Love on the Wind

Author’s NoteWhen I visited Hyderabad in February 1982, I felt spiritually moved by the tombs of the Qutb Shahi Kings and when I was ready for a plot it all fell into place from that moment. The background and most of the people with the exception of the hero and heroine of this novel are factual. The Viceroy, Lord Ripon, raised a serious conflict in India by the introduction of the Ilbert Bill. Supported in England by the Prime Minister, Mr. William Gladstone, the Viceroy had no idea that the British community would openly organise themselves to almost mutinous opposition. Meetings were held in every town and three thousand people assembled in Calcutta. The Assam tea planters were so infuriated that they actually hatched a plot to kidnap the Viceroy. The opposition in Bengal and elsewhere became so intense that the Bill was finally drastically modified. Lord Ripon, however, was venerated and honoured by both Hindu and Muslim, while his involvement was never forgotten by the Anglo-Indians. When in 1915 his statute was erected by Indian subscriptions, no European subscribed. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt was a British eccentric. A writer, poet, Politician, naturalist and explorer, he waged political crusades to free Egypt, India and Ireland from Colonial rule. His romantic affairs were as passionate as his politics and usually frustrated. The glorious British Residency at Hyderabad, more palatial than any Government House in India except Calcutta and New Delhi, is now a woman’s college. His exalted Highness Nizam the VIII lives in Australia. Amongst the diamonds that came from Golconda was the Koh-i-Nor, which graces the Crown of England.