Victoria & Abdul

by Shrabani Basu

  However I shall be well content if the perusal of this little work be attended with some interest or pleasure to the person in whose hands it may chance to fall.

  I begin with a Jubilee and now I end with a Jubilee. Great and glorious as was the Jubilee of 87 how much more was that of 97. It would be useless for me to attempt to describe the brilliant celebrations that took place in the commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee. The gorgeous spectacle of the Jubilee Procession in London baffles all description. It was the grandest sight the world has ever seen. I do not believe there was a single individual throughtout the length and breadth of Her Majesty’s dominions who did not in one way or another try to show his love, homage, loyalty and devotion to the Great and Good Queen Empress whose reign has been so long and so prosperous.

  The whole civilized world had at this time its attention directed to our Noble Queen Empress. For the moment all differences of opinion were forgotten or thrown aside, that the other nations and people may join in the Universal Rejoicing and to pay respect and honour to the greatest Queen that ever lived.

  Let us bow down in deep humility and thank God for his loving protection and manifest care of Her Majesty, our Queen Empress and for the gracious benefits he hath bestowed on Her Majesty and through her on her people.

  May the time never come when the people of the British Empire shall cease to pray –

  God Save Our Queen Empress VICTORIA

  Perhaps he hoped that one day the record of his ten years in the Queen’s Court would be published.

  Throughout her Jubilee celebrations and the parties, the Queen carried on her Hindustani lessons. The hullabaloo over the Munshi’s MVO would not go away, however. For Reid, there was no time to relax, even at the Jubilee garden party, as he spent half an hour discussing the issue with Lord Salisbury. He even consulted Lord Rosebery and Lord Rowton, all of whom, he said, deprecated the Queen’s proposal.4

  It took the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, to finally convince the Queen. He diplomatically put it to her that an honour for the Munshi may enrage the Queen’s Hindu subjects, as she may be accused of showing partiality towards the Muslims. The Queen relented, but wrote to Reid on 29 June to emphasise that it was not under pressure from Edwards that she did so. ‘Pray take care that Sir F Edwards knows that it is not because that he wrote that rather impertinent letter that she does not at present include the Munshi amongst those who are to receive the 4th class of order, but on Lord Salisbury’s advice.’

  Still hurting from the actions of Lord Edwards and the recent omission, she wrote again a week later to Reid on the subject:

  Tho’ I shall see you soon, I wish to say that … I am so angry or at least so hurt: it was not that Lord Edwards had left the Munshi out … but that he believed I could ever have desired other names to be crossed and the unfortunate persecuted M’s name to be put in that place. Such a thing is utterly preposterous. It is this that has so hurt me and the way in which he insisted on doubting my word about it. One of those representative officers is known to the Munshi and wrote to him – I believe it is all Hindoo jealousy … I think it is very possible that they may try to agitate against this poor harmless man.5

  The Queen was convinced that it was the Hindus who were jealous of the Munshi and this had led them to influence Sir Pertab Singh against him. She wanted Reid to get to the bottom of it.

  The Munshi was a prominent figure during the celebrations. Ten years back he had arrived as a humble servant. Now he strode confidently among the visiting Indian Princes. When the Queen inspected the officers of HM’s Imperial Service Troops and Indian Cavalry Corps on the east lawn of Windsor Castle, the Court Circular mentioned that the Munshi Abdul Karim was among the guests. The Indian troops served as a Guard of Honour during the Jubilee celebrations and the inspection was attended by the native Princes in all their regalia. Despite all the ill feeling towards him, the Munshi was rubbing shoulders with Indian Royalty and enjoying every moment of it.

  The Royal party soon moved to Osborne, but the Munshi affair kept burning. For over three months the doctor’s diary had been filled with nothing but the Munshi issue and he was clearly tired of it. ‘In the afternoon, again talked to for a long time by the Queen about the eternal Munshi,’ wrote Reid. ‘She evidently realizes what he really is but is resolved to stick to him – told her Lord Salisbury said to me that she has a right to keep him however bad his character may be!’6

  As the days crept by at Osborne, the doctor heard from the Queen that the Munshi ‘had been bullying her’ and offered to take him to task, but the Queen would not sanction it. The next day Reid received a sixteen-page letter from the Queen on the Munshi. The Queen had been writing it over several days. She told Reid that ‘the feeling that poor M is distracted and anything that can be invented against him and that he is suspected by jealous people of being dishonest is extremely trying and painful to me. She has known him for 10 years intimately and certainly has never had any reason to suspect or doubt him.’ The Queen had received a complaint that a footman named Bagley had not been promoted because the Munshi objected to him and was at pains to dispute the charge. ‘The M never mentioned Bagley,’ said the Queen, ‘or ever has mentioned any one of the footmen or any other servants, but he is kind in trying to help others in trouble.’ She thought the attack on the Munshi showed how ready everyone was to injure him.

  The queen has constantly, long before the M, chosen people herself on inquiry. But these gentlemen wish to have it all in their own hands, and in their hatred of the unfortunate M, put all down to him. It is very offensive to me that I should always be supposed to be made to do things … I began this letter some days ago but go on today after the very painful conversation I had with you this afternoon. I must go on – if people believe the story about Bagley which is completely false they may not believe any shameful story bought against this poor defenseless man.

  Orientals intent and are of the most unbounded jealousy – the hatred of Hindu against Mahomeddan only adds to this – they talk to the officers, AOLS, and Anglo Indians who readily believe and retail everything – I do think it very shameful of people connected with the government or the country to give ready evidence to these stories of a person in their service. The position of doubt is becoming quite intolerable to me. I must have it out with my poor friend – it would be very wrong if Sir E Bradford had spoken about what was not to be mentioned and what is long ago – as you told me at Cimiez it was not to be spoken of – I am quite certain that when the Duke of Connaught was in India he never knew anything against him as he praised the son to the father and wrote to me as did everyone including Sir E Bradford. But jealousy is rife in India as anyone knows, and everything has already been believed about the Viceroy etc …

  If there have been imprudences to faults, it may, I should hope, be possible to put a stop to this and let the poor M redeem his character. It is irresponsible for the host to feel the position as most offensive towards the guest. I can’t bear it. VRI.7

  The Queen was clearly in great distress and had now decided that she would stick up for her Munshi against all odds. Reid spoke to Ahmed Husain about Karim and the former attendant spared no detail in running down the Queen’s favourite. Husain, clearly suffering from jealousy, was on his way back after the Jubilee and fired a last salvo at Karim, his fellow resident from Agra. He said the Munshi had boasted to him that he always saw the Queen’s papers.

  Husain obligingly put down his complaints against the Munshi in writing for Reid. In his broken English he wrote:

  Munshi always want more, and every day ask Queen plenty things. Queen give him too much and plenty present and too much luxury. India rajah very angry Munshi get CIE, when Rajah and big Indian man not get, and Munshi very little man like footman and some Queen footman better man.

  He talk me all Englishman cross, but he say I fight all and Queen always tells me, I tell Munshi much better you quiet – you only ten year servant, very little man India. And your father
very little doctor, and your brother and sister husband very little servant man and policeman. Queen give you plenty money and everything plenty give – Queen give so much English servant or English footman. Plenty English servant or English footman with Queen 15–20 years and get nothing. But Queen give you very much money and the recommendation for the brother and sister husband and big house and the land. You better quiet and not always ask Queen and want to be big officer.8

  The Queen was not moved. She simply informed Reid to tell Ahmed Husain that she hoped he would always remain a true, kind friend to the poor Munshi, giving him good advice and standing by him. She said she had heard that his ‘poor dear old father’, Wuzeeruddin, was much troubled about what had been said.

  The strain of the events of the Jubilee had also affected the Munshi, and he fell ill in August. Reid had to attend to him, much to his distaste. Though the illness of the Munshi put a temporary cover on all his issues, and the Queen was calmer after she had unburdened herself in her lengthy letter, Reid continued to hold discussions about the Munshi with the Household. He also spoke to Lord Breadalbane about the affair and heard how the Queen had asked the former to write to the Munshi and be his friend.

  On 9 September the doctor received another lengthy letter from the Queen about Karim and had a long and stormy interview with her. ‘I told her that the general belief is that she is entirely under the Munshi’s influence,’ Reid told the Queen. ‘The tendency is at once to think of the M’s influence in every thing that happens in the house, for there is a very general feeling, not only in HM’s family and household but also among all the servants that HM is entirely under the influence of the M and that he knows it.’ To add to his anger and weariness, the Queen asked Reid to postpone his holiday so he could meet Dennehy and ‘talk over Munshi matters’.

  If the Queen was having stormy meetings with Reid, the rest of the Household was rounding up on anyone who was seen to be friendly with the Munshi. One evening Fritz Ponsonby met Lord Breadalbane, an alleged sympathiser of the Munshi, at a gentleman’s club in London and nearly came to blows with him over the Munshi.

  On spotting Ponsonby at the club, Lord Breadalbane walked up to him and complained bitterly that he had been quoted as ‘having backed up the M’, though he had never been brought in contact with the Munshi and therefore had no decided line on him. Ponsonby, always aggressive when it came to the Munshi, and fuelled that evening even more by a liberal cocktail of champagne and whisky, was not prepared to tolerate the accusation.

  ‘You are a blot on the Queen’s Household,’ he shot back. ‘Because you let the Queen think you are a supporter of the Munshi.’

  ‘Prove it,’ challenged Lord Breadalbane, not taking kindly to the taunt.

  ‘You praise the Munshi to the Queen in order to please her and you have even been rewarded with the Hessian Order for it,’ continued the drunken Ponsonby. ‘Even the Prince of Wales knows you are a supporter of the M.’

  ‘I absolutely deny backing the Munshi,’ replied the incensed Breadalbane. ‘It is Sir Carstairs McNeill who has been spreading stories about the M and me.’

  ‘McNeill has nothing whatever to do with it,’ said Ponsonby, as the exchange got more heated. ‘It is the Queen who always quotes you as being kind and good to the poor M.’

  This was all too much for Breadalbane, who had indeed written to the Munshi once congratulating him on his promotion. His pride hurt, he hit back at Ponsonby: ‘The Prince of Wales told me that the gentlemen had been very rude to the Queen at Cimiez. The Queen told him [the Prince of Wales] that she wished she had accepted their resignations when they had tendered it.’ Breadalbane continued: ‘When the Prince of Wales told the Queen that he had never heard anything about the Household’s threat to resign, she replied, “Oh of course they would not tell you about it, they are too much ashamed of themselves ever to talk about it!!!”.’

  Ponsonby, by now equally furious at Breadalbane’s aspersions that the Queen would have been happy to accept his resignation, warned him that he could still redeem himself and make the Queen understand that ‘he disapproved of the M’.

  By then it was nearly 2 a.m. and Ponsonby confessed that the two had nearly come to blows. Breadalbane left in a rage saying he was sorry to think that Ponsonby was heading a dead set against him, but that he was glad to know who his enemies were.

  The next morning, Ponsonby met Breadalbane again at the Traveller’s Club. Both were considerably sober now and Breadalbane said that he had not slept a wink all night. Ponsonby felt that though Breadalbane did not outwardly appear to bear him any malice, he wasn’t quite sure where the latter stood.

  ‘How can I show you that I do not wish to be a Munshiite?’ Breadalbane finally asked, anxious not to alienate the Household. ‘Shall I tell the Prince of Wales and other members of the Royal Family about my thoughts on the Munshi?’

  Ponsonby, however, told him that was not good enough, for as long as he allowed the Queen to think he approved of the Munshi, it mattered very little what he told the others. Ponsonby advised him to write to Reid explaining his views on the Munshi and suggested that the letter could on his request be read to the Queen. ‘He did not appear to like this idea, but said that he would think it over,’9 Ponsonby told Reid.

  The incident shows the extent to which the Munshi was now dividing opinions in the Household and official circle. Ponsonby’s attempt to browbeat Breadalbane into writing to the Queen to express his feelings against the Munshi showed how desperate the Household was getting in their attempt to smear him.

  Meanwhile, the Munshi continued to get eulogistic press coverage, much to the wrath of the Household. The World newspaper carried a small profile of the Queen’s trusted Indian secretary:

  The Munshi Abdul Kareem, who now occupies his own snug abode in the grounds of Balmoral, has received extraordinarily rapid promotion since he came to Windsor in the capacity of personal attendant to Her Majesty in 1887 … So delighted is Her Majesty with her oriental teacher that when the Munshi went to India on leave, they were continued by almost daily correspondence. About seven years ago the Munshi was joined by his wife, and his father Waziruddin is certainly the only man living who has been permitted to smoke a hookah in the room usually tenanted by Lord Salisbury when he visits Windsor Castle. Frogmore Cottage has been assigned to Abdul Kareem as a residence and it is full of souvenirs and presents of all sorts, including a gold and enamel tea service, the gift of the Emperor of Russia. His place as ‘personal attendant’ is now filled by his compatriots Mustapha Khan and Chota Khan of Agra, and Aziz Khan of Moradabad, and when her Majesty dines, lunches or breakfasts en famille, no other servant is present but her faithful Indians, with whom she can speak in their own language.10

  The Queen was always ready to rise to the defence of her ‘shamefully persecuted Munshi’ and told Reid not to believe the stories he was told about him, or in fact allow people to tell him these stories. She felt clearly tormented by the strain of taking on her entire Household single-handed in the protection of the Munshi. In the middle of the crisis, the Munshi threatened to resign, telling the Queen he would return to India. He told her that he would not remain beyond the year as he was not used to enduring the sort of treatment he had received. He also said he would forward all the receipts for his expenses, as he had heard allegations that he had not supplied them and was cheating the Queen.

  The Queen was distraught. She told Karim that she could not let him go, that she felt ‘deeply hurt’ and that it would harm both of them if he left. ‘He wd. appear to admit to accusations and I to have yielded to very shameful pressure,’ she wrote to Reid.11

  The Munshi’s wife was also suffering from headaches and he now told the Queen that he was worried and anxious that his ‘poor father and brother seemed to be greatly troubled’ since they had heard reports that he had resigned.12

  The Queen wrote to Reid saying she had ‘told the poor M’ that it had all passed and he should not be anxious or alarm himself.
She said she trusted and really thought that the stories and gross exaggerations were being gradually disposed of, but the shameful mischief which nameless people had done was quite severe and had produced a most unfortunate effect on the Munshi.

  Reid replied defiantly: ‘I am sorry to hear that HM is still having concern about the M: but judging from his robust appearance and undiminished stoutness I do not think that, although no doubt his feelings may be considerably hurt, he can be worrying so much as HM fears, or it would certainly lead on his health and appearance.’13 He added that any action being taken by the Household was out of concern for the Queen.

  The Queen, embarrassed at her harsh words to the doctor, wrote to him again: ‘I think I must have expressed myself badly about the M – I did not mean that he was worrying himself so as to make himself ill – only that the poor Father was distressed to write painful letters. More and more, I see by various things and inquiries that the whole thing was the grossest exaggeration and willful acceptance of stories.’

  The rest of the days would have probably passed calmly at Balmoral, but the Munshi could rarely stay away from a little bit of self-publicity, causing another storm in the Palace.

  On 16 October, to the shock and horror of the Household, an article appeared in The Graphic headlined ‘The Queen’s Hindustani Tutor’. It carried a photograph of the Munshi and the Queen cosily working together in the cottage in Balmoral. The Munshi was looking directly at the camera giving the impression that he was the one in control. The photo carried the caption: ‘The Queen’s Life in the Highlands, Her Majesty receiving a lesson in Hindustani from her Munshi Hafiz Abdul Karim C.I.E.’ One of the Queen’s dogs sat at her feet and the table was covered with a cloth showing distinctly Indian motifs.