191 © The Author(s) 2019 D. S. Roberts, J. J. Wright (eds.), Ireland’s Imperial Connections, 1775–1947, Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25984-6_10 CHAPTER 10 Afghanistan, the Indian “Mutiny,” and the Bicultural Stereotype of John Nicholson Pramod K. Nayar Literary constructions of imperial heroes such as General Gordon of Sudan or John Nicholson of India were bicultural. The Irish “hero of Delhi” during the 1857 “Mutinies,” John Nicholson, this chapter argues, was constructed as an imperial hero during the period 1869 to 1947 (the temporal bookends of this essay), when authors such as Charles Kelly (of the Indian Civil Service), J. V. Williamson, Lionel Trotter, J. C. Wood, Henry Newbolt, Ernest Gray and others portrayed his origins not just in English/Christian contexts but in a close alignment with native Indian codes and discourses of courage and martial skills. Taking a cue from Michael Silvestri who suggests that Nicholson’s soldierly qualities were recognised by the subcontinent’s martial races, the following discussion proposes that the imperial hero emerges within English literary and bio- graphical discourse by co-opting into itself native af fliations with and interpretations of particular traits. 1 In other words, it is only when the Afghans and the Sikhs produce a certain kind of imperial hero that Nicholson becomes one (Fig. 10.1). P. K. Nayar (*) University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India pramodknayar@gmail.com