The Empress
Page 12
ABDUL:
You have always said how much you wished you could go to India?
VICTORIA:
It is too late now. I can barely stand. Perhaps next summer, if I am up to it…I would have liked to have visited the Taj Mahal and sat by the Ganges in the moonlight, I would have liked to have ridden on an elephant!
ABDUL:
I have taken the liberty, Your Majesty, to ensure that if Her Majesty can’t go to India, then we will bring India to her.
VICTORIA looks bemused. ABDUL smiles, claps his hands and a troupe of brightly coloured musicians and performers enter.
VICTORIA:
Abdul!
ABDUL stands nearby, half-leaning against VICTORIA. Together they start to watch the performance. VICTORIA looks delighted.
At the end, VICTORIA claps her hands. When the troupe have exited, VICTORIA looks up at ABDUL in gratitude and love.
SCENE 14
Osborne House, January 22 1901.
Lights up on an ornate white open coffin in which VICTORIA lies. The royal Household all walk up to the coffin one by one, including Indian servants. It is a sombre occasion. LADY SARAH stands. A young PAGE approaches LADY SARAH.
PAGE:
Excuse me Lady Sarah.
LADY SARAH:
What is it?
PAGE:
The Munshi wishes to say his final farewells.
LADY SARAH looks very irritated.
LADY SARAH:
Very well. Send him in.
The PAGE exits and re-enters with ABDUL. ABDUL bows deeply to LADY SARAH who simply nods her head. ABDUL carries a single white rose, which he places carefully on VICTORIA’s person. LADY SARAH looks away as ABDUL weeps silently over the coffin. Two undertakers step forward and nail the coffin down. ABDUL steps back. He looks shaken.
LADY SARAH approaches ABDUL.
LADY SARAH:
Mr Karim. I have instructions from the King. He wishes you to gather all correspondence from Her Majesty to you and you are to remain under escort until such time that we have ascertained that all letters have been collected. Under supervision by the Master of the House and witnessed by myself, the letters will be burned. You will then gather your belongings, your family and others related to you now living in the royal grounds and you will return to India. His Majesty says that he has no further use for your services. Have I made myself clear Mr Karim?
ABDUL:
Yes Lady Sarah.
LADY SARAH:
You will return to your home under royal escort and be allowed to retain your house in Agra. However, as soon as you have returned, we will be obliged to search your house for further correspondence to you from Her Majesty and other small mementoes. These too will be reclaimed or destroyed. Do I have your full co-operation on this matter?
ABDUL:
Yes Lady Sarah.
LADY SARAH turns, bows one last time to the coffin and exits the room.
LADY SARAH:
Seal the room when it has been cleared.
PAGES enter, with letters and transcripts. One by one they strip ABDUL of his royal livery, his turban, jacket etc. They re-dress him as an ordinary civilian. As the letters pile up around him we hear the sound of a huge crackling bonfire which intensifies and fills the stage with a red glow.
All of the Munshi’s letters from Queen Victoria are burned.
SCENE 15
1901.
We are back at Tilbury docks. It is full of people saying their fond farewells. RANI and HARI have come to see DADABHAI off. She is wearing a red bridal sari.
ABDUL walks proudly at the back flanked on either side by English officials.
DADABHAI, HARI and RANI clock them.
DADABHAI shakes hands with HARI.
DADABHAI:
Look after yourself Hari. You’re a family man now.
HARI:
I’m a very lucky man. I won’t say ‘goodbye’ because I know, we will meet again.
RANI hugs DADABHAI suddenly. He is choked.
DADABHAI:
I’ve said a lot of farewells in my time Rani. But you break my heart. I must go…and God bless you.
RANI waves as DADABHAI exits to go up to the boat. DADABHAI waves back and exits.
HARI:
Are you alright?
RANI nods, slightly tearful.
Now it’s just us Rani. We’re going to make a good life together here with Asha. I will always be here by your side.
RANI hugs HARI.
RANI turns and watches as ABDUL KARIM is kneeling on the ground by the gang plank. He is kissing the ground.
HARI:
Isn’t that the Viceroy’s man?
RANI and HARI approach ABDUL.
HARI:
Excuse me brother.
ABDUL turns and looks at HARI and then RANI. They both do namaste to ABDUL.
ABDUL:
We have met before?
RANI:
Briefly.
ABDUL:
I can’t quite…?
RANI:
1887, when I first came here, you were on the same boat.
ABDUL:
Fourteen years ago. I remember now. The young ayah. Abdul Karim at your service.
ABDUL does adaab to both RANI and HARI.
RANI:
Rani Das, I mean Rani Sharma at yours.
HARI smiles at RANI.
HARI:
Hari Sharma. Please, excuse me.
HARI retreats to talk to the Serang.
ABDUL:
Is that the rascal lascar that was following you around everywhere? He looks very smart.
RANI:
It is. You see? I took your advice. I’ve chosen my friends very carefully. Are you sad to be leaving?
ABDUL:
It will be good to see my home again. This is a strange, intoxicating island.
RANI:
Yes! At once magical but at the same time unforgiving.
ABDUL:
Unforgiving – yes.
RANI:
Is it true that you worked for the royal house?
ABDUL:
Yes.
RANI:
And you met the Queen?
ABDUL:
Yes. I served her.
RANI:
What was she like?
ABDUL:
She was a great woman. So different from the people that surrounded her – the family, court officials, the Ladies-in-Waiting. She had a curiosity which was boundless.
RANI:
She had a lot of power.
ABDUL:
So much power in her hands. The lands she ruled gravitated around her, like planets circling the sun. But she never ventured out. You and I have travelled further in our short lives than she ever did. All she had were her imaginings.
And what about you? Are you still an ayah? You don’t look like one anymore.
RANI:
I was educated. Now I am a teacher and I am hoping to set up a school.
ABDUL:
We are both teachers then.
RANI:
Will you be going back to teach?
ABDUL:
No. I don’t think so. I will have to find some other occupation.
RANI:
Didn’t you enjoy teaching?
ABDUL:
It wasn’t that – just that once you have had the ultimate student, where else can you go?
RANI:
(Realising.) You are the Queen’s Munshi?
ABDUL:
Was. I have nothing to remember her by. They ordered me to return everything else you see.
RANI:
But you have your memories.
Do you remember you gave me something when my master and mistress had abandoned me?
ABDUL:
My father’s compass.
RANI produces the compass. ABDUL looks at it carefully.
RANI tries to press it into ABDUL’s hand.
ABDUL:
No, pl
ease, it was a gift.
RANI:
Take it. Perhaps it too will bring you luck.
ABDUL:
May Allah be with you.
ABDUL takes the compass and does adaab. The royal guards surround ABDUL and he exits towards the boat.
HARI steps forward and puts his arm around RANI.
Lights fade as RANI and HARI laugh together.
The End.
NOTES:
DADABHAI NAOROJI: ‘The Grand Old Man of India’ was the first Indian MP to be elected to the constituency of Finsbury Central in 1892. He was the President of the Indian National Congress three times. He is credited by Mahatma Gandhi as being his mentor and first introduced the term ‘Swaraj’ (Independence) and peaceful resistance which Gandhi later developed. He also wrote a paper in 1901 called ‘Poverty and an UnBritish rule in India’ in which he developed the idea of the ‘drain theory’. This was the first economic critique of colonialism and was later expanded on by Indian nationalists He was supported by the radicals: John Bright, Henry Fawcett, Keir Hardie, William Digby and Ramsay MacDonald. He became disenchanted with the British and became more radical in his later years, returning to India in 1905 where he continued to campaign and work. He died in 1917 in Bombay at the age of 92.
ABDUL KARIM: went back to Agra where he lived quietly in ‘Karim Lodge’. On arrival, all his letters from Queen Victoria were burned by royal command. He was dogged by ill-health and died in 1909, after which his wife was ordered to burn any remaining letters from Victoria.
THE AYAH’S HOME: was established in 1891 in Jewry Street, Aldgate after lobbying by a committee of concerned white women. Ayahs had been brought over to England by returning East India Company families from as early as the eighteenth century and this practice continued well into the early twentieth century. Many ayahs were abandoned at the docks when the families had no further use of them. In 1900 the home was moved to bigger premises in 26 King Edward Street, Mare Street, Hackney. There were 30 rooms and every year up to 100 women stayed there (up to 223 during the Armistice). It was a refuge and an employment agency but mainly the philanthropic founders aimed to bring the ayahs under Christian influence. The home endured until the end of the Raj in 1947.
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