by Tanika Gupta
It’s true. But you only want to serve Dadabhai and read those old letters.
RANI:
What about you Firoza? You never remarried?
FIROZA:
I don’t like men so much. Don’t trust them.
RANI:
(Laughs.) And you’re trying to persuade me to find a man! It’s funny to think that when I arrived, I just wanted to meet the Queen.
FIROZA:
What for? To thank her for having ruined India for two or three generations to come? There is talk about another famine in India. It is pitiful.
RANI:
The British are doing nothing to prevent it.
Do you think Hari is still alive?
FIROZA looks at RANI.
FIROZA:
Rani, I don’t know. Sally has heard nothing. No one has heard from Hari for a long time.
RANI looks upset. She takes RANI’s hand.
RANI:
I have Asha, I have you, my dear Firoza and I have Dadabhai.
ABDUL enters.
VICTORIA:
Oh Abdul. I’m so sorry.
SCENE 10
1897 – Year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
Kipling’s poem is set to music and is sung:
Take up the White Man’s burden –
Send forth the best ye breed –
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild –
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child’.
‘Take up the White Man’s burden –
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit,
And work another’s gain…’
In the backdrop we see archive photos/film of the Queen’s procession through the streets.
NB. During this scene we see HARI, now dressed in a basic suit with shoes on his feet, stepping off a boat.
There is a moment here in the procession when RANI sees VICTORIA in the Jubilee procession.
SCENE 11
1897.
We split the scene between QUEEN VICTORIA being dressed for her Diamond Jubilee dinner and DADABHAI’s speech.
VICTORIA is being dressed, with diamonds strung round her neck and in her cap.
We cut to:
DADABHAI is standing in Parliament making a speech. RANI is there listening to him.
DADABHAI:
The foreign invaders of former times in India returned to their country laden with spoils and there was an end to the evil. India by her industry soon made up the gap in her national wealth.
But entirely different has the past India received blows and bruises here and there, but her vital blood was not lost. Now, as the country is being continually bled, its vitality and vigour is low.
We cut to: VICTORIA as she is adorned with jewels etc. ABDUL enters.
ABDUL:
Ma’am, we are ready for you. You look splendid.
VICTORIA:
Do you like the gold detail? It was especially embroidered for me in India.
ABDUL:
Absolutely gorgeous ma’am.
VICTORIA:
Who is here?
ABDUL:
Everyone. Foreign royalties, special ambassadors and envoys, the family. And they are all waiting for you in the supper room…little tables of twelve each.
Cut back to DADABHAI’s speech.
DADABHAI:
Even as we stand here, waving our flags and wishing Her Majesty well. In India, famine has swept over much of the north and west, followed by a major plague epidemic. These tragedies are compounded by the Raj’s apathetic response to the famine and its imposition of draconian plague regulations.
Cut to VICTORIA.
VICTORIA:
You know I touched an electric button this morning. Apparently it started a message which was telegraphed right across my Empire. ‘From My Heart I thank my beloved people. May God bless them!’ And the sun burst out.
VICTORIA stands. Her Ladies-in-Waiting stand back in admiration and curtsey to her.
ABDUL:
Do you not want the wheelchair ma’am?
VICTORIA:
I prefer to walk. Just give me your arm.
VICTORIA takes ABDUL’s arm.
ABDUL:
So much affection from your subjects. You must be very proud today.
VICTORIA:
No Abdul, not proud but – humble.
Cut to: DADABHAI’s speech.
DADABHAI:
Millions of Indian men, women and children are dying. Millions more will die unless financial resources are directed back to the people.
So I say to you all, the Diamond Jubilee should be celebrated in a manner befitting a monarch who has been ‘the Empress of Famine and the Queen of Black Death.’ I accuse the British of inflicting upon Indians ‘all the scourges of the world war, pestilence, and famine.’
As VICTORIA is led from the room by ABDUL, we hear a band start up.
VOICES:
Three cheers for the Queen!
Hup, hup – HOORAY! Hup, hup – HOORAY!
Hup, hup – HOORAY!
There is much cheering as VICTORIA and ABDUL exit.
SCENE 12
1900.
We see LASCAR SALLY standing and sprucing up HARI’s outfit, suit etc. She stands back and surveys him, satisfied. Then she pushes HARI on. They walk together.
In DADABHAI’s drawing room. DADABHAI is packing up his room. He is throwing books into a box, gathering papers etc. RANI is watching on, distraught.
RANI:
You’re giving up!
DADABHAI:
I am not. I am going back to live my old age out in my motherland, surrounded by people who listen to me. I believed in British fairness but actually it’s a myth. John Bull is nothing more than an opium peddler, a slave trader and a violent thug.
RANI:
You are leaving me behind?
DADABHAI:
Look at this Boer war – the entire might of the British Empire against a handful of Boer farmers. Burning and looting entire villages…the concentration camps…it is not worthy of so-called British fairness and justice. This is not war, this is massacre on a grand scale. Monstrous! Gandhi has been sending me correspondence. Apparently he has set up an ambulance corps so that Indians out there can give their services as stretcher bearers. Even Gandhi is working with the corps in the field – carrying the wounded through heavy firing.
RANI:
Dadabhai, you are distressed.
DADABHAI:
This war-mongering Tory government, the killing, torture – our troops, innocent civilians all done in the name of the Empire. The electorate here only voted Salisbury back in because of their misplaced jingoistic ideas of nationalism. Why should Britain own the whole of South Africa? Why should such a small island rule the world?
RANI:
You’re really going to leave all your work here behind?
DADABHAI:
I spent some years in the Commons making speeches and recommendations. Apart from a handful of friends, they all simply ignored me. I thought that perhaps the British would see the error of their ways, that they would understand how much they have taken from our land whilst our people starve in their millions! But they don’t care and this war is further proof of their inhumanity.
RANI looks distraught.
DADABHAI:
I came to this country in 1855. I have done my time. I want to be in India, to work through the Indian National Congress. To fight the British through peaceful means.
RANI:
Dada, if you give up hope, then we will all fail.
DADABHAI:
I am not giving up hope Rani, simply understanding that I ha
ve to take a different path. In India I can make a difference. Self-government is the only remedy for her woes and through India’s example the other colonies will take heart and rise against them.
RANI:
What about me? How can you leave me and Asha?
DADABHAI looks at RANI with affection and holds her hands.
RANI:
I will come with you Dadabhai.
DADABHAI:
No Rani.
RANI:
Why?
DADABHAI:
You have your daughter, your friends here. William says he can find you a position as a teacher in a girls’ school.
RANI is upset.
DADABHAI:
I am an old man now. I want to go home. You must make your own way in life.
DADABHAI looks up as SALLY and HARI stands in the doorway.
HARI:
Excuse me sir…sorry to disturb you… your secretary showed me in…I hope you don’t mind but I came to see Rani.
SALLY:
I found him for you Rani.
RANI is glued to the chair as she stares in disbelief at HARI. He is well-dressed in a brown suit and his hair is trim and slicked back.
DADABHAI looks from HARI to RANI.
DADABHAI:
And you are?
HARI:
My name is Hari.
DADABHAI:
Hari!
HARI:
We met…a long time ago… I am an old friend…erm acquaintance of Rani’s.
DADABHAI:
Aaahh…yes, yes, of course. Come in.
RANI is still unable to speak. DADABHAI looks at a bit of loss as to know what to do.
SALLY nudges HARI to talk.
SALLY:
Go on!
HARI:
Rani, although I don’t think I can ever be your… I have started up a small business… I did not return the rich man I wanted to be for your sake…but I make furniture in Whitechapel…and have a little money saved…I rent a set of small rooms above the business and…I thought…before it was too late…I should like to be your friend again…
SALLY:
Rani, if you won’t have him, I will.
DADABHAI:
Come, Sally. Let’s leave these two alone. Rani, just call me if you need me.
DADABHAI tries to leave but RANI clings to him, afraid.
DADBHAI:
I will be in the next room Rani.
DADABHAI looks at RANI.
Come now. Have courage my child.
RANI lets go of DADABHAI and he exits, patting HARI affectionately as he leaves and shoving him gently further into the room. SALLY looks at HARI meaningfully before leaving the room. RANI is highly emotional.
HARI:
Rani.
RANI backs away and collapses in a chair.
RANI:
You look well Hari.
HARI:
You’ve blossomed into a woman little Rani.
RANI:
I am not your little Rani anymore. How long have you been in England?
HARI:
Three years.
RANI:
Three years!
HARI:
I wanted to come before but…I had nothing to offer.
RANI:
I am settled now. I have friends and work and I have a daughter.
HARI:
I heard. You are blessed.
HARI steps closer. RANI turns away from him.
RANI:
You abandoned me.
HARI:
It was not easy for me to find you. You were the one that disappeared.
RANI:
You should have looked harder for me.
HARI:
Sally said she delivered my letters to you.
RANI:
I read them.
They were beautiful.
HARI weeps. RANI is moved. She steps closer to HARI.
RANI:
I am so sorry for your suffering. But I wish you had come back sooner.
Thirteen years have passed Hari.
HARI:
Is there anyone?
RANI:
No.
For you?
HARI:
No one that ever came close to how I felt for you.
RANI:
I still don’t understand why you stopped writing?
HARI:
I didn’t want to hold you back. Hold you to a promise that we made in another time. After all, I was just a sailor, a lascar.
RANI:
I was just an ayah.
HARI:
But now, you are an educated, accomplished, clever woman. What would you want with a brute like me?
RANI remains silent. HARI watches her carefully.
HARI:
I am glad I saw you again. Perhaps in time we can be friends again but maybe too many years have passed and we have missed our moment.
HARI looks entreatingly at RANI but she does not respond.
I will take my leave of you. Please give my fondest regards to Dadabhai.
HARI turns to leave. RANI stands up on shaky legs.
RANI:
Hari – Don’t go!
She almost falls and HARI rushes forward to hold her up. They embrace, kiss and cry.
RANI:
I missed you so much. I was so young…I didn’t understand my own feelings…
HARI:
Every night I thought of your happy, smiling face. Seeing you again has made me feel like a sailor feels when he has been drifting on an endless swell of sea and then he spots the land. The relief! The joy! Knowing that he will stand on firm ground.
Tell me you still feel something for me?
RANI:
‘I closed my lids, and kept them close,
And the balls like pulses beat;
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet.’
HARI:
I am so pleased you have made such a good life for yourself. I knew you could. But from now, I want to be there with you.
RANI:
Don’t ever leave me again.
HARI:
Never.
RANI:
Never.
They kiss passionately.
SCENE 13
1900.
VICTORIA is reclined in a chaise longue. She looks unwell but is supported by cushions and pillows etc.
ABDUL enters.
ABDUL plumps up the pillows for VICTORIA.
VICTORIA:
Apparently we now have conquered Benin and the lands of south-west Nigeria are part of our Empire. Our Consul was ambushed and sadly massacred. The people of Benin are now liberated.
Abdul, I feel too unwell today to take my lessons.
ABDUL:
Has Doctor Reid given you some draughts?
VICTORIA nods.
VICTORIA:
Last night I dreamt of my dear Ponsonby. I do miss him. He was so universally beloved – so just and fair. To have been snatched away so suddenly…
ABDUL:
We are all mortal, ma’am. Death comes to everyone.
VICTORIA:
It is hard for those who are left behind.
I wish people didn’t have to die.
ABDUL:
There is a story in our Koran about a rich businessman who called the Angel of Death to him and asked him for a favour. He said, would you please give me warning before I am about to die, just so that I can prepare myself? The Angel of Death agreed and said he would send a sign. Then one day, when the businessman was counting his money, he was visited by that same Angel. The businessman cried out ‘No! I am not ready! You promised me you would give me a sign before you came. I received no sign!’ The Angel replied, ‘Allah gave you many signs. Has your hair not turned grey? Your skin wrinkled? Your eyesight poor? Have you not become an old man? These were all signs but you refused to heed them.
’ And so the rich businessman had no choice but to go with the Angel of Death. When it is our time, nothing can prevent it.
VICTORIA is quiet for some time.
ABDUL:
Ma’am, I have a small surprise for you.
VICTORIA:
I am too exhausted for surprises.
ABDUL:
You don’t have to do anything ma’am, simply have to watch and let it all flow over you.
VICTORIA:
What mischief are you up to Abdul?