Charles Stuart (East India Company officer)

Major-General Charles Stuart (c. 1758 – 31 March 1828) was an officer in the East India Company Army and is well known for being one of the few British officers to embrace Hindu culture while stationed there, earning the nickname Hindoo Stuart.

Family

Stuart was allegedly the son of Thomas Smyth (eldest son of Charles Smyth (1694–1783), MP for Limerick, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Prendergast, 1st Baronet).Spurrell, J. C. In Search of Thomas Smyth, Mayor of Limerick, Irish Family History Journal, Vol. 25 (2009)

His nephews included the diplomat Major Robert Stuart and the naturalist and surgeon James Stuart, and his great-nephew was the clergyman and footballer Robert Stuart King.

Life in India

In his teens, Stuart left Ireland for India, where he remained for the rest of his life, embracing the Hindu culture and eventually earning his nickname. Starting as a cadet, he rose through the ranks to become a Major-General. His last command was over his own regiment the Saugor Field Force.

Major V. C. P. Hodson's biography of Stuart mentions that he "had studied the language, manners and customs of the natives of this country with so much enthusiasm, his intimacy with them ... obtained for him the name of Hindoo Stuart".

He is mentioned in William Dalrymple's book White Mughals (2002). Stuart adopted several Hindu customs, including bathing in the Ganges at Calcutta...
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