Name : Fahad Nahvi

College : South Campus

Roll No. : 19/607
Semester : 3 , MA History
Paper: Sources of the Mughal Period : Reading and Interpreting Texts

​Ijaz i Arsalani : Identity and Subjectivity in 18th Century India

Antoine Louis Henri Polier was a french man employed in service of east india company.His
family records trace his lineage through generations of military personnel and intellectuals.
He embodies both of them. He arrived in India in 1758 and fought against the French
suggesting he places his professional loyalty higher than that to his birthplace.

In the preface of Mythologie des Indous he expresses pleasure that he got to take part in
campaign against shuja ud daula and marathas, even after his post of captain was given to
some new English member. Later he takes up a job in Shuja ud daula’s court as military
expert on fortification. It suggest that he was a practical person and his loyalty was strictly
professional. He was friends with Gentil who was a captain in the french army. It is
interesting how there was a cultural, intellectual and business transaction that did not waver
his loyalty to the EIC. Under the patronage of nawab , he started building his career as a
trader for royals and europeans.

He was an intellectual and a very perceptive one at that. He understood the social setup and
hierarchy of powerful elites. He employs that to his benefit. In the letters he writes to Nawab
Shuja ud daula and Raja Chait Singh, when he is flustered at both of them not doing what he
asked for, the tone for nawab is different than the Raja. He never overtly criticizes or orders
the nawab, but does that with the Raja.

But his letters to Raja complicate the situation a little. He does have that European
superiority notion in his mind but uses it sparingly. In one letter he calls raja chait singh a
friend and tells him that polier has his best interest at heart. In another one he requests him
to help his servant's son with a land dispute. But in a third letter when a theft takes place in
rajas jurisdiction of the caravan polier had arranged for the nawab - he orders him to tell that
to nawab himself and writes another scathing letter to him later when he delays in telling the
raja. He is knowledgeable about the social structures and it looks sometimes he does
consider himself superior , but even then he would take the best possible route to achieve
his goal - invoking friendships sometimes and at other times - ordering around.

There are occasions where he lets loose a volley of european stereotypes about Hindustan
and its people. In his letter to Mir Sulaiman Khan he says that Hindustani people are strange
and not trustworthy, envious and jealous of others’ success.
In a letter to nawab about entrenchments near the fort they were going to siege - he says
hindustani people make false statements. When the responsibility about the entrenchment
fell on him he blamed it on “hindustani people''. In another letter he calls soldiers of Awadh
bastards and implies that English soldiers would have never held the english surveyor
hostage and demanded money.

He is aware of his limits and power. He never lets the notion of european superiority cloud
his mind when he is addressing the nawab. He does use some strong language but never
goes overboard. He also sends another immediate letter in which he reminds the nawab of
his generosity and how grateful he is for his patronage. But he is not all cunning. It's possible
for him to think of himself as superior and genuinely praise the indigenous people at times
and having meaningful friendships with them. He praises najaf khan in so many of his letters.

At this point in history, Mughal and French societies were not so different. Women in Mughal
Court were under the Purdah , and in France women were restricted to the private sphere. In
a letter to his mother in law , he rebukes his senior wife for coming out of seclusion(purdah).
He also threatens to kill her and her daughter if any harm was done to his junior wife in her
pregnancy. Honor (embodied by women) was the currency of French as well as Mughal
empire, and extreme measures were not beyond them to safeguard it.

Polier is a confluence of multiple ethnic and professional identities - French, English, Military
personnel, trader. All these work in combinations with each other. Sometimes they do seem
contradictory. He is not a passive recipient of these identities but actively keeps modifying
them according to his own needs. The subjectivity of the protagonist does not develop in
vacuum, it collides with numerous other objective
relations(economic,historical,social,linguistic,imagination,literacy,mobility etc.) with
environment or people and then develops. Even after that it is a continuous process and the
formed identity may interact with another set of objective relations and develop further. The
seemingly fixed objective relations between English and the Mughals and their notions of
each other are complicated by Polier’s individuality.