Insults are an instrument of politics—a means to cut rivals down to size
pan (betel nut) from his hand"—a quite literal enactment of eating humble pie. The sultan was prepared to swallow this too but things got worse. On the appointed day, Ramaraya received him seated, refusing to rise even as Husain kissed his hand.
The man could take it no more. Deciding to pay his host in the same coin, the Nizam Shah called for a basin of water and washed his hands. Humiliated in his own house—which was not part of the plan—an infuriated Ramaraya muttered: “Were he not my guest, I would have cut off his hands and hung them round his neck." To insult people is a very naughty thing, but throughout history it has served as a key instrument of politics—a means to cut rivals down to size.
Some preferred to do this in person, possibly to enjoy the sheer brazenness of the act. Ramaraya apparently belonged to this category. Before the episode with Husain, he welcomed another sultan’s envoy, arranging for an acrobatic performance in the man’s honour.
Only that when it was over, he rewarded the troupe with pigs, right before the offended Muslim diplomat. In 18th century Delhi, to cite another example, Shah Alam, the emasculated Mughal emperor, faced a home invasion by a Rohilla chieftain—one towards whom, in the latter’s boyhood, the padshah is believed to have directed unpleasant sexual attention. The emperor received him in state, only for the Rohilla to plop casually on the throne, blow hookah-smoke on to Shah Alam’s face, and make Mughal princes dress up like women and dance.
By the end imperial prestige lay in pieces. Others, though, insulted in absentia, using art and propaganda, somewhat like today’s memes. For instance, following the Second Anglo-Mysore War (which the British lost), their rivals, the
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