Sepoy units had to do much more fighting than the elite European ones, and in a year Baker and Deen Mahomed saw more action than they had in their twelve years with the European regiment-against the Mahrattas and the rebellious Raja Chayt Singh of Benares. In 1781, when Baker was promoted to Captain and given command of a sepoy battalion, he had Deen Mahomed appointed Jemader in charge of a grenadier company.

Deen Mahomed followed his father (who died in action) and his elder brother into the service of the Company, becoming, at the tender age of twelve, a camp-follower of Godfrey Evan Baker, an Irishman from Cork, who was Quartermaster of a European regiment in the Bengal Army. The family had traditionally been in the employ of the Muslim rulers of north India, but Muslim power was in decline and the East India Company was in its ascendancy, rapidly expanding its political and economic control, and in the process offering good prospects of employment to willing Indians. The family moved to London and then to Brighton and showed remarkable entrepreneurial originality in marketing the cuisine and medical practices of 'exotic' India.ĭeen Mahomed was born in Patna in 1759 into a respectable Muslim family that boasted kinship with the Nawab of Bengal. He married into the Irish Protestant gentry and had several children: one of the earliest Indo-British families about whom we have fairly detailed information. He soldiered for the east india company before emigrating to Cork in Ireland, where he published his Travels, the first book in English by an Indian. Deen Mahomed, Sake (1759-1851) an adventurer, writer and entrepreneur is a fascinating instance of the dramatic changes that cross-cultural interaction may bring about in individual lives.

The travels of dean mahomed