You're Dead to Me - Sake Dean Mahomed

Episode Date: October 1, 2021

Greg Jenner and his guests examine the life of Sake Dean Mahomed who introduced curry, shampooing and therapeutic massage to 19th-century England. He grew up under colonial rule, but Sake Dean Mahomed ended up living in Brighton until the age of 92 and counted members of the Royal Family among his many clients. Greg's guests in this episode are Dr Arunima Datta from Idaho State University and the comedian and podcast host Eshaan Akbar.Script: Emma Nagouse, Chris Wakefield and Greg Jenner Research: Chris Wakefield Project manager: Siefe Miyo Edit producer: Cornelius Mendez

This is the BBC. This podcast is supported by advertising outside the UK. All day long. Taxes extra at participating Wendy's until May 5th. Terms and conditions apply. BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. Hello and welcome to You're Dead to Me, a BBC Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously. My name is Greg Jenner. I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster, and I'm the chief nerd on the funny kids TV show Horrible Histories. And today we are donning our fluffy bathrobes and getting a relaxing historical herbal head massage as we explore the luxurious life of the Indian innovator and shampooist extraordinaire Sheikh Din Muhammad. And joining me in our biographical bathhouse are two very special guests. In History Corner, she's Assistant

Professor of South and Southeast Asian History and the History of the British Empire at Idaho State University. She specialises in the movement of South and Southeast Asian people in the 19th and 20th century in the empire, and is the author of the recent book, Fleeting Agencies, a social history of Indian coolie women in British Malaya. She's also written about the history of curry. What a CV! It's Dr. Arunamar Datta. It's great to have you here, Arunima. Hi, Greg. Thank you for having me. Really excited to be here. And in Comedy Corner, he's a hilarious stand-up comedian who you'll recognise from appearances on Mock the Week, QI, Frankie Boyle's New World Order and The Now Show. You may have heard his

BBC podcast, but where are you really from? And if that wasn't enough, he's also a former Bollywood dance choreographer. It's Ishan Akbar. Welcome, Ishan. I want to say I'm so happy to be here and I am. But now I feel like with Arunima here and the person we're talking about, it's just two more people for my parents to compare me to and for me to feel inadequate. But you know what? I'm really happy to be here regardless. Just before the show started, Arunima was telling me that she's known as the dancing historian because you recorded a Bollywood dance for one of your lessons.

And Ishan, you're a former dancer. So the two of you need to have your own spin-off show. I think this is what Strictly Come Dancing should be. Comedian with a proper historian, us two going on and showing the world Bollywood. Absolutely. Okay, so you're a dancer, Ishan,han you're a comedian how are you with history? I had not the very best history teacher when I was at school so only in the last five years I realised hey I can read books and learn about history myself so in the last five years I've

been doing a bit more history reading so it's something that's a bit of a newer fascination but I wouldn't say I'm a good historian at all not yet but by the end of this show that'd be a mastermind specialist subject so what do you know this is where i have a go at summarizing what people at home might know about today's subject and i'm going to go out on a limb and say you probably don't know about sheikh din muhammad i'm not sure he's a name that resonates that much in pop culture. He was featured as a Google Doodle in 2019. And if you've ever happened to visit Brighton, you'll know that they're pretty proud of him there. But apart from that, I'm not sure the name Sheikh Din Mohamed rings that many bells. So I think by the end of this podcast,

people will hopefully know more about him. So Dr. Arun Kumar, let's begin with the basics. And I say basics as if like these are easy, but actually, Sheikh Mohammed's life is not that easy. But where and when is he born and what's he born into? He was born as Dean Mohammed in 1759 into a Muslim family in Bengal presidency. At that time, India had many political tensions following the disintegration of the Mughal Empire and the influx of the European trading interests, which were seeking more and more control over Indian social, political, economic affairs. had by this time become a particularly powerful entity in the Bengal presidency and was beginning to occupy much of India. They recruited Indian soldiers known as sepoys to serve under the British officers to support their occupation and spreading their influence. At this juncture of a disintegrating Mughal empire and the spreading EIC, we witness

Indian families having to choose whose side they would take and where their loyalties would lay. This is really fascinating because as someone who has got Bengali ancestry, someone whose surname is Akbar, so very connected to the Mughal empire. In fact, have I flirted with women and said, I'm a Mughal descendant? Yes. Is it true? No. But my surname is Akbar, so we'll go with it. So yeah, I mean, you're right. He does. I say he, I mean, he's a child at this point. He's born in 1759, just a couple of years after a famous battle, the Battle of Plassey, where Robert Clive has defeated major Indian forces. So it's a really important moment, not just in Indian history, but in British history. So the sepoy is the word he used there,

Arunama, which means indigenous Indian soldiers recruited into the British East India Company. What does that mean then for young Dean Mohammed? Does he end up in the army as well? He does. His father and his elder brother both actually joined the East India Company's Bengal regiment, where his father very quickly reached the officer rank of a subedar, one of the highest ranks that Indian native soldiers could aim for. Not the highest, but one of the highest. What was the highest? The highest rank would be Subedar Major.

That is comparable to an officer of a major rank. I realize I sounded so much like my dad just then. Yeah. What's the highest ranking? Who got an A? Who got a 99%? Yeah. What's the highest ranking? Who got an A?

Who got a 99%? But his father is sadly killed in 1769 while he was trying to enforce revenue demands, right? While he was working for East India Company. Mohammed's brother was also in the East India Company. Muhammad's brother was also in the East India Company. He does inherit majority of Muhammad's father's wealth, which kind of forces Dean Muhammad to basically become a camp follower in the British Army and try to find ways to basically make a living. Is this an older brother? Yeah. So Dean Muhammad is the younger one. This sounds like a Bollywood film that needs to happen. Oh, yes.

Written all over it. You're already imagining the choreography. Yeah, I can see you. All the dramatizations is great. You say he goes into being a camp follower. He's a child soldier, right? I mean, he's basically sort of part of the East India Company army, but he's like 11. Oh, that's what you meant. I think you meant just an eccentric guy following people. Okay. He's just a really camp follower.

Yeah, a really camp follower. I guess the equivalent would be like work experience kid, but for the army. Let's put it like this. He was not given arms. He was more of the service industry guy, carrying around cups of tea, helping around in the army kitchen, massaging people. So he's got an array of experiences, but there's a moment which is quite an important moment to him where he meets someone at a tennis party. I mean, we've all been to a tennis party, haven't we, Eshan? I love a tennis party. Conversation just swinging back and forth. 40 love. Your turn. How does he impress at this party? Has he got an excellent backhand? At this tennis party, Mohamed meets an Anglo-Irish officer, Godfrey Evan Baker, officer Godfrey Evan Baker, who became his patron. And as we go through his life, we see Baker playing a very central role in the making of Muhammad, this father figure that he never

really had after his father passed away. So Muhammad was initially started off as an assistant to Baker. And at one point, Muhammad stumbled on a burglary in progress and was kidnapped and robbed by peasants. But they let him live. And eventually he led those deviants to Baker, who then basically chopped their noses and ears off. Wow, he's a grass. Yeah, at an early age. I do find that curious. If you're going for a burglary and then you see a child, you think, yeah, I'll just take that.

Like, I don't understand the thinking. Go in for a TV, just decide to take the kid. Probably got a lot of skills. They're probably like, this kid, he can do massage, he can make us cups of tea. It's just what we need. Probably can make really good curries. Yeah, burglars get hungry too.

Fair enough. Yeah. Exactly. Through his teens, I suppose, he is growing into his army career. He's in charge of canteen supplies. He's also put in charge of a regiment briefly, the Grenadiers. He's sampling different bits of the army. There is obviously a big dramatic moment in his life, though.

In 1782, his, I'm going to say, best friend slash surrogate dad, Godfrey Baker, he's forced to resign. And that's a big moment because Dean Mohammed decides he's going to leave India with Baker. Yeah. So Baker was accused of extorting money from villagers and he was eventually cleared, as we find most imperial officers accused of wrong things were cleared at that point of time. Baker, when he decided to return to Ireland, there are competing archival sources. Some say Baker offered Muhammad to come along with him. Others say Muhammad basically begged Baker to take him along. But Muhammad really took on to Baker and basically he did not have a very cordial relationship with his family. So he saw a

chance to reinvent himself. So he kind of latches himself on to Baker and follows him because he gave him security, some kind of status, and he waited to see what followed when he went back to Ireland. Ishan, how are you feeling about the story so far? Aside from the dramatisation that I'm going to make of this for Bollywood, to me it seems like for Dean Mohammed, all of this stuff that's happened to him lends itself to him becoming the person that we end up talking about whether he begged or whether he was taken to Ireland either way I think he's perfect within his rights to because it sounds like Godfrey Baker is all he's got in the world when anyone chooses to leave home and go hundreds if not thousands of miles away that's a huge

decision in the 21st century but in the 18 18th century, it's radical, right? You may never see your family ever again. The journey alone is long and arduous and dangerous, possibly. It's a huge call. I want to empathise with this, my dad keeps telling me, when are you leaving? What is happening? We're talking 1782. So Dean's what, 23, maybe 22, when he makes this call. So off he goes to Ireland with Godfrey Baker. And what's it like being someone from South Asia arriving into Ireland in the 1780s? The empire basically created networks through which not only were British travelling to the colonies, but also people from colonies made their way into the empire's heartland. So when Dean Muhammad arrived in Ireland, there were other Indian migrants living in Ireland,

but most of these Indians would have been maskars or servants, and sometimes even students trying to get a Western education, quote-unquote Western. He definitely found company. There was a lot of, again, quote-unquote Brown presence in Ireland. But he also was very aware of the stereotypes that went along with Brown people. So he was very focused on disassociating himself from the other browns. And so he tried to sell himself off socially as a person who is more polished, who is not like a Lascar who has lost his way, lost his job. Oh, God, this is me all over. What is happening? I'm beginning to feel very uncomfortable now, Greg. I'm so sorry, man. His whole idea was, I am Indian, but I am a different kind of Indian. So in 1786, he elopes with this teenager student that Baker introduced him to jane daly so yeah with jane daly he has

several children we don't exactly know how many an irish indian wedding how much potato was at the wedding that would be awesome yes aloo gobi this side little stew this side i want to go to that wedding the dancing would be amazing. Feet and hands. All of them. It would be so good. The choreography is writing itself, Ishan. We've got a sort of river dance and Bollywood fusion. It's going to be brilliant.

River dance and light bulbs together. That is a fusion we want to see. His job at this point, he's working for Baker as his house manager. Quite important job, quite well paid. In 1793, he does something really important in literary history. Eshan, do you want to guess what it is? He writes an article for a paper or something. Not far off.

He's the first ever Indian author in the English language to publish a book. Do you want to have a guess what he's published? An analysis of his Irish Indian wedding and all the amazing dancing and food there was. That's a nice guess. It's more autobiographical. He's essentially, he's writing about his youth and his experiences of travelling around India with Godfrey Baker. He's basically celebrating his life up to this point of time, fantasising a lot of it, but also it's about his travels. But in all honesty, we don't know how much of this was really his experience, because comparison with other books actually shows that he plagiarized a lot of it.

I reckon plagiarizing back then was hard because he had to do it physically, like physically copy the books. It's not like now the way I did my dissertation, sorry. He's earning my respect. I'm not losing respect for him right now. The book is called The Travels of Dean Muhammad. But as you say, Arunima, we can't double check half of this stuff, but we know that certain passages are lifted from other people's books. And also, like, let's think of who all supported the publication of this book. It's not that he goes to a publisher.

Actually, it's, again, Baker's Connections, which allowed him to publish. So 320 very well-placed and respected elite class people in Ireland contribute to the advanced fund of this publication. So the obvious question here, Ishan, what's your life autobiography going to be called? And obviously, feel free to plagiarize some other people's life too if we mentioned the moogle connection my surname is akbar and the last moogle emperor was akbar the great so i would call the greatest of the great would be the name of my autobiography because that basically a real translation i mean if any literary agents are listening right now book rights are available right the greatest of the great and it was all about how when it was my birthday um when I was 12, my mum gave me Margaret Thatcher's autobiography and said, aspire to greatness, child to go for the cheesy pun. I'd have to go with general knowledge with a J.

Oh, that's very good. So moving on, here we have a man who is pretty comfortable and settled in Ireland. He is married to Jane. They've got children, we think. He's got a good job. He's got a good boss. The boss dies. Baker has died.

He's lost his best friend, his father figure, but also the man who was paying him. What happens next, Arunima? Losing Baker from his life was a loss of all these things that you mentioned. But most important of all that is the money and the social capital that came with that association. And not only that, after Baker dies, Baker's family despised this young lad. They kind of make it a miserable experience for Muhammad. He writes about that fleetingly. If my dad was really wealthy and they brought in a random guy from another country, I would not like that person either, to be fair. Yeah, I mean, the relationships that were more problematic

that Muhammad talks about them being negative towards him are his cousins, his siblings. No one really likes cousins anyway. I hate my cousins and they hate me. So fine, whatever. This does actually go out to the public, Isha. I don't know if you want to the public my cousin's not the kind who listened to radio four so we're fine okay godfrey baker's died and the family has turned on dean muhammad and presumably his wife jane so they have to leave they end up in london london's a hard place to go to it's a big city

he doesn't know anyone But he sort of lands on his feet, doesn't he? Dean Mohammed makes another contact. He's a smooth talker. Who's this guy? He is this Honourable Basil Cochrane. He's a wealthy Nabo, basically a term used to describe a person who has worked as an English official in India and possibly has retired. So that's the term. Given the level of connections that Dean Mohammed manages to get, he should set up dating apps

because he knows to get that level of person. British India matrimony. Yes. Yeah, and this person is actually interesting. He's literally living with this nostalgia of this wonderful, luxurious, exotic life that he had in India. So he was fond of Indian curries, and he is in the path of setting up his own bathhouses in Portman Square. And at this point of time, Muhammad presents himself to this Nawab as an expert. He doesn't use the word surgeon yet, but he presents himself as an expert in bathing and shampooing people. And immediately he is hired as a help to set up this luxurious bathhouse that Cochrane is creating to provide shampooing service. I don't know if you ever intended for this podcast to be an inspiring

career podcast, because right now, I cannot wait to finish recording, I will find an old eccentric man that likes things South Asianian watch me shampoo his body to the point where he writes me into his will sheikh din muhammad is an inspiration to me right now i cannot wait to lather an old man with soap sucks all right okay basil cochran's quite controversial at the time he's a scotsman He's made a lot of money in India. He was basically in charge of supplying the Navy there. And so he set up a canal, he set up a flour mill. He then comes back and he's accused of embezzlement and fraud charges.

He countersues, he attacks the government. He's in the newspapers all the time. So the fact that Dean Mohammed is joining forces with this guy, it's a slightly risky move because he's got enemies. But Cochran loves the Indian aesthetic I suppose doesn't he love the curry and the lifestyle the clothing Arunama when we talk about shampooing shampooing is what we do to our hair on our head but actually shampoo is it a Hindi word originally yeah so shampooing actually comes from the root words shampoo and chumpy.

Like even while growing up, my mom would be like, every Sunday is chumpy day. Come on with all your oil and you'll massage your hair and neck and that's going to give you luxurious long hair. Of course, the British, they couldn't say shampoo or chumpy. They basically said, no, we are just going to pronounce it as shampoo. So there comes the word shampoo. It's not what we understand as an everyday activity of washing your hair. It was a more elaborate spa treatment, which involved not only deep massaging of your scalp, but also your neck, your shoulders with herbal oils. This whole idea of everyday shampooing came much later in the Edwardian period.

He had learned some of these things by watching as a child back in India. But at this time, he's actually nearly 50 and suddenly he's doing a whole new thing, right? He's been a house manager. He's been a travel writer, he's been all sorts of things. But he's now shacking up with a new guy and going, right, okay, yeah, I'm an expert in this. Should we be calling the fraud squad? Or do we think he just had these hidden secret talents? Both, I think. He was brave enough to go on reinventing himself. And this is a period where background check was much harder. Also, this is an inclination that I do understand, because I regard myself as an Englishman, but my dad is Pakistani, my mom is Bangladeshi. But what will happen is if I go to any generic

South Asian restaurant, say a Tamilian one, my friends who are invariably white will expect me to know what I'm talking about. And do I pretend? 100%. I don't know anything about Tamilian one. My friends who are invariably white will expect me to know what I'm talking about. And do I pretend? A hundred percent. Of course I do. I don't know anything about Tamilian cuisine. I'm just like, oh yeah, that's spicy. And when it comes out really bland and there's a dessert, I'm like, well, they make it differently

in different regions actually. The fact that he is a polymath by what? Denial and lying, I suppose. A bit like me, really. I'm a bit of a polymath. There denial and lying i suppose a bit like me really i'm a bit of a polymath there's so many things i claim to be able to do having just seen a youtube video i don't say i see a lot of myself in dean muhammad but i like that he's dealing with the cars that have been dealt with him i mean who among us hasn't lied on our cv i mean i'm not even a historian i just went to a museum one day i bought one of those rulers with the kings and queens of England on it. And here I am. Arunima, is it fair to say that in a past life as a younger man, Dean Mohammed had actually written

off Shampi and Shampu as a sort of effeminate and emasculating practice. And now suddenly he's changed his mind because there's money in it. Yes, he was growing up not necessarily in a very luxurious family. So the everyday man, if you're going for a one-hour champu, champi session, it's only available to you as a very elite person. Or basically, the everyday people look down on you because that's something that women would do until of course this memory gets etched in his mind that oh the Nawabs actually really enjoyed it dismissing something is effeminate and then embracing it because there's money in it this was my friend called veganism that's what he did 100% and he'll listen to this and he knows what I'm talking about.

So hopefully your cousin's not listening, but your friend might be listening. I didn't know that you're dead to me literally meant the people that I knew would become dead to them. That's what I was doing on this podcast. That's right. By the end of the episode,

you'll have no friends left. I read the brief wrong, clearly. He works with Cochran for a couple of years, but he feels that Cochran is stealing his ideas. He works with Cochran for a couple of years, but he feels that Cochran is stealing his ideas. He feels that Cochran's taking all of the credit. So he decides to quit and he decides to do something completely different. Ishan, what do you think he does next?

I reckon if he's gone for the bathhouse thing, from what you said about Basil Cochran liking curry, I think there's probably something to do with that. Bang on, well done. The name of the first ever British Indian restaurant is called the Hindustani Coffee House. It opens in 1810. He's obviously got financiers from elsewhere. What is it like on the inside? What is the kind of decor? Do we know? He spotted this gap in the market for returning Nawabs who were not only interested in taking baths, but also embodying the taste of

India. So he hoped that opening a restaurant would attract them and basically attract a lot of money for him. And yes, it was called a coffee house, which is related to this misconception that coffee came from the Orient. The restaurant was richly decorated with paintings of India, China, and was really obsessed with this exotic Eastern impression, as British would have idealized exotic India, exotic East. He was bringing that home and putting it on display. And diners would sit on these bamboo sofas and chairs, which was visible in all British households' picture postcards, right? They are on their yard with an army of servants around them with cups of tea and plates of curry. So he kind of made that available to his patrons. I do actually think we might be related.

Oh, yeah. I'll tell you why. Because in the 90s, my dad had a minicab business, which ran from the living room of our house. My mom would cook in the kitchen and one customer was like, what's happening back there? And my dad said, oh, my wife's making dinner. And he took some of the dinner with him. So after that, what my dad did is he got some fans to send the scent of the food into the living room. Nice. And people would come in to order a cab, sit down, see a picture of a curry, get a whiff of it and buy some curry and eat it in the cab. And that was our business for about five or six years.

It was called Karnabina, which means eat and drink. That's fantastically resourceful. I told you by the end of it, I'd work out that we were related. Many restaurants, of course, go under. It's a very hard business. And sadly, his restaurant doesn't last very long. We think maybe two to three years. There are numerous reasons why a restaurant can fail.

He didn't have a minicab arm. That's the reason. He obviously didn't. I suppose the most obvious reason perhaps Arun Amar is that those nabobs who came back from India had their own personal chefs to cook for them they didn't need to go to a curry house. Yeah so he was targeting mainly nabobs and the everyday people they would cook their own curries so there was already a market of curry powders and curry paste available, which they would cook for themselves. But also at this point of time, we need to understand that Brighton

Pavilion is still to come. But also we need to understand there were other curry houses, which actually did better than Dean Muhammad's. And those curry houses were being run by, quote unquote, proper Englishmen. Oh, God, like Shoreditch. Oh, God. So there was this racial element, which probably made him not so successful in his curry business. He's obviously a fascinating character, because on the one hand, I have great sympathy for him.

On the other hand, we know he sometimes plays a little bit fast and loose with the truth but he's clearly someone who is constantly trying to think of new ideas for businesses and they aren't quite working because other people are taking credit or the market's not quite right. He's often ahead of the curve as well. He does get luckier in love. Typically speaking Arunamo if you were to google Saqib Mohammed you would see that he married once but you think he marries twice part of the tricky thing here is that the second wife is also called Jane so both wives you think in your research are both called Jane which is a very dangerous game it's a very dangerous game lovely but he does marry again and his second wife Jane Mark II is from we think Bath oh that's

clever he likes shampooing and he found some of them in Bath. You see the organic connection right away. The first Jane, Jane Daly of Ireland, all of a sudden disappears. And there is this mention of another Jane, Jane Jeffreys of Bath. Jane Jeffries of Bath. However, it is very confusing to us as historians to know whether Jane Jeffries was more of a mistress or a legally married wife, because we find marriage records of Jane Daly being married to Ibn Muhammad, but we don't necessarily find Jane Jeffries records. But he was living with Jane Jeffries and at least had other children with Jane Jeffries. And she played a big part in his later business ventures and also helped in advertising his business.

She lends respectability, doesn't she? He leans on her name quite a lot when he's trying to convince people that he's trustworthy. Here's my English wife from Bath. He's a good learner. And he's a good leaner, because he leans on people with quote unquote, respectability and resources. But I feel like a lot of men kind of did that around. Karl Marx did something similar as well, didn't he? He kind of lent on the people that he, his wife and her name, and I think she came from a very wealthy family. I think a lot of men kind of did that around that. Karl Marx did something similar as well, didn't he? He kind of lent on the people that he, his wife and her name. And I think she came from a very wealthy family. I think a lot of men back then were quite gold diggers, basically. Exactly.

So he's obviously run a bathhouse of sorts with Basil Cochran. That hasn't gone so well. He's left that. He then sets up his own curry house. That fails. So back to plan A. So in 1814, they move to Brighton and they open a sort of modest but nice bathhouse

and they start again. And you've already mentioned, Arunamar, the Brighton Pavilion. Beautiful building designed, I suppose, in Mughal architecture style, isn't it? A gorgeous, lavish pleasure palace for George IV. It's in Brighton. And Ishan, do you know why Brighton

was so important at this point in terms of its appeal to the fancied people? Is it because it is a seaside town and ships could get there and the weather was probably nicer there because it's closer to the south coast? Yeah, you're not far off. It's not so much the ships, Arunumar, it's more sort of the medical healing waters and fresh air, isn't it, I suppose? Yes. So it was kind of a retreat town where people would go not only to get a whiff of the refreshing sea air, but also get treatments. So before this whole culture of bathhouses, there were these small trolley setups. They would be taken in these wooden boxes, wheeled into the ocean. They would be dunked into the ocean water, pulled out, and ta-da, you have a therapeutic bath.

So this is what Brighton is known for. Dean Mohammed shows up with his second wife, with his kids, and he's going to set up another bathhouse. But this time it's his name on the front door. Again, he must have connected up with some second wife, with his kids, and he's going to set up another bathhouse. But this time, it's his name on the front door. Again, he must have connected up with some financiers. We know he's using marketing tactics. The most obvious one is the name change, right? Suddenly, he's Sheikh Din Mohammed. What else is he doing? Right one year before Mohammed and Jane arrive in Brighton is the publication of Pride and Prejudice, which sets the ground about Brighton, outdoor bathing, fanciness. So anyway, he arrives there and prefixes his name with Shake, which is this honorific title that he gives himself. But also he is seen inventing his own title in 1818 as the Shampoo Surgeon.

Now, did he have a medical certificate for that? No. Sorry, that sounds like a really good boxer name. If you were called the Shampoo Surgeon, you're like the guy who messes your hair up. That's going to be my boxing name Ishan the shampoo surgeon Akbar I want a good clean fight so he's not cutting open people but he is therapeutically doing the same things that surgeons do and that was his claim that I am a shampoo surgeon. I have been trained in this art. So creates not only a title for himself, but a trade,

which he claims to be a part of. So he was making up job titles before Facebook and other tech companies. Oh, absolutely. More than that, he adds 10 years to his age. We're used to actors taking 10 years off their IMDb page so they look younger. He goes the other way. He says, I'm in my 60s when he's in his 50s. Is that to make him more venerable? He wants to be a sheik. Yeah.

So he basically invents his own life story and his life career and basically says, I'm older and I have all these years of experience. When I read about this for the first time, I was like, is he increasing his age also to say that he's a shampoo surgeon and he knows the tricks to make people look younger? It's clearly working on him shampooing Botox of those days, right? One of the things he does, of course, is he poses for portraits. That's the modern marketing branding of the 18th and 19th century. So we're going to take a look at a couple of portraits. The first is him in his 50s.

Ishan, what do you think of that? Yeah, it looks suave. It looks good there. I like it. Very young, good skin. It's a sort of Mr Darcy look, isn't it? Sort of black frock coat, turtlenecky white shirt. He looks very Pride and Prejudice. And yet, a few years later on, he's figured out there's a different way to market himself.

Do you want to see the next image? Oh, wow. He's wearing a tunic and he's got a beautiful opulent turban and a lovely cummerbund, I suppose that is. Effectively, he looks like a groom at an Indian wedding is what he looks like. There is a shake element to it, isn't there? If you close your eyes and imagine a well-to-do shake, this is what he would be without the jewels, really, I suppose. Yeah, it's a sort of Mughal aesthetic, isn't it? He's holding his lovely glove in one hand, but he is absolutely leaning into that South Asian Orientalism, the exoticism in inverted commas. He's really selling it. He was a marketing genius and incredibly clever because he invents his identity as he goes along

and sees fit to sell himself. Like, let's do a flashback of his life. He and his family were more loyal to the East India Company and not the Mughals. And then he looks down on shampooing, but when he was in his 50s or 60s as he would claim where he is celebrating the Mughal culture he is celebrating shampoo. What's interesting with the pictures as well is he pitches himself at a very certain level in the first picture we mentioned

the aristocratic pride and prejudice kind of look Mr Darcy and the Indian look that he went for wasn't just a standard Indian person. It was an aristocratic Indian person, but not quite a Mughal emperor, just someone who looks like they're a businessman in that time. Again, it's about giving the customer what they want, isn't it? It's about saying, A, you can trust me, I'm a gentleman. And B, I have this connection to this authentic knowledge that comes from far away and I alone can give you the proper treatments. There are some things that he has to be a bit cautious of because occasionally his customers, they die midway through a treatment. Accidents will happen. Yeah, so we at least know

of two disasters. There were more, but the two most known ones. While the staff was giving a shampooing massage to a landscape gardener who had an arthritic arm, unfortunately, the staff member is so rough, he snaps the bone off this client's arm, and his arm had to be amputated. But not long after, there is another elderly man who comes in for a shampoo treatment and was having a shampoo shower and died of shock when the water hit him with a lot of energy. And so these accidents did happen. Imagine the souvenir shop on his gravestone. I went for a shampoo and all I got was this lousy grave. But he was very clever because sources suggest that he paid off local newspapers

to not report these horrific stories so that his name and his business stayed afloat. That's a slightly shady tactic. I mean, it's a successful, savvy tactic. We know a lot of this has happened in the 18th and 19th century. We're very aware of actors and celebrities posting stories in newspapers and paying for things to be hushed up. Super injunctions happen all the time. Well, we never know, of course. Of course, yes. So there we go. So Sheikh Din Muhammad, I don't think we can say he's a heroic guy,

but he, you know, he obviously is trying to keep his business afloat and from time to time he will do slightly unethical things. So he's nicknamed Dr Brighton. In fact, he gives himself that nickname really, doesn't he? Let's be honest. So he's Dr Brighton Sheikh Din Mohammed, the venerable one. In 1821, he opens his grand Mohammed's Baths. We've got a picture actually of the outside of it,

which we can show quickly just to show you the size of the building. I mean, he's really opened a quite lavish facility. It's a proper three-story house with his name on the side, Mohammed's Baths. Obviously, the outside is very impressive. The inside, again, Arunima, is it similar to his restaurant, the Hindustani Coffee House? What can customers expect when they walk in? We see similar things that he did with his coffee house. The bathhouse was lavishly decorated. The entrance was filled with relics of people Muhammad had cured. One floor was dedicated only to women clients, one floor just for men. We know that children were also his clients. There were waiting rooms for the clients for reading and relaxing, guest rooms for longer treatments and stays.

And the baths were really exclusive because they were these marble baths, which were decorated with Indian elements, mostly Mughal. And a steam engine would pump seawater and freshwater around the building. And his wife Jane, Jane 2.0, was also involved very heavily in the bathhouse. Early on she was quite hands-on with doing cooking and serving of meals and being customer serving. And then as it expanded and did better she was overseeing the cookery, overseeing things. And she was in charge also of taking testimonials from happy clients who would then leave their reviews. The original TripAdvisor reviews.

Yeah, exactly. I want to read how he responded to the one-star ones. Well, you were a terrible customer anyway. You smelled. He literally publishes a book of testimonials called, and it's a catchy title, Shampooing or Benefits Resulting from the Use of the Indian Medicated Bath is Introduced into this Country by S.D. Mohammed. Sounds like a PhD title. So, I mean, it's got poetry in there. It's got reviews in there. Have your fans ever sent you poetry for your website? No.

The most ringing endorsement of my comedy I've ever had is a lady in Edinburgh who was laughing so much. She said, please, please stop. I'm going to piss myself. And then two seconds later, that's exactly what she did. There was a puddle of wee. And I was like, you know what? I mean, that I am. That's a rave review, isn't it?

That's a five-star review. She was very drunk, very drunk. But that's not the point, is it? If listeners want to send in poetry, I'm sure you enjoy that. If you want to send in your urine, please don't do that. Dean Mohammed, he's publishing a book of testimonials, and in that book he's claiming that his baths can cure all sorts of things, including asthma, inflammation, severe colds, paralysis, rheumatism, sprains,

hoarse throat, spinal complaints, violent pains in the knee, nervous disorders, abscesses, pains in the loins, indigestion, torpid liver, epileptic fits, gout, numbness, inflammation of the eyes, cricks of the neck. The best one, a client called Mr Jonathan Morgan, wrote in the book saying, thank you very much for clearing up my inward and outward piles. So hemorrhoids, I mean, you know, there's nothing he can't do.

What do you think his clientele is? I think it's kind of pretty well-to-do people, as you educated me earlier, is this was the retreat. There'd be tourists and they'd go along and this was the thing to do in Brighton. You know, he's got all the testimonial book and he's got a beautiful building over by the sea. It sounds like these people who were going were probably not South Asian they were probably predominantly well-to-do Europeans if not English people. I think that's broadly fair but actually Arunamak

is it fair to say he actually draws from not just the middle classes but also he's he's pretty cool when it comes to people who haven't got much money. Muhammad would often give free treatment to the poor and make regular donations to the Brighton Society to help treat and provide welfare services to people who couldn't afford health care. But a fancy business can get very fancy clients and there's no fancier client than the king. George IV, obviously a big fan of Brighton, spent a lot of time there. Sheikh Din Mohamed is now shampoo surgeon to the king. And that's a massive moment for him.

You get royal warrant. You get to stick it on the front of the building. Everyone knows the king comes to this place. He then also manages to win round the charms of the next king when George IV dies, which is William IV. But William IV. But William IV doesn't stick with him. There are rival businesses that are opening up in Brighton because Sheikh Din Muhammad has proved that it's a viable business model. All this fame and prestige that he got through the royal court withers away because of these

local competitions. And William IV turns his patronage towards these other businesses. I would have loved to have seen a four in a bed remake called Four in a Bath. And then they just go around to each other's baths, just going, oh, it was really stinky. What did you think of the loofah? Horrible, horrible loofah. Horrible loofah. So scratchy. Dean Mohammed, or Sheikh Dean Mohammed, obviously is a pioneer in the concept of shampooing in English society.

And that leads to copycats. The most prominent one is probably a chap called John Molyneux, who opened a bathhouse literally like two doors down the road. And he copies not only the bathhouse and its style and so on, but also Dean Mohammed's advertising techniques. So what did he brown up? He didn't brown up. He was not even wearing those dresses or, but that advertising style of making clients review their baths. And what happened was to the laymen who were seeing these two advertisements

possibly on the same page of the newspaper, people got confused between the two. And this led to kind of a series of rival advertisements that Muhammad and his rival came out with and each were denouncing each other profusely and Muhammad was always basically selling his idea that this is my business, I pioneered this, I am the original shampoo surgeon. He's in his 70s at this point but the problem becomes 1837, Queen Victoria comes to the throne and she doesn't like baths at all. She doesn't like Brighton.

And so the royal thing vanishes entirely. The business model really, really suffers at this point. So he switches to a new business model. Does he go to people's houses and do it there? Spot on. He does like a sort of deliveroo, but for like showers. Who baths? B. Mohammed is your bather.

I'm four minutes away. I'm four minutes away. I'm seven minutes away. You've got a little bathtub going around the streets. It's a kind of good idea, but the market's not there. The economics of it aren't as good, are they? Also, the logistics of carrying a bath around everywhere. Ultimately, we've had an extraordinary life here. Sheikh Dean Mohammed is how he's presented himself for the last 20 years of his life. Sadly, in 1850, Jane died, Jane 2 of him as a guy who'd been down on his luck for a while.

So the end of his life sort of fades away, quite sadly. The Nuance Window! And that brings us really onto The Nuance Window. This is where Ishan and I can take a little deep breath and relax with some herbal oils. this is where Ishan and I could take a little deep breath and relax with some herbal oils. And we let Dr. Arunamar have two minutes to tell us anything we need to know about today's subject. And without much further ado, Dr. Arunamar Dutta, can we have the nuance window, please? So we have heard about this extraordinary life of Muhammad, his travels, his contributions. travels, his contributions, but we also need to understand the context and what he was really contributing to and speaking to. So the success of Muhammad's shampooing business in Britain

illustrates the various ways in which people and ideas circulated during the age of high imperialism. There were opportunities for people from the colonies to travel to the heart of the empire as much as there were opportunities for the people from Britain to travel to the colonies. And in this process, it was not only the colonials influencing the colonies, the cultures, the languages there. But in that counterflow of colonialism, we see people from colonies coming into Britain and influencing their local cultures. Muhammad's interactions with the British society therefore complicates perceptions of colonizers and colonized as mutually exclusive communities. Some immigrants were able to negotiate

a distinguished place in their new home despite the barriers in their way, as we see with bin Muhammad, while others struggled all their life even just to survive. Muhammad's engagement with the tastes and norms of the British society shows some of the shrewd strategies that colonized subjects had to adopt to gain recognition and survive. Today, he rests with his family at St. Nicholas Church Cemetery in Brighton, while the Indian art he brought to Britain is now known as an early 20th century product that enables its users to massage their own scalp in the style introduced by a Bengali sepoy and his Irish wife. Very proud to be Bengali right now. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Arunima. Oh, beautiful, rousing, similar to you, Arunima. I'm just very proud of my Bengali heritage. The hustling, the maneuvering, making sure you're in the right place. He's just trying to survive and trying to survive with the best life he possibly can

in what would have been, I imagine, a very difficult place to be. survive with the best life he possibly can in what would have been, I imagine, a very difficult place to be. Yes, sure, he was a bit of a chancer. So he is the Bengali Del Boy. And for that, I think that's great. So what do you know now? Well, it's time now for the So What Do You Know Now? This is a quick fire quiz. How are you feeling? Listen, in the true spirit of dean muhammad i feel confident like i'm an expert so that's what i'm gonna do okay question one in what year was dean muhammad born and i'll give you a bonus point if you can tell me how many years he added on to his age i know he added on like 10 years he did i'll give you a point for that yep i would say he was born in 1759

bang on question two at what sporting event did muhammad get his big break aged 11 or 12 was it tennis it was a tennis party question three what was the name of muhammad's first and second wives uh first wife was jane daly second wife was Jane Jeffries. You're amazing at this. This is brilliant. Well done. Question four. Why was Dean Mohammed a publishing pioneer with his travels of Dean Mohammed? First South Asian man to get a book published in English. Absolutely. Question five. Name two of the jobs Mohammed had before he became a shampooer. He was the house manager of Godfrey's estate and he was like in the army, like a tea caddy type. Yeah, absolutely. Question six.

What was the name of the London curry house opened by him in 1810? The Hindustan Coffee House. Absolutely. Question seven. Mohammed appointed himself as Dr Brighton, the shampooing surgeon. But who were his most prestigious clients? The most prestigious were the kings. Yes, George IV and William IV.

Question eight. Name one of the accidents that happened to the clients of Mohammed during his bathing sessions. Do I get two points if I name both? Yeah, go on then. One of them got shocked by the force of the water. Yeah. The other one had their arm amputated because of the force of the massage. I mean, yeah, I'm going to give you two points.

I'm going to be incredibly generous here because I'm loving the phenomenal memory you've got here. Question nine. According to Mr. Jonathan Morgan, Muhammad's treatments cured what embarrassing illness? Piles, internal and external. Exactly that, yeah. And question 10. This for 13 out of 10, possibly. I've lost track, but let's say, how old was Sheikh Din Muhammad when he died in 1851?

93. 92. Okay, so you've got 12 out of 10, which is a very, very impressive... My parents are going to be so disappointed. Phenomenally well remembered. And obviously, you've had a brilliant teacher in Professor Arunamar. I have. absolutely brilliant teacher Okay, well listeners

if you want to find out more about another much, much dodgier master marketeer from history you can check out our episode on P.T. Barnum who was an absolute arsehole and if you're interested of course in Indian history we did an episode on the Mughal Empire with Sindhu V and we've got 50 other episodes

about different stuff as well so go and rummage in BBC Sounds go have a look in the You're Dead to Me archive. And if you've enjoyed the show, please do share the podcast with your friends, leave a review online, do that sort of thing you're meant to do with podcasts. Of course, a massive thank you to my guests.

In History Corner from Idaho State University, we've had the simply awesome Dr. Arunima Dutta. Thank you, Arunima. Thank you. It was an absolute delight. And in Comedy Corner, we had the electrifying Ishan Agbar. Thank you, Ishan. Thank you. It was an absolute delight. And in Comedy Corner, we had the electrifying Ishan Akbar. Thank you, Ishan.

Thank you. I've had such a joy and I'm so glad to have found my boxer name, Ishan the Shampoo Surgeon Akbar. And to you, lovely listener, join me next time as we take two more guests on another astonishing adventure into the past.

But for now, I'm off to go and self-publish a book of all of our nicest podcast reviews, particularly the ones that make me sound very handsome. Bye! You're Dead to Me was a production by The Athletic for BBC Radio 4. The research was by Chris Wakefield, the script was by Emma Neguse, Chris Wakefield and me, the project manager was Saifah Mio and the edit producer was Cornelius Mendez.

Hello there, I'm Richard Osman. Before you go, yes, I know you've switched off already, but in case you haven't, I want to tell you about my new Radio 4 podcast, The Birthday Cake Game, a brand new comedy quiz that poses one simple question. Do you know how old people are? By which I mean, how old, say, is Bruce Willis? Hmm. Now, I know all you're doing now is thinking about how old Bruce Willis is

and not listening to me, but I can tell you each episode I'm joined by three celebrity guests who battle against each other to see how old celebrities are that week. Richard Gere. I'm still enjoying the assertion that Richard Gere has always been old. What a beautiful baby, Mrs Gere. Unusual grey hair. So old,

your baby. The winner takes home a birthday cake. A very special birthday cake from a supermarket I can't mention in the shape of an insect I can't mention. You know the one I'm talking about. So tune in to find out who comes on top and see if you can beat the players and score higher at home. That's the birthday cake game.

Listen and subscribe right now on BBC Sounds. How old is Bruce Willis? This is the first radio ad you can smell. How old is Bruce Willis?