Westward Bound: Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb

India’s contact with the west grew with colonization as more and more people turned towards Europe with varying degrees of admiration, fear and respect. Mirza Abu Taleb Khan, the erudite eighteenth-century scholar from Lucknow (1752-1806) was one of the first among his community to have made the journey to the west. Compelled by political intrigue and other adverse circumstances at home, Abu Taleb set sail from Calcutta in 1799, reaching England after a difficult journey on the high seas. Greatly impressed by the governmental, economic, artistic achievements of late eighteenth-century England, he also recorded his impressions of what he saw and experienced in France, Genoa, Malta, Turkey and Baghdad. After travelling far and wide for four-and-a-half years, he turned home, via Bombay, in 1803. Abu Taleb’s travelogue, a singularly important work, sheds light on the national customs and manners of Europeans, often corroborating the evidence offered by present-day social historians. His vision and understanding of cultural streams in the east and west add credibility to his writing. His observations also help to provide an alternative viewpoint on the encounter between Pax Brittanica and the sharif families of North India. At a time when there is much talk of developing a wider and more truthful vision of the west, Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb illustrates a non-western representation of the west, thereby enhancing its contemporary relevance.