Victoria & Abdul

by Shrabani Basu

  While the Household carried on trying to discredit the Munshi, the Secretary of State, Lord Hamilton, was beginning to grow weary of the Munshi issue and the constant flurry of letters and telegrams on the subject. When nothing substantial was pegged on either the Munshi or his friend Rafiuddin, despite the surveillance on them, he wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Elgin, saying Karim had done nothing wrong and could not be charged with anything. He also felt that the Household was overreacting on the friendship of Rafiuddin and the Munshi and over-representing it to the Queen.

  Hamilton wrote to Elgin that there was some ‘commotion going on as to the position and conduct of the Munshi’. The Secretary of State felt that the Household generally, and especially the private secretaries, resented the social and official position accorded to the Munshi in the Court Circulars and in all occasions by the Queen. He, however, added that as far as he knew, ‘the Munshi has done nothing to my knowledge which is reprehensible or deserving of official strictures’. Hamilton acknowledged that Karim was close to the ‘Mohamedan intriguer named Rafiuddin’ who was known to the reactionary police in India as an ‘untrustworthy adventurer’ and ‘the agent of the Amir’. Nevertheless, he disapproved of the fact that under the pretext of investigating Rafiuddin, it was the Munshi who was being subjected to scrutiny by the Thugee and Dacoity Department in India on the request of Lee Warner. Clearly annoyed, Hamilton wrote:

  I did not see the letters till after they had gone. This I do not want done. I do not want to get mixed up in any court matters unless the Queen directly asks me. Enquiries shd be made as regards Rafiuddin … If he is a fellow making money out of his association with the Munshi, then it might be seen to make such a statement to the Queen. I do not however want any fishing enquiry to be made in connection with the Munshi as such enquiries wd not be right, unless they were in connection with some definite statement or accusation.20

  Hamilton had made his disapproval of the enquiries against the Munshi clear. The Royal suite returned to Portsmouth on 30 April, a sober and weary group of people. The Queen said she had taken a dislike to her room in Cimiez on account of the ‘scenes’ she had there with the doctor and from the pain she suffered. The Munshi, firmly back in the Queen’s favour, now asked her to honour him with the rank of KCIE (Knight Commander of the Indian Empire) in the Jubilee honours. He quite fancied the thought of being called ‘Sir Abdul’.

  The Household, though chastised, would not go quietly. The Prince of Wales continued to meet Reid and urged him to carry his messages on the Munshi to the Queen, leading to more painful interviews with her. General Dennehy visited Windsor and also spoke to Reid saying he was ‘resolved to be firm’ on the Munshi question. Dennehy and Reid went over all of Karim’s letters to the Queen and found that the chief one was ‘written by the Hindu’. They did not remember that Rafiuddin was a Muslim. The Munshi’s own letters were apparently full of ‘vile spelling and composition and very insolent’. Reid wrote: ‘HM getting shaken about him.’ The four-way talks between Dennehy, the Munshi, the Queen and the doctor continued for a few days and the Queen complained that Karim was being sulky in her presence.

  When the Munshi went to London in an ordinary train rather than the Royal train, the Queen was very upset. Reid wrote in his diary on 12 May that he had a long and unpleasant discussion about him with the Queen before dinner and quoted to her the opinion of members of her own family. The doctor learnt from Dennehy that the Munshi had asked to be made KCIE. When he was last in India he had apparently written to the Queen and asked her to make him a nawab, a title which gives regal dignity. The Queen wrote to Dennehy to ask him what he thought and when the latter explained to the Queen what it meant, she said it could not be done. The meetings with Dennehy had troubled the Queen and she wrote to Reid:

  All you shd say to Sir T Dennehy wd be to say how troubled and distressed I have been and how anxious I was that he shd help me. That nothing has happened but tittle tattle of outsiders which had not been properly put down and too much talked.

  That unfortunately a remark of mine had led to misunder- standing and people had behaved very ill. However that is passed and I will explain that to him – the ill nature and spite came from India – but all can be set right with a little tact – no alteration in treatment is required – he can help me as you can say how troubled I am.21

  The Viceroy’s office and the Thugee and Dacoity Department in India were still continuing their investigations on the Munshi and the reasons behind his trip to Kashmir the previous year. They reported that Sham Narain, whom the Munshi stayed with in Srinagar, was a sub-judge and a friend of the Munshi’s. They also reported that the Munshi had probably written to Sham Narain about Lord Breadalbane, who was visiting Srinagar, and the latter had therefore been put up in the government house. Lord Hamilton wrote to Lord Elgin that two Indian officials in the Queen’s Court had spoken frankly to her about the official position accorded to the Munshi and his social standing in India.

  ‘This does not concern us here but indirectly and is too delicate a matter for me to interfere with, so when I am affected I shall sit still,’ wrote Hamilton. ‘But the result of this row has been to put him more into his humble place, and his influence will not be same in the future, what it has been in the past.’ Hamilton also told Elgin that he thought he could write freely on general matters to the Queen. ‘So far as I know nothing I say or write to her is committed to the Munshi. He may of course get hold of papers, but I doubt if he does. Where care has to be exercised, it is officers or individuals,’ said Hamilton.

  Elgin had been firmly told by Hamilton that he should not pursue the Munshi. But when he heard that the Munshi was asking for a knighthood, the Viceroy could not take it lying down. He immediately wrote to Hamilton that the Munshi was ‘wholly unsuitable for a place in an order of knighthood’ as it would offend the Indian nobility and Royalty. The Viceroy emphasised:

  I should be the last to desire to appear to interfere with her Majesty’s prerogative, but I shd. fail in my duty if I did not represent to you that the idea of promoting him to one of the higher grades might raise very serious political questions. The distinction of KCIG is bestowed on men of the highest rank and cover to Ruling Chiefs and yet precedence in the order is determined by seniority. What wd. be the feelings of the Rajputana chiefs who found himself in a chapter of the order placed below a man of the Munshi’s social status?22

  The Viceroy was determined to block any chance of a knighthood for the Munshi. He suggested that the Secretary of State ask the Queen to give him the MVO or the Victorian Order, an honour which was granted to those who had served in Britain, and therefore would not have too many ramifications in India.

  Later that month, the Viceroy wrote to Lord Hamilton again. He too now wanted to distance himself from an enquiry into the Munshi’s affairs. He explained that he had written to Bayley to make a few enquiries and Bayley had written to the agents in the North-West Province to see if they could provide information, but had not received anything.

  I told him you did not want fishing enquiries and that I shd say to you that I was myself satisfied from enquiries made in 1894 and from what occurred when the Munshi came to India on wh. I took steps to be informed … there really was nothing more to learn. As to the other gentleman, I asked him if he could be shown in your words ‘that he is disreputable fellow making money out of his connection with the M.’ He said No – there was absolutely no proof. There was not even a pool to fish in – we certainly believe that you rightly describe him, but we have no facts.23

  Both enquiries into Rafiuddin and the Munshi had come to nought. The Munshi had emerged triumphant. On his return from the Continent, he went salmon fishing in the River Dee in Balmoral ‘with much success’, according to the Pall Mall Gazette. The Emperor of Russia came visiting and the Empress accompanied by the Queen and Princess Beatrice called at Karim Cottage. Karim presented the Empress with a dress of Indian embroidery which she was happy to accept. She then wrote
her name in his visitors’ book. In the autumn Karim wrote that he went hunting in the Scottish hills and ‘shot altogether fourteen or fifteen deer’. It was as if nothing could touch him now.

  11

  ‘MUNSHIMANIA’

  The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee was rapidly approaching. It would be ten years since Abdul Karim had joined her Court. The Queen remembered the first day he had presented himself, a shy youth of twenty-three with a serious expression on his face. He had now grown portly, the wealth and fine living in the Queen’s palaces adding to his girth. The Queen gazed at the photograph of Karim hanging in her Dressing Room in Osborne House. He looked like a Prince in his turban and fine clothes. The studio had coloured in the black and white photograph, filling in the rich colours of his Indian clothes. It hung just below a photograph of John Brown and was placed near her dressing table. Above her bed was a photograph of her beloved Albert. The Queen had chosen to be surrounded by the memories of the men who had been closest to her in life.

  In the ten years that Abdul Karim had been by her side, the Queen had travelled in a different world as the Empress of India. She could now talk to her Indian servants in Hindustani and even say a few words to the Indian Princes who visited her. She had tasted Indian food, learnt the language and endeared herself even more to her Indian subjects. The large number of Jubilee presents from Indian Princes, committees and individuals showed how the Queen was revered as a mother figure in India. Yet what should have been a glorious celebration for Victoria, in the achievement of her milestone Diamond Jubilee, was soured by the ‘Munshi affair’. The world outside witnessing the glorious Diamond Jubilee celebrations of an iconic Queen did not know the anxiety and distress that she was going through and the trouble brewing in her Court.

  Karim began the year on a philosophical note. He recorded in his Journal:

  The memorable year did not open well. The court was still in mourning so that no entertainment of any kind took place in January. The unpleasantness I remarked on last year still existed. There was trouble and disaster in many parts of the world. There was much trouble between Turkey and Greece who finally came to blows over the Cretan question. There was that terrible Bazaar fire in Paris in which so many people lost their lives. Then there was the plague and famine in India which have carried off their thousands and made thousands miserable. And yet as the world goes are not these the natural events we must expect? History repeats itself and troubles and disasters vary … We have all a battle to fight. Some fight for God and some for themselves, to some comes success, to others failure. Every individual, every family, every country – each has its own interest to serve, its own battles to fight and its own joys and sorrows.

  All the tension in Court was clearly taking its toll, but Karim makes only a passing reference to it in his Journal. Neither does he once mention the names of James Reid with whom he was having almost daily meetings.

  Having been persuaded against the knighthood for Karim, the Queen wanted to grant him the MVO (Member of the Royal Victorian Order) as a Jubilee honour, but this too brought her once again into a headlong clash with the India Office and her Household. A letter from Sir Fleetwood Edwards, Keeper of the Privy Purse, about the Munshi threw her into a rage and she wrote to Reid to inform Edwards that he could not treat the Munshi as a servant. Reid, as always, was her first stop for all complaints. She angrily sent him a copy of a memo drafted by the late Henry Ponsonby, in which he had clearly stated the position of the Munshi in the Household, and asked that it be forwarded to Edwards. The Queen wrote:

  Though I certainly do not want to revive the subject wh. for 3 months has so painfully impressed me and upset my nerves and peace of mind and though I don’t want you to give any message to Sir Edwards – but I think you shd. show him these papers. He must see what I was afraid of and how wrong I think the conduct of others has been … after this they cannot attempt to treat him as a servant. It is impossible and wd. be a breach of faith with him and me. I send them to you and hope this is the last I shall hear of conduct in no way creditable. Yrs. truly VRI.1

  The tension of the last few months had taken its toll on the Queen and she wrote to Reid that she was ‘feeling very tired and somewhat depressed’. The Queen felt she had so much to do, so many questions to answer and that she had no rest. The Queen by now was seventy-eight years old and her eyesight was failing her. She insisted that Fritz Ponsonby, who copied her telegrams for her, should use a darker ink as she could not read the letters. Her own handwriting had become a spidery scrawl and her letters and memos were consequently also difficult to read. Yet she unfailingly carried on her daily correspondence and her Hindustani lessons.

  The Jubilee preparations were in full swing, with Indian Princes lining up to pay their respects to the Queen. Even Captain Ahmed Husain, who had been packed off to India because of his frequent complaints about the Munshi, had returned for the Jubilee. The Queen, characteristically generous, was happy to have him back. Ahmed told the Queen that he would like to stay back with her for some time.

  Reid took centre-stage in the Munshi affair. With the Queen relying on him to find a solution, he had no choice in the matter. The doctor took Sir Pertab, ADC to the Prince of Wales, into his confidence and held further talks with Fleetwood Edwards, Davidson and Bigge. He advised the Queen that Davidson was so upset that he was thinking of resigning and warned her that she would lose ‘One of the very best men she has’. Bigge, meanwhile, declined the KCVO and tempers were frayed over the Queen’s determination to give the Munshi the MVO.

  The Queen continued to clash bitterly with Edwards, who had become a vociferous anti-Munshi campaigner. When he wrote to the Queen that a decision to honour Karim would be ‘most unfortunate’, the Queen wrote another angry letter to Reid on 28 June saying she was very ‘indignant’ at the ‘unnecessary letter from Sir F Edwards’. She said he threatened her in such a way that he almost made it impossible for her to do what she needed to do as she had given her word. ‘I think that I might have been spared this unkind and uncalled for expression,’ she wrote. ‘This set at me makes my position a very painful and cruel one, and I really shall never get over it with the Gentlemen or the pain wh. it caused the poor Munshi.’2 The elderly Queen said she was crushed and annoyed by the hatred and determination to ‘treat a man whom I have no reason not to trust’, and that Edwards’ attitude amounted to ‘a shameful and unjust interference’. The Queen was clearly distraught. The constant confrontations with her Household were tiring her out and she felt they had begun to bully her.

  The Queen’s photo signed in Urdu by her (1899).

  Karim wrote about the Jubilee celebrations in his Journal, praising the Queen who had always stood by him:

  This year every nation will show its respect to England’s aged Queen and strive with one another in warmly congratulating Her Majesty upon her long and happy life … Our Great Queen Empress has by her wisdom and justice during her long reign done a vast amount of good for the country and its people. Wisely, prudently, without prejudice and without regard to the differences of religion and race, the Queen rules with equal justice her millions of subjects. For this, Universal Love and Loyalty prevail throughout her dominions, thus making Her Majesty’s reign the happiest, the most glorious and the most successful the world has ever seen.

  As I commence this tenth year’s account of my sojourn at Her Majesty’s court I offer up a humble and earnest prayer that God bless Her Majesty with countless blessings and preserve her safely not only during this trying and momentous year but also for many years to come.

  Jubilee Day passed with the customary processions and fanfare, and the Queen drove – as she had done for her Golden Jubilee – in an open landau to St Paul’s Cathedral with the Princess of Wales and Princess Helena by her side. The sun was shining again as it had that day on 22 June 1887, and the Queen was moved to tears by the cheers and ovations from the crowds. The Indian Escort led her carriage, the sight of the colourful uniforms and turbans
once again raising a cheer from the crowds. The Queen – despite her seventy-nine years – looked in fine form. She had now ruled longer than any other English sovereign, having overtaken the record of George III. Telegrams flooded in from all over the world. She was the grandmother of Europe and enjoyed a tremendous following both on the Continent and in the colonies. Despite a crippling famine in India, the native Princes came to London to participate in the Jubilee and brought exquisite presents. Many of them – the Maharajah of Kapurthala and the Thakore of Morvi – were now well known to the Queen. The women of the Empire presented a statue of Prince Albert which had an inscription in Sanskrit and was installed in Windsor Great Park. The Queen was overcome with all the love and affection she received.

  ‘Ham ko bahut khushi howi ke aaj sath sal bakhuriyat khatam howi. Sab bachche aur aligar bahut ikhlak se pesh ai,’ she recorded in her Hindustani Journal on 20 June. (I am very happy that I have finished sixty years well. All the children and the pageantries were very well presented.)3

  A day later she wrote: ‘Aj hamari sawari ka jalsa bahut khoshi aur umdagi se khatam howa. Mausam bahut achcha tha.’ (Today my procession passed through the city and the celebrations ended with a lot of joy and happiness. The weather was very good.)

  Karim too ended his Journal with the Jubilee celebrations. In an emotional outpouring he wrote:

  With the month of June this account of ten years of my life is completed. To me the little book is like the Compound Perfume wherin are gathered and mixed together the scent of many different flowers: and as some flowers are fragrant and attractive and others are offensive, so some episodes in my life are joyous and others are sorrowful and unpleasant.