The Inordinately Strange Life of Dyce Sombre: Victorian Anglo-Indian MP and Chancery 'Lunatic' (review)

From the intrigue of the Mughal court to the British lunatic court, Michael Fisher's biography of David Octherlony Dyce Sombre (1808-51) covers two continents and provides many microcosms of historical interest. This historical biographical mystery shares much in common with Partha Chatterjee's A Princely Imposter?, which Fisher acknowledges, or even William Dalrymple's White Mughals, and is sure to find similar success with non-academic audiences.¹ The Inordinately Strange Life starts in the princely state of Sardhana and explains how the childless Begum Sombre came to choose 'David' as her heir through a process of strategic marriages and favour. A sense of a fairly tense, precarious upbringing for David emerges, beholden to the Begum's every wish to ensure that he remained her sole heir. He adopted the name 'Sombre', for example, and built extensions to the Sardhana estate at a time when the British were annexing nearby kingdoms and threatening to seize the state. The British annexed Sardhana following the Begum's death in January 1836 which forced David to travel India, Asia and then journey to Britain.

The Inordinately Strange Life is not merely a biography. Fisher relies on extensive archival research and poses important questions on nationality and other social categories. The 'Anglo-Indian' Dyce Sombre was a 'rootless cosmopolitan' (2) who did not 'belong' to any ethnic community, British or Indian. He was the adopted heir of the Begum Sombre, but his paternal grandmother was of Indian descent, and there were also Persian roots on his mother's side. Despite his position in the Mughal court, Dyce Sombre appeared to identify with the British, writing his diary in English, rising high in the Freemasons and socialising with British colonial society. However, he always sensed that he was not 'accepted', partly because of his idiosyncratic character. Other instances surfaced where his race became important. He found that he was not taken seriously by East India Company officers in Meerut, as the Company did not admit people of 'obvious' mixed ancestry into its regular officer ranks (66). Later, when he went to live in Calcutta, Europeans considered him to be 'Black' (87).

The second half of the book takes Dyce Sombre to England; here, Fisher is well versed in discussing the colonial migrant experience, as we know from his important work Counterflows to Colonialism.² In Britain, anxiety about his racial identity continued to plague Dyce Sombre. It appears that his dark skin colour became an immediate signal of difference in London and he was often described as a 'Negro'. Fisher mentions, briefly, Dyce Sombre's encounters with Indians in London, and it would be interesting, knowing Fisher's other work, to find out more about these relations and the attitudes of migrant Indians towards Dyce Sombre. There is, for example, a funny case when he meets Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, grandfather of Rabindranath, in Europe, who may or may not have had a relationship with Dyce Sombre's wife (264-5).

Race and ethnicity were not the only social categories that were confusing and fluid. Fisher also recounts Dyce Sombre's uncertainty about categorising others, particularly European women, to identify appropriate women to approach for sexual relations. In Britain, Dyce Sombre adopted the title of 'Colonel' and designed a family crest, all attempts to use his wealth to gain social acceptance. Then, in 1841, he stood as Member of Parliament for Sudbury in Suffolk. Here, Dyce Sombre's unidentifiable ancestry was ignored by the Whig-Radicals in favour of his fortune. Fisher claims that nationalists have appropriated Dadabhai Naoroji, elected in 1892, for their narrative as the first Indian MP in Britain and have discarded Dyce Sombre because he was too problematic to celebrate. Although Dyce Sombre did not attempt to represent Indian interests or represent himself as Indian—his time in parliament appeared to be an attempt to gain further respectability and security in his social status within British society. Fisher argues forcefully...