition by exploiting the subject's damaged stance toward the authority of foreigners? The author seems to have colonized his grief. I'm still struggling.
12
Its a timeless human story. People believe what they are told. She framed the narrative for how she wanted to live. And acted on it. And people followed and swallowed that narrative for over 50 years. Kudos to Ms. Barry, to look for the truth. A virtue that is in short supply.
The framing of narratives by celebrities, corporations, governments in the present day and how profoundly it affects lives.
7
The nyt has an opinion piece by Tobin Smith on how narratives are being framed. Reading these 2 pieces together, gives us a lot to think about.
1
I haven't read something this riveting, this fun, this mysterious and ooky, since forever. Thank you Ellen Barry. You have made my weekend.
11
A haunting and thoughtful story. The journey is both riveting and sad.
6
What a great story! Human, intriguing, captivating. Journalism at its best. Thank you, NYT.
4
Truly fascinating. I realize how little I know about the Partition, with only the vaguest notion of what really occurred. Someone recommended The Raj Quartet as a good read on the subject and I am sure there’s more out there. Looking forward to reading and learning.
5
Wonderfully done piece.
Compelling in reading slowly....savoring each word in context to the story.
5
wow! I'm amazed by this story. I lived and went to school barely over a mile away for years (Dhaula Kuan). Although I had heard about Malcha Mahal, I never saw it. It barely registered surrounded by Delhi's abundance of historical sites, spanning almost a millennium. Nor had I ever heard this family's story. Sad, but also surprising how you can be so close and never notice.
11
I sent this to the author earlier because comments were not open yet. ==
This was a captivating read. I can only imagine the rollercoaster you must have been on as you followed up with all the leads. I also imagine there are numerous such cases in India of people claiming to be descendants of the royalty. Glad to see this one being put to rest for good, albeit after years long work.
The history is full of unfortunate incidents, tragedies and jubilations. What strikes me most is how numerous ordinary lives are denigrated by a few powerful. Similar episodes are now playing out in many places including the United States which appears to be on the verge of deep division. It's not too far fetched to think tragedies such as India Pakistan partition could happen here as well. Thanks for sharing your work on nyt.
6
This is the type of colorful and in depth storytelling I expect from the times and is a lost art. We have been conditioned to flit from clickbait title to clickbait title never giving more than a few seconds to weeks worth of work. This story is thoughtful and thought provoking. What does happen to the commoner’s legacy when he dies? What happens to those who Never taste fresh air or food. What happens to us all? Within the mystery of the jungle and the fantastic headlines we see we are all on track to meet the same fate. Some die in a cot and otherS curled on stone. It is how we see ourselves which decides our ultimate fate.
Thank you for writing this article. It truly is a drink of pure water in a tempest of information.
38
A really well-researched and carefully written article. It’s like a novel. As a child of Partition refugees, it is amazing to me to hear stories about how it upended peoples lives, broke up families, and nobody was ever held accountable for this. Neither in India, nor in Pakistan. Stories like this one bring it home to me again how we still live the Partition’s effects on both sides of the border.
8
Truly a masterpiece.. that I will re-read... like a favorite novel... thank you.
5
This was one of the most intriguing stories I have ever read. Its prosaic imagery ignited my imagination until it was like a lightning storm! If this had been a film, it would have certainly been lauded as great. As a piece of journalism it is a masterpiece!
10
I spent my teens living in New Delhi in the 1980s and knew the Malcha Mahal "palace" in the forest from our regular horse riding forays. Every once in a while, Cyrus would come, like a shy animal - afraid and yet desperately eager for company and recognition - and hang out at the riding club. He was keen to befriend the foreign diplomats and journalists who frequented the club alongside the Delhi locals, whom he shunned. Stories about the Begum and her adult children abounded. We often heard their Great Danes' eerie bellowing through the forest on our rides. Credit goes to Ellen Barry for persisting with this story. What a tragic tale of loss following partition, and how its impact continues to this day.
87
This is a riveting story, touchingly told. How sad was this family, and how slight and fragile their claim to royalty. They were the Anastasias of Delhi, never recounted, never affirmed, never recognized.
6
Riveting indeed! My roots go back to Lucknow and this brought back memories. My middle school classmate, Masood Ali Shah, a direct descendant, is the gentleman in the middle of the photograph featuring Mr. Naqvi. The Nawabs left behind beautiful architecture, culture and cuisine. A must see for anyone visiting India. I hope Ellen Berry will follow this up with a documentary. Thank you!
12
Thank you so much for this wonderful story. I have read a great deal of the history of India, partition and what happened and is still happening to Pakistanis. We all find a way to live our lives in spite of the surprises and tribulations life hands us.
5
@Judith:Pakistan,therefore Partition, is the product of those who dreamed of Pakistan.
2
I open your newspaper each day hoping for a story just like this. Thank you! I will not soon forget this haunting portrait of a family, a country and a journalist who followed a mysterious thread, taking me oh so willingly along with her.
8
One of the best pieces that I have read in years. I just said to my husband, 'This is why we keep getting the New York Times, waiting for stories like this.'
1440
@susan I Agree...
34
@susan
I was thinking the same thing... This is why I pay for this newspaper. Exactly why - to get lost in a mysterious world.
48
There are so many layers to this piece, but the idea of place, both in terms of geography and station in society, is particularily disturbing. I'm struck by the servants, humbly serving a seemingly fractured, imperious woman. Lots of myth making going on with devastating fallout.
10
Ms Barry - I hope someone will write the story of you, honoring your many talents described so well in the fascinating comments here, not the least of which is your captivating perseverance.
9
To those fascinated with this report and the horrific times of partition, read Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet. It is one of the finest works in English literature. It weaves a rich Indian fabric of English, Hindu and Muslim threads, telling the tragic and emotive story of the mutual dependencies and alienations that still haunt India and allow an autocrat like Modi to manipulate the hatreds and resentments to his benefit and to India's anguish.
12
@Fletch Waller: Modi is a product of Partition and the India that is left.
Interestingly,Gandhi,Jinnah, and Modi all are from Gujarat!
One insisted on Pakistan!
3
Beautifully written and impeccably researched- thank you for your phenomenal work.
7
What an incredibly well written and compelling story to come out of a driven journalistic investigation.
The complexities of our species just involute even further the more they are studied and documented
6
This story is fascinating on many levels. I would love to know what happened to the ruins and property once the "prince" passed.
6
And the dogs.
6
This is one of the most captivating pieces I have read in a long time. It is a story of madness, perhaps a personal resistance to imperialism in the name of greed, the ability to pull others into a tale of self-reinvention, but ultimately, I think, the way all of our stories are fiction, both to ourselves and others.
This article reads like a novel of mystery, of doom, of hope, and of the idea that if you believe and behave in certain ways, your story ultimately becomes true to yourself and many others.
Do take the time to read it. Then decide, who was the most mad, the princess or the British crown acting through the East India Company?
8
Those who share empathy and compassion with the family can share similar emotions with what is happening between our Cities our communities, our families and our lives. It’s deteriorating and becoming something else. Everything deteriorates, including our words.
This story carries such a wonderfully developed, spiritual awareness of the relationship between human beings and our environment, on the one hand, and our communities plus families on the other that if we sit still just a moment we could call it balance. We are clearly in this together, and under familiar circumstances.
The story evolves like a series of developmental videos illustrating overwhelming and unstoppable natural growth juxtaposed to an equally unstoppable deterioration of man’s personal, homemade world environment. It is the natural order of it all, yet it never ceases to surprise us when it makes itself known.
5
Is anyone disturbed that the journalist felt justified in publishing the contents of the interviews with Cyrus when she clearly didn't have permission, and then proceeded to loot his private correspondence without permission? (She notes that "thrill-seekers" looted the house, but then doesn't seem to think she was doing precisely the same thing.) That the answer to the question "what'd he expect when he invites a journalist in" is pretty simple: he was lonely and needed human contact, and his entire history had revolved around journalists? A friend of mine said he felt that justification was "callous." I don't know that he's wrong about that assessment.
I found the story fascinating, but I'm unconvinced by the journalist's place in that story -- her delight in being invited into this drama was pointless. It struck me as self-serving. Her "frustration" at being stonewalled by some people with first-hand knowledge -- just let it lie -- seemed pretty obviously short-sighted.
I don't know the ins and outs of journalistic ethics. Does the death of the subject negate any privacy claims that they had while alive?
Maybe the story should've stayed buried. If all we care about is getting the "feels" then I suppose: anything goes. The piece succeeds in producing that.
29
@Greg Clinton - I don’t understand the point you’re making. Was Cyrus spending months talking to a journalist(s) just because he wanted company? The human mind works in mysterious ways. With the sort of regimentation he and his sister were brought up with, he would have never been able to tell this tale himself. But to me, it’s obvious, he wanted it told.
18
A fascinating story, well researched and detailed. Would have loved to know how the family supported itself for so many years and paid for servants. Also why Indira Gandhi gifted the place to people who antecedents could not be established and why the subsequent governments didnt try to ascertain who they were. Glad that NYT does such interesting long form pieces.
8
Wow what a great story and what fascinating people.
1
Thank you for this and for making yourself part of the story.
Wonderful writing.
4
This reminds me of our own, uniquely American royal pretender, "Norton I, by the Grace of God, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico." Wikipedia has an article on this amusing character.
It's human nature. We all need people to look to and venerate. Political leaders once filled that need to some degree. But in the age of republicanism, monarchy and all of its ceremonial and human veneration has fallen out of fashion. And we small "r" republicans are learning the hard way that elected leaders are a poor substitute for the glittering illusion of royalty. Margaret Thatcher once acidly observed of anti-monarchists, that those favoring an elected politician as head of state over the Queen had not met many politicians. Of course the downside to monarchy is you don't really know who you are going to get. The Brits pretty much won the lottery with the Queen. But imagine a Queen Margaret or King Andrew (shudder).
4
What a beautiful gift of a story, told by a master who went to the ends of the earth to bring it to us.
I was in New Delhi around the time Wilayat and her children occupied the train station, but I wasn't aware of any of it. I
was writing my own story, reinventing myself as a gypsy on her walkabout, changing myself from the good little German girl to one who knew no boundaries. I hitched rides with less than savory characters, had crazy dangerous adventures, sometimes in war torn places, and lived to tell the tales, some true, some not so much.
It doesn't matter to me that Wilayut was not the begum, her children not a prince and a princess. Anyone who sits like a yogi for ten years to achieve their goals, then lives out their days in an abandoned hunting lodge in a forest in the middle of a vast city, is the real deal.
It is not the truth that matters here, it's the story and I'm glad the heroes of this one did not live to read the ending of this article.
If there is one sour note in this magnificent piece it's this, "I must admit, it offends me a little when people think they can lie to reporters." I would ask her, "As a journalist, why did you abandon the boring humdrum of the profession to pursue this fairy tale of a story? What did you think was going to happen?" Is the truth you unearthed the meat of the piece? I don't think so. It's all the rest of it and you did it more than justice. Thank you for the journey and the memories.
19
Heartbreaking story.
2
Terrific story, terrific journalism. Thank you for this. Except now I’m late for work! Mebbe I can show this article to my boss....yea! That’s the ticket!
3
Journalism at its finest! Kudos to you Ellen for consistently pursuing this story and uncovering the very depths that so many wanted hidden. And to the NYT for supporting this.
Cyrus would have hated this story, yes, but I think a part of him always knew the truth deep down and carried on the charade out of respect to his mother, Wilayat.
4
What an amazing story!
1
When I began reading this piece, my instinct was she made it all up.. as I continued to read.. I thought ‘you must be kidding me’... after realising the ends the author went to find the truth made me doubt myself.
Sitting back reflecting on the story, I can’t help but feel I can see many parallels being drawn with my mother and how she views herself. I have often thought about this and my conclusion is as follows. (I am keeping this brief.. apologies for generalising)
Pre Islam, Hinduism had its caste system which created a hierarchy. With Islam came a sense of equality to the masses and one can only assume it attracted more people from the untouchables then the Brahmins.. I think that sudden jump in status.. along with the secondary caste system created from the industry your family practised... fast forward to partition and you find a nation built up of people with minimal status being handed keys to a country resulted in a nation today where they all think they preside over some kingdom.. I am a millennial born in Pakistan raised in UK and have questioned the mindset which I think has contributed to the status quo of Pakistan..
5
The mother may have been mentally disturbed, but Cyrus and his sister don't really have a good excuse. They led their lives with a desire for greatness on the back of their brother, Shahid, the true hero of this story, who must have known of their self-delusional ways, yet still indulged them generously. It's easy to live in an imaginary world if someone else is footing the bill, and whether Shahid helped them or inadvertently contributed to their of wasting their lives is perhaps best left unresolved.
13
Excellence in journalism! The Jungle Prince of Delhi, it should become a movie!
1
Why dont you write about Kurushekthra close to New Delhi, the Mahabharata war that paved the way for Non-Hindus into India. The ground is still Red with all the blood. Four Million Casualties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshauhini
4
I know this is not the point of the story, but I just can’t get over one thing:
How did the family come by the title to the palace?
1
I couldn't stop reading!
1
What a story.
Absolutely wonderful, thank you so much for this work of art. Read this to my homeschooled 12 year-old daughter and we marveled at the intersection of legend, history and psychology all told in the most captivating prose. Made my daughter want to be a journalist.
7
Thank you Ms. Barry for writing this poignant story. I was born and grew up in Lucknow. In the 70s, this story had appeared in The Pioneer newspaper of Lucknow and my dad had told me about it. My dad was sure that this family did not have a royal lineage, since all princes in india were required to register to receive Privy Purses, a grant given to them by the Gov’t for their acceptance of merger with India. The story captures the pain of partition and its lingering trauma.
16
Beautiful rendered story and evocative personally at many levels. To me, the essence of Ellen Barry's piece is that in India especially, history is not past, it is always present (for good or ill).
For those interested, a couple of tidbits:
Satyajit Ray's "Shatranj ke Khilari"(The Chess Players) captures the ambience and sense of the time when the British East India Company annexed the Kingdom of Awadh and exiled Wajid Ali Shah.
Wajid Ali Shah was a dreamer, musician, poet and composer, who composed the ineffably sad song "Babul Mora" about his exile from his home and land. The song is still in public consciousness, with memorable renditions by K.L. Saigal and Bhimsen Joshi (can even be found on YouTube!).
11
A fascinating story. I vaguely remember reading about it quite a while ago. But when I lived and worked in New Delhi during the very early 1970s, I didn't have the foggiest idea about the Oudh royalty. And in 1972 when I visited Lucknow and saw the palaces, I did not know that the royal family was living in a hunting lodge in Delhi. I wonder how the lid was put on the story until recently.
Thank you Ms. Barry for such a fascinating story.
Jagdish
7
I so admire the author's perseverance in following through with this tragic story of a lost family and lost nation.
6
What a fascinating and tragic story! Kudos to Ellen Barry's tenacity and caring to bring truth and closure to this family. A riveting read.
5
Thank you for this article. Reading it was fascinating and I could not stop till I had completed it. I am happy that you dug deep , traveled all over the world and found the truth behind their claims. Wish the Indian Government could have done the same before giving them the house in Delhi.
3
Fantastic story. Thank you for this wonderful journalism. By telling this marvelous story, we also learn a history of a place and its people.
7
Excellent story and writing. Thank you for sharing this piece of history with your readers.
4
What a tragic, yet compelling, story. I couldn't tear myself away, from beginning to end.
Thanks for this great piece of reporting and for sharing this tory with the rest of us. I'll be passing this article on to my friends and family!
6
I almost forgot having lunch!
5
What if Wilayat, the mother was indeed of royal descent -- married off to a civil servant in colonial India -- forced to emigrate to Pakistan -- but came back to Lucknow to lay claim to her heritage?
5
The legacy of empire.
2
Wow. This begins feeling like "only in India..." and by the end feels straight out of Alfred Hitchcock.
6
I can’t add more accolades than have already been expressed by readers. Which makes me feel a little pinched for taking exception to one fact presented: in 1975 10.000 rupees would have been worth about $9,000 at the official exchange rate (I lived in Delhi in 1975 and know for a fact there were more rupees to a dollar than vice versa, just as today)
Which makes the “begums” refusal to the Chief Minister’s offer seem less capricious. She knew her worth, even if others did not.
7
Journalism of this high standard requires the backing of a news organization that values quality reporting enough to find the money to support it. I sometimes indulge in idle moments wondering what world we would live in if all news organizations valued the human spirit enough to put the money and resources into true journalism instead of sensational click bait that ranks in the bucks but which also damages the world we live in. Thanks Ellen Barry, Suhasini Raj and the NYT.
22
@MJM: One day not far from today, another superb journalist will record another Megalomaniac;D.J.Trump!
4
A thoroughly researched story written with empathy. The sad truth is this is only one of many such families with mental illness brought on by the panic and the resulting violence during the partition. There is grief spanning generations in the psyche of both Hindus and Muslims. England has blood on her hands. Sad all around.
19
Wonderful investigating. This shows you that people can tell lies long enough they not only convince others but themselves as well. They loose their truth and the lies become their truth...
5
The best thing I have read in a long time. Thank you.
6
This stopped me from cancelling my NYTimes subscription today. Thank you, Ellen Barry, for writing such a moving piece.
9
Stay tuned for the 11 weekend reads, they are my absolute favourite and those alone worth the subscription rate!
2
Sounds like the Gray Garden of Colonial India.
.....my heart breaks for the two youngest children, captives until the end.
19
This must be the strangest thing the New York Times has published in decades. I note it appears on the 56th anniversary of the death of another now legendary figure, John F. Kennedy.
I await that bated breath the film. Surely even now moguls [pun intended!] in Bollywood and Hollywood are plotting out this phantasmagorical tale!
5
Thoughtful, provocative and well written. This story is haunting beautiful and sad.
5
I opened the NYT this morning to go with my morning coffee and spotted this story. I am of Indian ethnicity and was intrigued that I’d never heard of a “lost” royal family. A very fine piece of writing and sad family tale. Given the strength of Indian matriarchal bonds, I’m not surprised this mother had such an enduring hold over her two children. It’s sad that there was no one to rescue them. But then again, they may not have wanted to be rescued. The “alternative facts “ of their mother became their reality.
21
This is an incredible story. So well-written and painstakingly attended to. I can't get this out of my head!
9
Such a well written piece -- evocative, mysterious, raw, truth, fiction, a larger than life and smaller than life family story all at once. As someone who grew up in Delhi, the story emodies that amazing metropolis -- thank you for your well researched story. And thank you for searching for the truth (which in this case, was sadder and stranger than the fiction.)
16
This was a touching story. Thanks for continuing to dig deeper till you fully unraveled the story.
As an Indian millennial whose forefathers were at the right place at right time (Hindus in northern India), I don't have family stories of partition but it's hearbreaking to see it still causing grief and losses in modern India.
Irrespective of whether partition was required or not, any policy or action that leads to deaths of 2 million people is hardly justifiable. To our modern senses, it's a crime against humanity, and it's difficult to come to the fact that such a horrible decision had zero accountability and went without repercussion to those who were a part of it.
35
........an incredible story - straight from the pen of Rudyard Kipling.
6
Interesting , well written and well researched story ... I say story , as opposed to article .. To Me, a story is just that .. An article is written to supply information ..Now this is a story !
2
it is like a cross between Anastasia and Gray gardens
13
Not sure this story is beautiful, not when you look at the price the children paid. Their mother was not just mentally ill (which isn't something to romanticize); she was apparently abusive and traumatized her kids into obedience all the way to their own destruction. It's might read like a fairy tale, but the very real children in it never escaped the wickedness in the forest.
73
Excellent investigative work!
1
A strange story and strange, uniform comments. Too bad it took so long to penetrate what seems to have been a rather clumsy swindle - if that is what actually happened.
5
What a beautifully written account of a mysterious, curious family. I can't help but be reminded of how Muslims
in India and Myanmar continue to be horrifically discriminated against, forced to flee their homeland.
2
@Left Coast
This Muslim family was allowed to live in a palace in the heart of Delhi by the Prime Minister of India herself. The Muslim population in India is the second largest in the world - more than in Pakistan. With all its faults - corruption, overpopulation, poverty, lack of sanitation, etc. - the one thing that India must be commended on is its success as a secular country where people of all faiths and cultures co-exist in peace and harmony.
10
@Zara I think that can’t be said to be the case given what’s happening in Kashmir? Very strange
5
@Left Coast :Do not forget the Hindus under the Brahmans, Mughals, and the British! The Muslims of India chose to stay back.In hindsight, they alone can decide whether moving to Pakistan would have been a better choice upon Partition!
Fascinating story . Wow. Powerful stuff.
3
There are so many damaged people out there and they can wreak havoc and destruction everywhere. My freshman year of college, I got a call from my parents, to see if I would be okay with them allowing a rather sad college student to live in their house. She had been introduced to our family by the Catholic priest at the university nearby, as she said that she was half-Thai/half-American (my mother speaks fluent Thai, so he thought she could be helpful to this student). The student also said she spoke French. Well, I had tried to speak French with her (my family spent several years in Francophone Africa) when we met, and it was obviously she couldn't speak French at all. I said heck no to my parents, because I had a really bad feeling about her. Nothing seemed right. Well, she ended up setting a fire in her own dorm room, trying to frame her roommate. It turns out she was really about 30 years old, had stolen her young relative's identity, and completely scammed the university which had given her a great scholarship. LISTEN TO YOUR GUT, PEOPLE! There are danger signs everywhere and if you listen carefully, and question if their story is too wild, too crazy, you'll find out that it's usually a lie. Do not invite danger into your family home or life in general. (Imagine if she had burned down the dorm with other students in it!) Just don't do it!
13
wonderful storytelling - thank you
the collecting of stories from the time of separation continues through an organization called https://www.1947partitionarchive.org/
here one can read many of the harrowing accounts of what happens when a government abandons it's commitments, without thought for the indigenous peoples.
Regarding my recent comment, it should read “90,000 rupees were worth $10,000 at the official exchange rate”
Thank you
1
This wonderful column resonates in America today with all who watch the President and his coconspirators. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." This propaganda technique is attributed to Joseph Goebbels but tragically, Rupert Murdoch is not given enough "credit" for updating this technique in the digital age. We should never forget the immortal words of "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani "Truth isn't Truth."
20
Superb!
1
Reminds me of DJ Trump.
2
After all of these utterly boring articles and op-eds on the impeachment hearings/Trump, there is finally an article worth reading -- fascinating/incredible/mesmerizing. Thank you Ellen Barry and the NYT.
18
I absolutely loved reading this story!! Thankyou for publishing!!
5
Congratulations to Ellen Barry and her team. Tremendous research, beautiful writing, plus insight, empathy, curiosity, perseverance, and bravery. Wonderful photography by Andrea Bruce and all the archival photos.
I was going to skip the article but after glancing through it, I was hooked and read the whole thing, then got out an atlas to see how these places related to one another. Great journalism, thank you New York Times.
19
A truly fascinating and intriguing article! I appreciated the detail in which the conditions, the history, and the family were described. It made grasping the context and the living conditions this family grew up in easier to imagine - having never been to New Dehli/Pakistan/UK or lived through the Partition of India.
It was also very eye-opening to see the great lengths that the mom/son/daughter went to protect their pride and ego as a way to restore the life they had lost after their displacement. Although it's not the fairytale ending one would hope for, I'm glad that you pursued the truth. Beautifully written!
5
Excellent article. To think of the number of similar stories dying with the people who lived them is deeply saddening.
Fantastic journalism. I understand what the writer means when she says she was bored of mundane happenings like official dinners etc. and how this story became a passion. Glad she did her passion justice.
9
Excellent article Ellen! Perhaps a missing element is why you never asked Cyrus how the family supported themselves.
8
A magnificently-told story that captures the reader completely. If this story were fiction, it would take its place beside some of the best novels. The English Patient comes to mind. But it’s not fiction, it’s a compelling story that weaves together politics, culture, violence and suffering with a high degree of compassion. This is writing at its best.
9
Wonderfully narrated. I’ve been following their story in newspapers over the years and always thought they were royalty of some sort. For them to pull it off in this manner and for so many years is just incredible!
4
This is masterful journalism & writing - it captivated & held me from the first paragraph - a complex tapestry woven with words & underpinned by impeccable research. Thank you.
7
That was a fascinating story and pictures were fantastic; and of course great reporting. Thank you
2
Creating an alternate reality to cope with an unpleasant and unforgiving reality.
How many of us wish we could? Problem is, alternate reality creates problems of its own.
Keeping up the facade must have been very difficult .. especially for the children who may have hoped for a different existence for themselves.. One built on truth and rooted in the reality of who we really are.. Even if we are not descendants of wealth and royalty.
I found this a very sad read.. Interesting.. but very sad.
3
Born in Lucknow and friends to many erst while Nawabs and Begums, this story strikes a cord with me like few other stories have.
I grew up with people who yearned for the past, the glory of Awadh in its heyday and the life they would have had in pre independence India. Moving from a feudal setting where they were the privileged few to being commoners did not sit well with many.
This is such a tragic tale of mental illness and how it affects a whole family. I applaud the reportage.
21
Loved the article. I had the lucky opportunity to spend a year in India in 1970-71. I arrived overland as a hippie on the road and my time turned into a spiritual pilgrimage where I walked barefoot from holy man to holy man over much of India. India had become my home but only fate did not let me stay. So I love stories of India the land of many cultures and many wonderfully different people. Stories of the history of India enthrall me. Thank you Ellen Barry for you hard work to bring this delightful story into my world.
10
@Tom McKnight III you shd try again also read India according to Max Mueller he describes in so vividly, having been here over 3 decades I still yearn to be there history civilization - Srinivas Shastry Austin Texas
2
Loved this story, to me it speaks to a protection of innocence, no matter how ill gained or intended.
A mother wanting to protect her children during a time of great suffering and strife is something we can all relate too.
I’m saddened for the outcome, but I love the myth and legends these people’s lives left behind.
5
I lived in Malcha Marg in the 90'st. I had no idea what was in the forest when I decided to explore it. It was so fascinating to come across this hunting lodge (I thought it was a Mughal tomb). It was a surreal experience till I was chased away by the dogs. I have told many people about my experience, but most have been skeptical.
Thanks for clearing it up!
44
A great read. I especially appreciate the photographs and the video at the beginning. Thank you, Times.
8
I visited Delhi many times in the late seventies to early eighties and remember the story of Wilayat and her prince and princess holed up in the train station. My recollection is that her claims of royal descent were not entirely dismissed. India is large, and, as Whitman said of himself, “contains many multitudes”. The country gives wide berth to myths and fables -something I always appreciated.
8
Creating an alternate reality to cope with an unpleasant and unforgiving reality.
How many of us wish we could? Problem is, alternate reality creates problems of its own.
Keeping up the facade must have been very difficult .. especially for the children who may have hoped for a different existence for themselves.. One built on truth and rooted in the reality of who we really are.. Even if we are not descendants of wealth and royalty.
I found this a very sad read.. Interesting.. but very sad.
5
I just got a subscription to The New York Times and then I read this story. I will keep subscribing for journalism like this. What a great read! Thank you!
6
Cynthia, Since you’re a newcomer to NYT, I recommend you read the Metropolitan Diary published every Sunday in New York section, but suggest you read it online for equally interesting comments.
Haunting, troubled, dark and evocatively put together for the readers - Thank you Ms Barry and Ms Suhasini.
9
Wonderful story. This will be an entertaining story to bring up during dinner. Thank you.
6
Such a magnificent piece! This, truly, is India. We don't build memorials; we build stories. And tales of suffering royalty are the most robust of all.
I love Ellen for knowing that the legend of the Jungle Prince will long outlive her beautiful story. And for sharing her cringe in sniffing out someone's closely held secret. Someone she considered her friend. Bravo!
45
Fabulous story highlighting the writer's tireless commitment to seeking out the truth and commendable restraint in the timing of the publication. That is a journalist.
23
Fascinating story, worthy of Saadat Hasan Manto in the chronicle of a woman unraveled by Partition, who then reinvented herself in the unlikeliest of ways. I wonder if my parents would have remembered the Begum of Oudh setting up in Delhi railway station.
9
This is one of the best pieces I’ve ever read! Thank you for sharing it, it will stay with me for a long time.
24
This is such an evocative story and there are so many layers to it. It's a story about the interplay between dislocation and mental illness and how this manifested in the mother's delusion. Her delusion was rooted in the trauma of losing her home and the deep desire to reclaim a home in India. I admire her determination and demand for recognition, even if the "facts" were deeply exaggerated. She was a casualty of colonial greed and the horrific violence and upheavals resulting from Partition. It's also a story about children growing up with a parent with mental illness, and the few options available to them - either to be subsumed and become handmaiden and heir to the mother's delusion or by fleeing and living with guilt and loss to the end of one's life. Impeccable reporting and masterful weaving together all the elements of this story, coupled with rare respect and regard for those whose lives become the "subjects." Bravo!
1544
@Justine Hanson This is so well articulated. Its exactly what I was thinking, but I did not quite know how to articulate it. Thank you!
48
@Justine Hanson "...either to be subsumed and become handmaiden and heir to the mother's delusion or by fleeing and living with guilt and loss to the end of one's life." This is spot-on. Thank you.
65
@Justine Hanson This is beautiful -- the interplay you mention between dislocation and mental illness.
You probably have heard of the most iconic short story about Partition -- "Toba Tek Singh," a resident of a mental asylum, who does not understand the real madness which has seized the subcontinent.
38
Who to be blamed for the woes of descendants of Nawab of Oudh? There are hundreds of descendants of last Mughul Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar languishing as dhobis (washermen) and cycle ricksha wallas in the streets of Old Delhi and Kolkota. Neither the British nor the Indian Government gave them any help.
15
@Mohan why should anyone help them. They are citizens like any other and should be treated as such.
5
I love this story! I wish it to be true. It's the Grey Gardens of India.
33
From an earlier NYT piece, "The British Stole Tipu’s Magic"
"All told, Britain stole $45 trillion from India — a conservative estimate that does not include debts placed on South Asia or the environmental cost of its aggressive deforestation for timber. This amount is 17 times more than Britain’s annual G.D.P. today. And yet, in 2014, nearly 60 percent of Britons said they were proud of their empire, and only 15 percent The British Stole Tipu’s Magic Box. It Should Not Be for Sale. thought that the colonies were worse off for their exploitation."
30
Look at what colonialism has done to the majority of African countries! Corruption, poverty, continuous wars....crumbling infrastructure
8
This was a terrific job of reporting. Thank you so much. It will stay with me.
7
Mesmerizing. I'm already casting the film in my head.
6
What an amazing and heartbreaking story. The mother pulled her children into her psychosis, and upended or destroyed their lives. The decades of isolation and loneliness that the youngest children endured in order to maintain the pretend world their mother created...so sad. Their mother, Wilayat, ate their lives.
34
This is the type of journalism and storytelling I enjoy, and why I originally subscribed to the NYT
Please continue to have more long-form pieces like this in the future.
25
Perhaps the whole of India (and Pakistan) is composed, to some mysterious degree, out of complex fictions told with a straight face which one is simply expected to accept as truth.
The behavior of the British was reprehensible and culturally retrograde, certainly. But if we could go back and remove Britain from the history, what would be left? The answer would be a stewing pot of individual fiefdoms constantly battling each other for hegemony while struggling to adapt to the modern world. Like this story, India without British intervention, would be a story in which it would be exceedingly difficult to sort out the truth of the power relationships stewing across the subcontinent, while attempting to make sense of the mix of faith, history, and military capacity of multitudes of micro states.
At the very least, Britain created the basis of the modern states of India and Pakistan. Realistically, without Britain’s intervention, they would not have become, for better or worse, anything approaching modern states, yet I don’t know if that is good or bad.
We in the West view this story through the prism of Western thought processes, so it seems baffling. So is this story only odd because we of our cultural bias, or is it just odd?
7
@Marshall Doris
I have read far too much Faulkner to find this story the least bit baffling.
I do find it very well done.
14
You are joking , right? The British plunder of India was a good thing,. You seem to be suggesting that if the British hadn’t arrived that the Indian people would not have been able to govern themselves. That’s the argument that all colonizers use. The reality is that everywhere the British went they left a trail of disaster behind them, India, Ireland, Palestine, the Middle East, The slave trade, etc. etc. Please go and read some history books, especially those NOT written by the British.
41
This is what normally the justification for occupying another land. But the truth is India was a prosperous country, culturally rich and highly civilized for ages before British came. Do you think it couldn’t have survived without British rule for another few centuries.
16
This was so compelling and well written that I started the hard copy version at home and took it with me on the subway rather than read on a tiny screen. Hardly anyone reads the hard copy paper on the NYC subway anymore!
8
A fascinating story indeed. As someone born in colonial India before the British hastily departed following the honorific partition and the bloodbath, this narration deeply touched me.
Prior to independence in 1947, there were nearly 500 “princely states” in the Indian subcontinent. Without the colonial subjugation, these probably would have evolved into small sovereign states, often warring, but mostly coexisting, much as we see Europe now. In mid 18th century, a privately held corporation in London called the East India Company, obtains a charter from British monarch to raise army, conquer foreign lands, subjugate local populations and trade.
To the European eyes, all brown people “looked alike”; never mind they are ethnically/culturally different, spoke different languages, eat different foods and practice disparate faiths. The British go on conquer each of these princes or maharajas or nawabs one by one and put them all in a blender they called India.
For anyone interested in this topic, I recommend books by Ramachandra Guha, Pankaj Mishra and William Dalrymple. The latter’s latest book The Anarchy is particularly fascinating one about the marauding British East India Company and the colonization of the Indian subcontinent.
Thank you Ms. Barry for a well researched, evocatively written human interest story.
1648
@Herodotus - thank you for the recommendations; I shall certainly review those books . . .
31
@Herodotus I was born in India in 1945, but I don't see the story (well researched and authored) as a reflection of the Raj. The British divided India but the massacre has to be responsibility of the people who committed it.
How could a disillusioned person pull such a scam in the capital of India, and occupy large real estate? Don't they have records of ownership, personal IDs, etc? How does a family move into a waiting room of a railway station and live there for years? The story, although fascinating, is really about mentally ill family and/or unscrupulous family and dysfunctional government.
100
@Herodotus British East India Company was a government of its own almost.
34
WOW. This is amazing, spellbinding journalism. Ms. Berry - you have set the bar so high, we can no longer see it. Bravo to you!
29
So much to consider on so many levels, so much moral and historical and motivational ambiguity. Including Ms. Barry's apparent conflicted feelings about settling the score for lying to journalists. A great story finally and finely told.
8
Superb reporting.
Also, a psychoanalytical allegory of the Dark Mother swallowing her children and killing their souls. Matriarchy can be worse, much worse, than patriarchy because it wants to possess the spirit.
14
Speaking as a matriarch, it’s not supposed to be a competition. Our relationships need to be power with, not power over.
5
Thank you for sharing this with us
2
A marvellous impeachment story of another level!
2
Absolutely incredible!
2
This is journalism of the highest order; so high, it’s art. If only the time and tenacity it took to penetrate this mystery could be accorded to more of the world, we would have true understanding of one another, instead of the superficial mess that passes for “news.” Lately we just tread water in seas of propaganda, gasping for breath. How I wish we could strap on our oxygen tanks as this miraculous reporter did and deep dive for hidden truths.
1347
@CarefulReader Well articulated. So true. We are sadly gasping for breath these days...
32
@CarefulReader Incredible to me, this form was once called "gonzo journalism", and was "invented" by Hunter S. Thompson. It is hard to believe that until the 1960's and later such first person writing was never allowed in newspapers, where the ideal was "objective journalism". What a great way to tie together a story that has so many interwoven themes.
35
Beautiful piece of journalism. Mesmerizing!
However, a life well-lived depends on not just the deck of cards life deals you - but also what you do with the lemons that accompany it.
I was born in Lucknow but was fortunate to pursue undergraduate studies in New York after finishing High school. My mothers entire family fled Pakistan during partition's riots as they were Hindus, having given up an incredible home and lifestyle as my great grandfather was a renowned surgeon. Unfortunately my great grandfather had passed away from a heart attack a year before partition.
Upon arriving in India all eight of his young children and eight nephews and nieces enrolled in schools and colleges in Mumbai, worked their butts off while holding their heads high, choosing not to become embittered with the past.
All grew up to be successful human beings, who made efforts to remember how lucky they were to be alive and together, rather than constantly feeling that they had been shortchanged by political situations they couldn't control.
While this Oudh story is poignant, there are many more stories of partition families that chose to work hard and not squeeze every drop of pity from society. This family while mentally unstable somehow seemed to have found a way to exploit the guilt and sympathy of a nation that feeds off drama and intrigue.
I do however wish that the newer generations in India would genuinely celebrate its fascinating history.
681
@Mrinal My father has a very similar story to yours and I really admire your ilk.
Namastey,
Manu
26
This story is shocking ! There are trees in Delhi ?! As an environmental holocaust (check out AQI) unfolds in Delhi , it is saddening to think about the impending disappearance of the forest. I wish we had more princes with forests there.
14
Another story of the ravages born of British Colonialism. Shameful and tragic.
9
I am reminded of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias;” death comes for us all, great and small, and we return to the dust from which we came.
10
Haunting. Heartbreaking. Elegantly written. Thank you Ellen Barry for bearing witness to this fascinating and unbearably sad story of historical disruption, dispossession, displacement and loss.
12
Incredible story. You now have to transform it into a novel.
7
This was the best NYT essay ever. It took me on the journey thru an amazing story of what the author had eluded to throughout- mental illness. Loved it.
8
I am not sure how to respond to this piece - only to say that I was absolutely enthralled. No comment or observation really - just a wide-eyed wonderment, bewilderment, and fascination at the human condition . . .
12
What also haunts me... did the children have an awareness, on some level, of the extent of the family delusion? They were not so tiny when their life as commoners was ripped apart by partition. How thoroughly did the new reality that their mother created permeate and obliterate their earlier memories? What psychological mechanisms were on play? Utterly subsumed by a domineering mother? Their own trauma of loss given sense by the world of her creation?
7
Interesting story.
One of the first things I noticed in the drone video is the jungle and ruin existing next to the dish antenna in the left corner of the video. Symbolizes India.
6
Brillant !
Storytelling at its best
Thanks to Ms Barry and NYT
3
Such a wonderful piece of writing. Thank you!
2
Superb writing, and a journey that can't be forgotten.
5
Outstanding article ....a pleasure to read.
2
Thought provoking. Magical Realism made flesh.
2
Great story telling and journalism. Instant movie material.
2
Such a good story Ellen!
2
What a fascinating article. Thank you!
2
Two things come to mind. The state of British politics in 1946 that would allow Mountbatten to do such a horrible thing that killed millions in the division. Two looking for the grave of Cyrus and finding it difficult to locate. Might this happen with Trump .. 50 years from now..Bravo on the article. It show how even the great return to dust
6
After many years of deliberating (and being limited to 10 free articles a month) I finally caved in this morning and treated myself to a paid subscription. And to celebrate in my new-found freedom of unlimited access, I decided to read any story as long as it did not have the word "impeachment" in its title.
At this point, after reading this amazing piece of investigative journalism, rooted in the country of my origin, I think I can justify a lifelong subscription to the Times!
Thank you Ellen and Suhasini...
22
@Savio I feel the exact same way! I cried after reading this article. And it TOTALLY justifies my subscription. This is truly a story that the mind files away and returns to every so often. I don't understand why I feel so touched by this story......
1
What a great read. Thank you.
3
A beautiful late evening read in Karachi, where many other tales of Partition remain to be told, although those too are fast fading away.
6
Such a sad and tragic story. Partition. Mental illness. Both devastating and cruel on their own; combined it's no surprised they overwhelmed and overthrew people's minds.
I was born and raised in Pakistan and know Lahore well from living there several years. I've also been to India many times. I love both countries and their people. There is such hospitality and beauty and history. These people's lives would have been less mysterious but so much richer and fuller if these tragedies had not befallen them.
197
A beautifully written narrative of a disturbed family and their story, which told long enough, becomes truth to many. Sad, compelling and ultimately tragic, this story is lush and gripping. The mother may have been mentally ill, but was also as clever as a fox securing a place for her family and obtaining a curious kind of public profile for such a reclusive group. Still, the family business provided, not only a means to survive, but relevance in a world becoming increasingly irrelevant to them.
135
What a beautiful, wonderfully told story. Congratulations and thank you!
2
Wow !!!
Please expand this article into a book with photos.
2
Pulitzer-worthy.
9
This is why I love India.
3
Brava!
1
Fascinating story. I couldn't put it down. Interesting to me that it read like beautifully written fiction - it rather was. Thank you, Ellen Barry, for bringing this intensely researched story to us.
2
A truly amazing story, masterfully written and researched. There is no doubt that this is the best piece of investigative journalism I have ever read in the New York Times.
The unraveling of this bizarre saga required an enormous amount of time, energy, and dedication. With a healthy bit of obsession to learn the truth. The tragicomic story of Prince Cyrus/Mickey Butt and his apparently delusional mother could have been a Shakespearian drama.
Good on ya, Ellen Barry!
16
What a haunting tale, and what a beautifully written story. You descriptions were so vivid, I could imagine the discovery of Eric’s lifeless body, or should I say Mickey Butt.
As I read it, I could envision a film that could be made about this tragic story.
Congratulations!
5
Incredible story. Brilliant reporting. I await the book (please) and film. How can a tale so dark feel so inspiring?
4
No idea, perhaps it is the tale perhaps it is you
What a beautiful article. Loved it.
8
Thank you for a great read. The boundary between fantasy and reality is very porous. That brings a lot of beauty and wonder into the world, and also a lot of pain.
17
What a fascinating story! My MBA institute was right next to the "ridge" as this forested area is know and I explored it many times totally unaware of this. A beautifully written piece that illustrates vividly that history is complicated and events in the past have repercussions many, many years into the future.
7
I loved reading this rich and enchanting article. What a story! Twists and turns, beautifully written imagery, and remarkably candid concerning the figures involved.
Thanks Ellen Barry & the NYTimes for a surprising read that will stick with me.
9
What an incredible story and beautifully written! The narration is captivating and made me feel as if I was alongside the author as she put together all the pieces of puzzling story of this family. Deeply moving, touching on universal questions of identify and beliefs emanating from a life of tragedy. Yet the humanness and sweetness of the protagonists shines through.
6
Well written, engaging, informative. This is on of the reasons I subscribe to NYT, I expect to be enlightened, entertained and engaged. For wonderful storytelling about the Colonial period and drama leading to the Partition, read "The Raj Quartet" by Paul Scott, also a wonderful writer.
17
I love this well-written article--fascinating! It was very long and I want to reread it. What I especially loved was when she stated that the family " preferred the company of their dogs." I guess that they were mostly Great Danes. I shared my life with a Great Dane (Beauregard/Beau) in Maine 40 years ago and what a fabulous friend he was. Still miss him.
7
I believe you restored an honor of sorts to the family by telling their stories. Well done.
32
Agree with all who are saying it's the best piece of journalism they've ever read in the Times. Captivating and exquisitely told, with compassion but also a relentless quest for the truth. This piece deserves a prize. Thank you, Ellen Barry, and thank you, New York Times. Thank you for continuing to show us what a commitment to real journalism can achieve.
67
Amazing and haunting story... And so well written. The author's time, effort and humanity give this ethereal madness-driven story a solid baseline so that in the end, you feel like you've done a full circle and come home.
I loved it.
Thank you.
29
Beautifully written. Great investigative reporting. This story is so sad and interesting. I would love to visit there one day.
9
Wow - an incredible story, told in a compelling narrative. Ellen, you're a fantastic writer, and the way you laid out this story was engaging from beginning to end. Well done!
12
Wonderful writing. Spellbinding!
9
At one time India was full of colonial ghosts and crumbling residences from the Raj and before. As a Peace Corps volunteer in the India of 1969, I would encounter them: the retired British missionary renting out her bungalow, Roseneath, in a hill station; a man who walked with Gandhi and who now lived in a remote village. We chose to visit him, a 3 hour trip by bullock cart, on his weekly day of silence; and the caretaker of a former British hill bungalow, now owned by Indians, who moved us into the garage with his own bed when we arrived because he had not been given the key to the house. Each morning he came in bearing morning tea, speaking English with a Scottish accent because he had been a caddy at the local golf course.
Inevitably most of the remnants of the Raj and the Moguls are disappearing, such as the one so well described in this article. Probably a new shopping mall will be built in its place.
Gordon Korstange
26
@Gordon Korstange The Malcha Mahal, the residence of Wilayat and her children, predates the Raj by several centuries. It’s almost certainly protected, so it won’t be demolished, and certainly not to erect a mall.
5
A fascinating read at many levels. What amazes me is that the political leaders never asked for documentation - for fear of aggravating tensions among the minority perhaps?
7
And so the detritus left behind by the Raj still lingers in India and Pakistan. A wonderful piece, well written and well researched. It makes me long to visit and see what's left still.
5
I so enjoyed this tragically moving family saga, and so admire your persistent unraveling of its myriad elements. A compelling story reflecting the havoc wrought by British rule on the Indian soul. May we all remember.
10
I share many of the reader's thoughts about the beauty of the writing and heartbreaking story. But what really saddens me is how many people really want to believe this stuff. It is no wonder politicians can lie through their teeth - if you tell them what they want, people prefer it.
9
Wow!! I was glued to my chair all the way. Completely lost in the story, the characters, and all the twists and turns in the story. Amazing piece of journalism.
8
Great story. Well written!
If you love this, you may love the author William Dalrymple. Start with the quick read "City of Djinns".
I've always wondered why Hollywood rarely makes movies about this topic, British rule and the partition...fascinating history.
6
This is storytelling at its best.
4
What a gifted story teller!
It’s amazing how a woman with warped mind but total belief could wrangle housing from the Indian government. Why on earth would they not have investigated her claims? Why would the Muslim community have supported such a wrong claim when there were plenty of folks who would have corroborated her story at its inception. Truly my take home from this dystopian tale is simply the power of absolute belief. Starting this moment I am focusing all my mind on the impeachment of Trump by the Senate. If Wilayat could be queen for 40 years till today, then the sky’s the limit.
7
@Meena: In there demotion derby that was India, there were competing interest communities who wanted a piece of the Indian pie and it was/is tribalism--religious, regional, political, and familial--tearing away at India.
1
This was an amazing story!
John Faulkner's Southern Gothic meets Indian mythology mixed with grand tales of the Raj. Absolutely mesmerizing!
13
Wow, what a story - I'm not sure what I make of it, but I will think about it often......
The most profound thing to me was “If a person like this has gone into oblivion, and had this death of anonymity,” he said, wonderingly, “what can you say about the death of a commoner?”
Of course, the family had fabricated their royal connections in their minds, but still, a very haunting story.
Thanks to the author.
6
I honestly cried at least three times reading this. The emotions stemmed from the relevancy of sifting through what is real and what is fake, the devastation of a family reeling from an incomprehensible change and the pain that remained with so many. I second all the comments about writing a book about this story. This was absolutely a pleasure to read.
15
One of the best articles i have read in NYT. Excellent piece of journalism
9
The Satyajit Ray film "The Chess Players" is about the British takeover of Oudh. Highly recommend it.
21
"The Jungle Prince of Delhi" is a riveting account of how the evils of war can reverberate through generations and continue to destroy people in unexpected ways.
Will we ever learn?
7
This was fantastic and breath taking. Not to push you into another mystery, but I still think would like to know if Anna Anderson was the real Anastasia. Her ears and her handwriting and her scars and her remembering her playmate the Doctor's son and DNA evidence can be compromised.
2
Captivating from first sentence to last. So beautifully written with honesty and compassion. Best thing I've read in a long time.
21
I agree. Absolutely riveting
.
2
The author has woven an enchanting but tragic tale of a mentally ill family which suffered because of the vagaries of history, in particular, the apocalyptic partition of India in 1947. An absolutely incredible story, told with great sensitivity and feeling. Yet it is unsparing in its journalistic quest for seeking out the truth. The authors perseverance is extraordinary, as are her story telling skills.
As someone who hails from Lucknow (erstwhile Oudh) and lives in Delhi I can closely identify with some parts of the story, although I confess my ignorance about the details. A wonderful read that leaves one with a strange tugging at the heart. I wonder why? After all, its only about a mentally ill bunch of people and their weird behaviour and actions...
62
Congratulations on a beautiful story. Finally something worth reading in the news.
10
Love this story. A wonderful distraction from other news! Thanks for writing.
7
@Denise Kawailani I agree. First really interesting story that I have read in the news in a very long time.
2
It's a parable isn't it? Politics aside, what happens to us when our identity is gone as we face life and the ultimate end ? The electrical wire seller asked the eternal question that every human carries in the recesses of their soul.
27
Beautiful story. So well written and described. Thank you.
3
@Oscar Hello, Oscar! My husband and I lived in Chula Vista (Otay Ranch specifically), for four years! We moved from there a little over a year ago to Memphis (we're Navy). How funny that yours should be the second comment I see. What a small world. This was a lovely story, wasn't it?
3
What a fascinating and beautifully written story! And what a welcome respite from the usual news of the day.
18
A beautifully written and researched story! I was hooked after the first few words!
19
It's one of those too good to be true stories albeit a tragic one. The trauma of partition, the vehemence of the matriach, the secrecy and hubris of the self-anointed royal siblings and their miserable end may be true for many lineages left behind by erstwhile kings of India. The twist is that it was so common in post -independent India that a strong willed woman managed to pull off a story that riveted the city of Delhi and the world.
Kudos to Ellen for tying the knots together. She went places for this one. I'm saving this story and also making a copy (just in case!).
31
@Thokchom Gautamjit
And, with beautiful, clear pictures, fascinating, this story took me out of my world for its entirety --really needed that!
2
What a wondrous and tragic story. Thank you.
8
A wonderful work of storytelling, history, investigation, and the inevitable erosion of vanity and beauty.
16
This may be the best piece I've read in the Times in the 10 years I've been a subscriber. Great investigative work and a gripping story that has stayed with me all day since I read it.
53
A beautifully written wondrous story.
14
Loved the story. I was about to prep ingredients to make chili when I saw this piece. I was hooked, and the chili was forgotten. Thank you, journalist, for continuing to produce quality work in such perilous times!
16
Lovely story indeed! A tale of lore, loss and insanity, proof that reality can be as enchanting, interesting as any fiction ever devised. Thank you!
9
as a children book author illustrator, I immediately illustrated this story in my mind as I was reading it. Such magical, sad tale that is not a tale but real life. It made me think of Garcia Marquez and of my own time traveling in India. I am amazed about the path a mind can take after trauma and how it can take little children along that path.
18
There is so much information in this gripping piece of writing! This is just beautifully written. Thank you for an enlightening, entertaining and heartbreaking article.
18
This is the most tragic, magical, intriguing, beautiful article I've ever read! I read it at 6am and absolutely can't stop thinking about it. Kudos to the Times for featuring it prominently, and to Ellen Barry for making me more interested in history through the lens of these very compelling characters!
71
What a beautiful article. Dragged me away from a cold autumn morning a world away from its story.
27
I am sad that I never heard about this story while growing up in India. This is a fantastic piece of journalism, very well written, and highlights the different ways lives were torn apart by partition in 1947.
53
Beautiful storytelling. Inspiring journalism. Ellen Barry is incredibly talented and knows how to tell a compelling tale.
28
What a wonderful story on so many different levels.
Thank you for writing this!
13
Hilarious, beautiful, and sad. Very well written and a welcome respite.
5
Amazing story, intimately shared.
Thank you, Wordsmith. RIP Prince Cyrus with your regal looking dogs.
19
Am I the only one who's reminded of Garcia Marquez?
24
@Andy Frobig you're not alone. I felt the same. the writing style, the unfolding of the story, and the stark elegance of the prose=same.
4
wow! remarkable
6
Very well-written account of a fake royal family. No one would have suspected that they were not royals from the way they conducted themselves in presence of others. The author has taken extraordinarily painstaking efforts to piece together the various loose ends of the episode.
33
Fairy tales and myths have roots. Heartbreaking that Prince Cyrus became a character in the fantasy. A delicate yet strong story by Ellen Barry.
19
I am watching “The Crown” on Netflix, one episode per evening. Lord Mountbatten is presented as a swaggering aristocrat and war hero; reading this fascinating piece recalls tragedy of partition that he so pompously thought was a great idea.
90
@Barbara Morrell Indeed and Churchill is presented as a great wartime leader.. while he had his moments, for the most part he was a cigar chomping drunk who talked a good game and did lots of backroom deals.. yet another politician then.. not to mention his deplorable views on inhabitants of British colonies at the time..
14
@Barbara Morrell And a name changer. His real name was Battenberg, which he believed was too German sounding.
11
@misterarthur To be fair, it was his father who changed the family name. During WW1, when patriotism demanded that the German background of the British royals be repudiated. The royal family adopted the name “Windsor” at this time as well, from Saxe-Coburg Gotha.
5
This is incredibly well reported and magnificently written. And it only whets my appetite for more. Well done! (And please consider writing the book!)
35
After all the nonsense that we are putting up with on a daily basis by our so called potus, this piece was a lovely story to come across. Being transported to another country and time was a very welcome respite.
Bravo and thank you to the author.
43
Somehow the lie elevates the family's story for me. Yet another legend in the annals of the surreal and fabled city that is Dilli. Thanks for sharing.
13
Fascinating article!!
Extremely well researched! Thank you!
Reminded me of the many 'daughters' of the last Tzar.
Regardless of the royal status or lack thereof, what a way to live!!
A great break from the other current major news headlines!
24
My parents were born a few years before Partition. The damage done by years of colonial rule and the subsequent post colonial narrative, that continues to this day, has had lasting psychological effects on every Indian family - Hindu and Muslim. The trauma of losing one's identity under foreign rule, then having one's nation be divided, and friend become foe, is a trauma not undone in a few generations. It will take time. Two things struck me in particular. One, was that Shahid didn't even know if he was Muslim or Hindu. And the other, that Cyrus and his family wanted to tell their story to foreign journalists only. Was that a continuation of the British subjugation of the Indian psyche? Was it a sly manipulation because Indians know how foreigners still, clearly, like to romanticize what they cannot fully possess? Or was it because only and Indian knows how little Indians themselves want to excavate their own messy past?
128
To be clear, Shahid most likely did not have any confusion about his religious identity; he was unsure only about his nationality, having moved from India to Pakistan at the time of the partition and then back again to India almost two decades later.
It may be noted here that India and Pakistan do not equate to Hindu and Muslim.
18
@Ashish gotta love that Ashish - equation well said - srinivas shastry
@LP Well said. A beautifully written piece that would be more complete with references to what Indian journalists may also have reported. I am sure the ten whole years of living in the waiting room would have been reflected in the Indian press.
Shahid not knowing if he Hindu or Muslim was very moving. I am sure he lived with guilt, sadness, and helplessness, as he tried to help with what he could.
2
There is a great movie in this story! I enjoyed this piece and new it was going to be special because it was all by itselh in and stand alone insert.
10
A sad, fascinating story well told. With such a convoluted history, who "owns" and what will become of the Malcha Mahal hunting lodge and surrounding property within New Delhi?
9
@MotoHead The Indian government owns it. It will take it back for the sake of ownership if not for its practical utility. Anyway there is a military unit next door to the dilapidated hunting lodge. They can use it for their training activities.
5
Salman Rushdie would have a field day with characters like these
13
Readers are justifiably delighted and excited by this quirky story from a faraway land.
However, there are a couple of unsettling aspects in the this story was uncovered and presented.
In her access to the occupier of Malcha Mahal, the author benefited from her position as a white American. Native journalists and story tellers never even got the chance to uncover this mystery of their own city. There is absolutely no reflection on this point by the author. We should not forget that her access and privilege was monetized via this article.
The writing betrays a strange admiration for a lady who made human beings walk on their knees. The subtext is that her damaging actions were the result of broader political upheaval. But more truthfully, this story is of an abusive human being, seething at a loss of unearned privilege, and making those close to her pay the price.
149
The exact reasons that family chose to only speak to foreign journalists might never be know. But, I would guess it was born out of a feeling of superiority over the locals they lived around. However, it could have started as a calculated manipulation as well. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to recognize that a fraudulent story is likely much easier to people not rooted in ones own culture and history. Regardless, this author was presented the information, pursued the facts, and expertly developed the story. The race of the person is not relevant. I would also point out that, at its heart, this story is incredibly sad. The mother was not just some horrible person that made servants walk on their knees or somebody who abused her children. She was mostly an undiagnosed and untreated human being with severe mental health problems, who might or might not have truly known what she was doing. She might have been a perpetrator, but she and her children were also victims. Victims of a mental illness exasperated by the legacy of colonialism for sure.
52
@Robert I will focus on the second part of the response.
The author herself only alludes to the mental problems well after we hear about the lady's daredevilry and 'strong will'. I doubt she would express such barely concealed admiration had the person in question been a white plantation owner's wife making her slaves walk on their knees.
21
I find your concerns overly precious.
The writer makes clear that Wilayat turned to the foreign press to make her case. They were the only ones allowed by the family. Barry acknowledges as much, and it does seem from Cyrus’s stance that an explanation about the absence of the domestic press would not have been forthcoming. Also, the fact that the family was a fraud suggests why they were not invited. Is being used such a privilege?
I also don’t find admiration for Wilayat. Barry is quite neutral in her description of her. And while Wilayat may have been mentally ill and monstrous, these events could not have transpired without the fact of the Partition; otherwise it would have been a sad,and very common, story of abuse.
42
Absolutely outstanding article! Fascinating and compulsive reading.
8
Like one of Satyajit Ray's films. Spellbindingly different from our own regulated lives.
12
I lived in New Delhi in 1981. From that time this story captured my imagination. This is why I subscribe to the NYTimes. Many years can pass without much coming from this news organization.
Then suddenly a piece of writing appears that makes it all worth while.
386
@Patrick I'm not trying to be snarky, but I find writing that makes it worthwhile in the NYTs often - almost daily.
41
@JL22 Especially since 2016.
17
Extraordinary - both in the reporting and storytelling of one of Delhi's great mysteries. Ellen, I think you have actually only elevated and brought into the light a more incredible story than we even suspected. Cyrus may have not been a prince in the House of Oudh, but his story, and the story of his family is incredible none the less. A great tribute to a family somehow both broken and great all at the same time.
11
While people enjoy reading this tale , I having been and Indian citizen feel a deep sense of sadness over what the European colonial powers in their quest for material riches did with their advanced weaponry and industry to most of Asia and Africa. The tale of disruption on a continental scale of ancient rich and culturally advanced civilizations is what needs to be told. The third world lays disrupted for millennia.
208
@ruchi I’d be more sympathetic to colonial “disruption on a continental scale of ancient rich and culturally advanced civilizations “ if the aforementioned civilizations treated their citizens with anything resembling fair play. As often as not, the public was economically exploited and utterly lacking in rights, forced to abase themselves whenever in contact with their masters. Colonialism was hugely exploitative. So too was that which it replaced.
28
@ruchi
After reading this I had the same thoughts and said so to my husband I also include the raping of South America and North America indigenous people and the Pacific Islands for legendary stories of gold and jewels. Their lust created the unstable world we live in today.
22
@Elliot Podwill It all depends on one's perspective. Colonialism is bad---lock, stock, and barrel. If East India Company and its successor Britain exploited the rich civilizations of Asia, it is because the natives did not have unity among them. The Muslim invasion and the subsequent conversion and re-population of India with muslims has caused more problems for the subcontinent. "Fairplay" has to be considered in a native situation. Just because there was disorder among native tribes that does not confer any rights to a foreign power to butt in. However, that is a subject for another story.
16
Incredible story and well reported. Definitely worthy of a broader book-length treatment that could branch out to cover issues from the colonial exploits of the British and East India company up through the British leaving and partition. The important historical information could be interwoven with the family's story as a framework. It could compare to "The Remains of the Day" which conveys history while using a personal story as vehicle. Well done, Ms. Barry. Now write the book!
18
This is a fascinating story, sad yet full of hope for a people who felt so displaced. Great writing.
6
Amazing read, couldn't help but to point out to NYT that Kashmir is still under lock-down for over 130 days. No investigative report or front-page headline on Hindu nationalistic state terrorism against minorities in Modi's India.
can you get a reporter inside Kashmir to roam freely? You can't, doesn't it speak volumes of oppression?
66
Wow! What a story, thankyou!
6
"Reader, I should confess that I wanted to write the story."
Story? Yeah, but a screenplay treatment, oh yes! Amazon, Disney, Netflix, youtube, y'all listening?
9
"Oudh (pronounced Uh-vud) was a kingdom that no longer existed. The British annexed it in 1856, a trauma from which its capital, Lucknow, never recovered. The core of the city is still made of Oudh’s vaulted shrines and palaces....
....by the epic deceit of the British conquest and then the blood bath of the British departure, known as Partition, which carved out Pakistan from India and set off convulsions of Hindu-Muslim violence."
Colonialism, by Britain, America or any other historical example, has wrought so much damage to other nations! It's odd that America's history books talk in such glowing terms of the mighty white race, instead of with humility and context!
55
Ms. Barry,
Salman Rushdie just called. He’d like you to return his manuscript immediately.
16
What an incredible piece of journalism. I was riveted by Ms. Barry's account from the moment I began reading the article. And compelled by the poignancy of the photographs. After reading all the comments below, I can only say that every one of my thoughts has been already expressed in them. A marvelous piece of writing. This article will remain with me for a very long time. Thank you, Ms. Barry...
22
A story such as only India can produce. I enjoyed the reading as much as the pictures to it. Would make an excellent movie.
15
Well researched or to say investigated and well written story. Enjoyed reading it while feeling the pain, people during partition have gone through. Being a south indian, i can never fully realize the pain north indians along the border have gone through. These stories will remind you that. Who would have thought that the story about a king in delhi would start during partition. I sure didn't. i've never heard about this king so far.
20
What a wonderful piece to read this morning. I spent a year in India and like the author says, there is such a rich mysterious and decaying trove of buildings, temples and stories everywhere. And, this particular piece reminded me again of what war and dividing up countries does to populations. This is our story all over the world.
10
Riding the Delhi Airport Express Metro into the city center many times I would look out at this area and wonder what’s in there. Thanks for filling in the gaps. Great story!
26
Wow, fascinating story, thank you!
5
The more one reflects on it, the more incredible the story appears. If Indira Gandhi had given them Malcha Mahal, then at least some members of the Prime Minsiter's office and some secretaries in North Block must have known as well as some members of the New Delhi elite that were close to Indira Gandhi. Yet for decades no Indian journalists reported on it!
How that happened seems to be a remarkble story by itself.
9
@IDG
Actually, this has always been a well-known story in New Delhi. I remember reading about the "royal family of Oudh" living at the waiting room in the railway station with their many servants and two huge dogs in Indian newspapers.
Ellen Barry's investigation reveals more - the fraud by the family, the existence of the older son in the UK, and the equally interesting relatives in Pakistan. And, of course, Ms. Barry's style and her placement of the story in the subcontinent's bloody history gives it context and emotion.
9
"She seemed to communicate by slapping people, hard, across the face." I loved this line, it sorta reminded me of a few people I have known. However, the "royal family of Oudh" seemed completely foreign to me. But then, I realized that this story has a lot in common with the head of our current administration . . . a mass of made-up tales to project this appearance of nobility and wealth.
I was thinking this was the kind of story I needed . . . a distraction . . . Something to divert my attention from our current political headlines, but in a weird way, it was some kind of odd Gothic retelling of our own "royal family." Unfortunately, Trump has a lot more people believing in his deceit.
66
Absolutely fascinating story.
5
As an Indian, I found it a discomforting read. The story is heavily metaphoric; it captures the rot and decay among the ruling classes and royals; and it has always been thus.
Picture Cyrus' ma in the waiting room, establishing a durbar; demanding a democratic country to restore her royal status. This is what has become of them - them as in people with claims of royalty - powerless.
Would you imagine them once powerful? Rapacious, cruel, imperious. They made possible a rag tag multinational company to completely run over India.
It is metaphoric because the whole saga is more about Indian timidity and fearfulness, our slavish devotion to tyrants. This family of parasites, and the thousands like them that rode in with the power of the sword from Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan and raped the country, destroyed its heritage, broke its temples, and set fire to its books. India owes them nothing; they owe India their very existence. They are best forgotten.
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@Kalidan Amen! Couldn't have said it better.
18
@Kalidan Do you intentionally skip the looting that occurred in the British Raj. The invaders you are talking about atleast settled down and the riches stayed in the subcontinent . The Rajas got replaced by the Mantris in prsent times .
32
@Kalidan Hindu fundamentalist histories are not based in fact, so please stop peddling them. Also, look at your own Hindu rajas and tell me they were not sycophants to the British. The Hindu zemindars were the worst, blood sucking middlemen. So instead of dividing the country with this quasi fundamentalist history, think about India's future and how it will survive environmental damage (Modi, a Hindu is doing what?) and the further economic raping of India by multinationals (see Monsanto).
123
Thanks for this fascinating and well-researched article.
4
This story is gloriously mind bending; the photos beautifully intriguing. Thank you!
5
I love stories like this, where you go deeper than you thought you could into a story you didn't realize you cared about. I feel for these people, aching to be something that they weren't until they became that thing. It speaks to the will of human nature, that power to become whatever you want. I'm sure the story of Prince Cyrus in the jungle is one that is hard to believe initially, but easy to understand.
8
Fascinating story. Indian equivalent of Anastasia.
6
Stranger than fiction!
I couldn’t put it down, and felt that partition ruined so many families, rich and poor.
Thanks
13
I seldom read stories or articles from beginning to end. But Ms. Barry wrote this story with such panache that I kept on reading until the end. Bravo Ms. Barry! I look forward to your next one.
16
Ellen Barry was one NYT’s best India correspondents. Understood India without over-identifying.
38
Omg! What a harrowing piece of journalism! Thank you! As someone whose family suffered from the bloody partition, I can’t imagine the trauma these people went through. It’s such a heartbreaking story and thank you for writing about it and unearthing its secret.
17
An amazing read.
5
Astonishing story. Thank you. All humankind is in here somehow, as glorious as it is lunatic, resourceful, stubborn, helpless or depraved.
6
granted I am only 20 years old but that has got to be the craziest story i have ever heard
18
Amazing story! And an amazing piece of reporting/journalism. Even though the characters were impostors, there were/are people whose lives were upended by colonial powers, by fratricidal wars and so many other travesties. I was born in rural British India and have no memory of the Raj and how it affected people when it was there and after iota was gone. But I do know of real persons, who hang on to lost glory and privileges in rundown, decaying structures surrounded by fading photos, worn furnishings and old tomes. It is so very sad to look at. RIP Cyrus!
12
@chan Mahanta
“real persons, who hang on to lost glory and privileges in rundown, decaying structures surrounded by fading photos, worn furnishings and old tomes. It is so very sad to look at”
That sounds like quite a few older Brexiteers, mourning the loss of Empire.
4
I’m a retired genealogist. This achingly haunting story touches me and draws me to record the questions and twists of fate that lie silently in the past of our ancestors. Write, friends. Write down what you know and what you are in the process of unearthing. You might be the only one to record that which is the essence of lives.
28
What an amazing story and incredibly well told! Thank you, Ellen Barry for a glimpse into the mysteries that abound in our city ... love the way you have unravelled it. Just wow.
6
Quite a case of psyches driven by extreme assertions of self-preservation and exceptionalism... how many in our modern world are driven by a feral sense of self-importance, belonging, and version of legacy when many are displaced by all sorts of circumstances (war, poverty, climate disasters, among, or as in this story, the trauma of 1947 in India)? How many in the U.S., since its colonization, glorify their own origin stories to stand out, or how does that glorification fit in to modern legacy stories, the grand self-made monied royalty are worshipped in the U.S.? How much of that sort of legacy is driven by run-away ego?
7
For many people who had to change countries at Partition, particularly people who had status and wealth previously, their losses became magnified over time and in the telling. Unable to live in the manner to which they had formerly been accustomed, these families often had mentally ill family members who never got over the loss of their former status or imagined status. My former in-laws in Lahore were just such a family. Educated beyond their economic strata in a hierarchical society, many were stuck psychologically. A friend noted wryly, "If everybody who came from India was so rich and high & mighty, who was doing the actual work?" It is clear that the mother in this article was mentally ill, and unfortunately she dragged her children into her madness with her. Very well-written account.
45
Having spent many months over the years in North India Ellen Barry brought me to tears with this tragic story. The Brits are complicit and have never acknowledged the damage that was done to the Muslim and Indian residents of the areas between New Delhi and Lahore. Any person of a darker skin color was considered less...
This story is one of the most interesting I have ever read. What an amazing movie, play or TV series this story would make. I hope MS Barry wins a prize for sticking with this tale.
568
My wife and I currently live in Delhi and when I read the part about the monkeys in the road, I knew exactly where this place was (if you visit Delhi and stay in the city, you've probably driven on the same road). It was so fun to learn about what lays beyond that road (I always assumed a village).
This is some of the best and most enjoyable reporting I've read in a long time! Justifies the NYT subscription cost for me. Ellen, I hope you can sell the movie rights to this (to Wes Anderson, if we can choose a director)
57
What an amazing story ... I wished it would never end. Breathtaking investigative journalism.
I did however have this thought in my head as a read the story: only in India, the Capitol of Strange, could something like this happen.
She just shows up at a train station and declares that she is the last of the ancient queens of Islamic India ... and then, in many peoples minds, she indeed becomes the last of the ancient Indian queens who lives in a forgotten forest. Only in India ...
13
This is one of the best stories I have read in years. The reporter’s tone and nuanced emotion borders perfection.
15
Wow!
Wonderful, haunting, strange, broken, and deeply human.
Thank you.
6
absolutely beautiful, captivating, arresting, etc. i wish every piece i read on nyt was like this.
4
Best read I've had in a very long time. It deserves to be made into a movie!
3
I was completely riveted by this story. This might arguably have been the best NY Times article I have read this year. For the love of all things holy, please - Ellen Barry, write a novel about this family.
13
Even Satyajit Ray, whose film on the last Nawab of Oudh is a classic and who was known to research his subjects meticulously, never mentioned meeting this family and perhaps never found out about them.
4
Outstanding. Thank you for a great piece of journalism!
4
Thank you for this very fascinating story!
2
Fascinating! Thanks Ellen Barry!
I had heard vague stories about this "weird royal family that lived in the jungle" over the years, from old shopkeepers in the walled city in Delhi, and from rickshaw pullers plying the streets near the Imambara in Lucknow.
This is real journalism (and excellent use of photographs too)!
13
Brava! What a grand piece of reportage, and a fascinating glimpse into a mysterious world. It’s hard to say which is more compelling: the cloak of lies and fables the family wove around them, or the real horror and grief of India’s history during Partition. A truly great read.
4
This is a fascinating story and Ellen Barry deserves to be commended for her persistence to find the truth.
This could only happen in India because even today it functions like a millipede. How could somebody be given vast land and a huge house without any ownership proof? Was there no one in charge? Who owns it all now?
9
@Jack The Malcha Mahal is government property, and Wilayat and her children were tenants. Most of central New Delhi (known as the Lutyens Bungalow Zone, for the English planner who created it) is similarly government owned.
2
Thank you for the wonderful writing and a story I didn't know I had missed. This is the best thing I've read in a long time. Thank you.
3
Amazing story...amazingly told! Worthy of a book/ movie! I grew up in Delhi but never knew anything about any of this...
Hopefully some Indian scribes would take note and be motivated to cover stories like these in their neighborhood as well..
6
I loved this. Thank you.
3
This story reminded me of the two Edith Beales, residents of Grey Gardens.
8
@Pam Me too! I felt the story had similarities.
What a beautifully written piece of truly investigative journalism! Fascinating to Google map Malcha Mahal, do satellite view and look at the pictures there.
4
After a long time, I have been this much mesmerized by an article that I could not resist sharing it on my FB profile after ages. Thank You for the brilliant writing
5
Hope is found in the most sordid of circumstances, everywhere in the world. Just another reminder of our humanity no matter how real or how false that hope might be.
4
Thank you for this article. I completely lost myself in it this morning. NYT, please please publish more stories like this.
5
I loved this story. I did not like the reporter's truth-finding mission and tracing the origin of the story from the partition of India, which was in 1947. There must have been many lines of descendants of a royal family that was ousted from its rule in 1856. There is no evidence to show that Wilayat Begum was not one of them. She must have reinvented herself and her family to live the stories she heard about her ancestors. Or she just made up those stories to live in the enchantment of the past (which turned out to be tragic, to her and her children). What is important was how her story was accepted and still not questioned by those including the Indian state and allowed them to remain in Malch Mahal. What is important is the nostalgia for a glorious and romantic past that led people to still view the begum as a disenfranchised royalty. And it is Delhi, it is not the least strange to find these and other tragic stories hidden in the layers and layers of history. I felt the reporter killed that enchantment by checking for the authenticity of the claims of the family, which nobody in India really bothers to search.
7
@Manjusha I believe the main thrust of the whole article was whether the family was indeed royalty. It was a fascinating story nonetheless.
Great story!
Thank you.
3
The trauma that Britain wrecked on India with the Partition is poignantly demonstrated in this family's lives. Here is a poem that came to me in response to the photograph from New Delhi during Partition showing the deadly results: The blood spilled and pooled into the streets like red mirrors framed haphazardly by angular bodies, bones twisted in all directions as if pulled by the opposing currents of trying to survive - Muslims one way, Hindus the other - ripping apart each other's humanity. We should take heed. There are ramificaitons from this story for all of us the world over.
275
Astonishing! I grew up in Delhi and thought I had walked every lane and explored most of its forests in the "Ridge". Apparently I had not! A magical story - almost stretches credulity.
254
@IDG beautifully written story … thank you! after reading all of it and completely transported, i looked up from the page, surprised to see a late seattle afternoon rather than the decaying castle of oudh … fabulous!
20
While growing up in Calcutta, I used to take Tram Cars by Metiabruz - where the last Nawab of Oudh Wazir Ali Shah died in exile and have been fascinated by the dynasty, which is so well captured in Saytajit Ray's movie, Shatranj ki Khaleri (The Chess Player). Distinctly remember when Wilayat train station saga ended and they left for Malcha Mahal.... Had forgotten about this until this morning when I read Ellen Barry's memorable work that not only closed a chapter but reminded us through a remarkably well written searing story of uprooted identity, desperation, flawed human character and how the partition changed so many lives, upended lives, history and created narratives that are beyond truth and mundane. Well done Ms. Barry!
45
Thank you for this story. What an incredible piece. I love the way you appear as a character in it and the pacing is just perfect. I'm so glad I took the time to read it.
6
Headline caught my attention and I am glad I clicked on the link. What an incredibly well told story. The amount of research that went into it is apparent and appreciated by this reader. Job well done and thank you for transporting me to another time and place. I hope Cyrus and his family rest in peace.
36
An amazing story, and a brilliant piece of writing. I will remember this for a long time.
57
This has been by far one of the best articles I have read in a very long time. I typically don't have the time to sift through newspapers online or paper copy. I would read the headlines and if interested I would skim through it.
However, this story caught my attention which required me to stop what I was doing to read it in its entirety. I have a love for history, a curiosity that needs to be fed. The thought of being someone of importance, who claimed to be a royal family who was protesting to reclaim their properties and land, made me feel sad for them.
The persistence of the journalist who kept tracking down information and following the crumbs which were left behind, to find out that this belief that carried on for 40 years was a big lie.
My only question is why? What would possess someone to do something like? And lastly, the gentleman at the end, the quote of a person gone into oblivion. I was definitely moved.
95
Ms Barry,
What a wonderful story, thanks for writing and sharing this! An epic and strange tale that shows how deeply people can feel about their own history real or imagined. So cool that you were in the end able to find their real relatives and hear the truth.
35
What an incredible piece of writing and research to match the amazing life story of this family and the tragedy of Partition.
20
Thank you, Ellen Berry and the New York Times for this well-written and moving story. The image of Cyrus alone in his mesquite jungle mansion will stay with me. In many ways this story captures India, the sweep of its violent colonial history and its effect on the people that history touched. Partition was immensely cruel, provoking one of the largest migration of people in world history. It often seems forgotten now, but you bought to light how history effects individuals and how that distortion of normal life lasts through the generations. You also illuminated the fascinating wonder that is India, both its grandeur and its amazing eccentricity. Congratulations, this is why I subscribe to the New York Times.
55
Wow, King Canute had NOTHING on these people: by sheer force of will they held back the tide of history. An amazing story, beautifully told, and while it certainly has its melancholic components, I find myself strangely cheered by this demonstration of adamantine determination.
38
Amazing, and romantic story. Well done!
8
I was born in Calcutta in 1957 and lived there till I was ten. I remember something curious about life there: the headlights on the family car were painted black on the top halves. I vaguely remember being told it was because of "bombers that might come," but until just now I didn't remember what bombers those might have been.
This article reminded me that there had been a brief war between India and Pakistan in 1965 . . . thanks for clearing up that appendix of a memory.
And it's my memory that we were surrounded by both Muslims and Hindus and everyone seemed to get along just fine . . . at least in Calcutta.
24
Wow!! What a story!! And so wonderfully told!!!
It has all the ingredients for movie: Great drama; Strong, mysterious and yet vulnerable characters; the geographical and time breadths; the twists, turns and suspense; the visual drama of the drab grey settings surrounded by the lush greenery & colors of India. It would be a shame if this is not made into a movie.
24
Ms Barry, on a cold snowy morning in Colorado it was a so delightful to join you on this brief trip. Wonderfully researched, delicately written, and memorable. I'm looking forward to reading more from you.
81
@Leonard Weed I'm in cold snow Boulder too today. And, I spent 1971 in India...a mindblowing place. Wonderful writing here.
1
This is what keeps writers going: “When I felt I was making progress it was a calming feeling, as though a cloud of buzzing, disparate information were being forced through a funnel, into a clear stream. Small breakthroughs would drive me forward, like a gambler. On such assignments it was possible to forget unpaid bills, unanswered telephone calls, to set aside anything not required to follow the trail.” Well done!
51
This is, by far, one of the best NYT articles I have read. I visited the palace with you through your words and wanted more artifacts and relics from their artificial life and history. Well done.
366
@LPerry I agree. I couldn't stop reading.
12
Wow. A magnificent story, beautifully told. Sublime photography. Love the way she breaks the 4th wall occasionally. NYT at its best.
426
What a captivating story! Beautifully written with plot twists based on incredible research. All I could think of is this would be a fantastic movie! Thank you for this engaging and fascinating piece.
93
Thank you for a wonderful, sad but amazing read. I read this story both as great journalism and as evidence of the impact of trauma on both individuals and generations. I see dissociation, fear, and human perseverance in the face of great loss. When reality is too horrible, we create soothing alternate narratives. Thank you, Ellen Barry, for YOUR perseverance.
143
Thank you for a wonderful, sad but amazing read. I read this story both as great journalism and as evidence of the impact of trauma on both individuals and generations. I see dissociation, fear, and human perseverance in the face of great loss. When reality is too horrible, we create soothing alternate narratives. Thank you, Ellen Barry, for YOUR perseverance.
15
This was a captivating read from beginning to end. A truly sad, fascinating, and bizarre story, with photographs that echoed the shadowy nature of the family's tale. One wonders what may have become of the handsome young Prince had things been different for him--and for India. (Imagine living in a railway station for ten years!)
I have already shared this with others who like a well-told mystery. Thank you.
47
Incredible story. Magical realism brought to life.
The reader shares Ms. Barry’s heartbreak from unraveling the story.
87
What a poignant article.Followed this story over the years . It Is one of a great detective story with a final unexpected tragic ending. Also illustrates the tragedy families cast asunder in political Tsunami of partition of india. Families who are unsure of their roots . This is analogous to the story of Pakistan itself which has cast itself from its roots of Pan Indian identity and assumed a false national identity of Arabian and Persian heritage ,isolated living in with false grandeur, Congratulations to Ellen Barry for a great article
75
What an historic, sad and romantic story! I am constantly amazed by the writers of the NYT. This story is so poignant! Now I will have to go back and find all of the articles you mentioned so I can get more perspective. I also see a big historical research/reading project to fully understand the politics and history that got this family to where they are today. Thank you so much!
39
What a fantastic tale! Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
43
Exquisite story telling with real heart. What a rare treat!
Thank you, Ms. Barry!
55
This story began like a modern fairy-tale. By the end, centuries of history and geopolitics connected it with the challenges we face today, and I was left amazed. I love how Ms. Barry wrote this and the luscious images she provided.
Thank you NYT, for a refreshing change from the usual stuff on the front page!
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@John W , Photos are by Bryan Fenton for the NYT
8
Thank you, Ellen Barry, for this heartfelt, poignant article. Through your perseverance and personal insight, you have brought universal truths to a sad story, all the while showing respect and love for its final teller. What a brilliant interweaving of history and its impact on the personal lives of we who live it. Well done.
220
Fantastic story. Great writing. I wish Jorge Luis Borges were alive to know it.
82
What a fascinating story, illuminated by the reporter’s intrigue and intrepidness in tracing its origins. I would have loved to know how the composition of the city has (or hasn’t) changed, Muslim to Hindu, and how that may have affected the family; I’m also very curious about the buried sister, and if authorities ever confirmed the Prince’s account. And I salute the bravery of the reporter venturing into a dilapidated fort in the forest to visit the hermit Prince. A great read!
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@Daphne
The composition has not changed much in India, only more muslims now than before partition in the same territiries that make India today. Muslims were 9% of Indian population in the territory that makes India today in 1947 and now they are 15%!!
In shar contrast , in W Pakistan, the annhilation of non muslims is complete. Hindus and Sikhs made 22% of the population of W Pakistan in 1947 and today it is 1%.
20
Thank you for this piece.
The writing and research efforts you put forth here are testament to journalistic excellence.
Your talent is why I'll continue renew my digital subscription to the NYT. This, despite the volume of biased political writing that seems to crowd out excellent prose such as yours.
3