Empress

by Miles Taylor

  40. Mushirul Hasan (ed.), Proceedings of the Indian National Congress, vol. 1, 1885–1889 (New Delhi: Nyogi, 2012), 61 (Madras 1887), lv (Allahabad 1888); The Indian National Congress: Session at Allahabad, December 1888. Impressions of Two English Visitors, etc. (London: Indian Political Agency, 1889), 19, 21.

  41. Hasan (ed.), Proceedings of the Indian National Congress, vol. 1, 22 (Subramania Iyer, Bombay 1885), 65 (Dadabhai Naoroji, Bombay 1885), 56, (Dadabhai Naoroji, Calcutta 1886), lvi (Madan Mohan Malaviya, Allahabad 1888), 50, 52 (Ghokale and Ali Mohamed Bhimjee, Bombay 1889); idem. (ed.), Proceedings of the Indian National Congress, vol. 2: 1890–1894 (New Delhi: Nyogi Books, 2014), xi (Lal Mohan Ghose, Calcutta 1890), 51 (Pran Nath Sarawati, Nagpur 1891), 28 (Suredranath Banerjee, Allahabad 1892), 38 (Dadabhai Naoroji, Lahore 1893), 77–8 (Rashan Lal, Lahore 1893), 10–11 (Rungiah Naidu, Madras 1894), 83 (Surendranath Bannerjee, Madras 1894); Report of the Twelfth Indian National Congress held at Calcutta, etc. (Calcutta: Star Press, 1897), 30 (Rahimatullah Sayani); The Indian National Congress. Its Origin, History, Constitution and Objects (Madras: National Press, 1888), 84–5.

  42. Hasan (ed.), Proceedings of the Indian National Congress, vol. 1, 139 (Singarajee Venkata Subbraryudu Pautulu, Calcutta 1885); idem. (ed.), Proceedings of the Indian National Congress, vol. 2, xxviii (Ambika C. Mozamder, Madras 1894); Report of the Twelfth Indian National Congress, 63 (Rahimtullah Sayani); cf. ‘Mother and Mother Country are more estimable than Heaven itself’, in Bipin Bihari Bose, Congress Songs and Ballads (Lucknow: Sukh Sambad Press, 1901); The Indian National Congress . . . Impressions of Two English Visitors, 23 (W. S. Caine).

  43. Hasan (ed.), Proceedings of the Indian National Congress, vol. 1, 60; Kaushik Roy, ‘India’ in Ian F. W. Beckett (ed.), Citizen Soldiers and the British Empire, 1837–1902 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2016), 112–16.

  44. Hasan (ed.), Proceedings of the Indian National Congress, vol. 1, 50 (1886 Rajendralala Mitra).

  45. Hasan (ed.), Proceedings, vol. 1, 1(1885), 44 (1886); Hasan (ed.), Proceedings, vol. 2, 2 (1892).

  46. Hasan (ed.), Proceedings, vol. 1, 27 (1886).

  47. Northampton Mercury, 24 November 1883, 4; ibid., 29 June 1889, 3; HC Debs, 330 (9 August 1888), 148–59; ibid., 336 (31 May 1889), 1633–8. See also, Bradlaugh, ‘India and the Ilbert Bill’, Our Corner 3 (February 1884), 77–82. David S. Nash, ‘Charles Bradlaugh, India and the Many Chameleon Destinations of Republicanism’ in David S. Nash and Antony Taylor (eds), Republicanism in Victorian Society (Stroud: Sutton, 2000), 106–24.

  48. Mr Bradlaugh and the House of Commons. From a Hindoo Point of View (London: Swan Sonneschein, 1884), a sympathetic portrait, described Bradlaugh’s position on not being allowed to take up his seat in Parliament as leaving him a ‘man without caste’ (p. 8).

  49. Charles Bradlaugh, The Impeachment of the House of Brunswick (London: Freethought Publishing Co., 1874), 55–6. This pamphlet went through ten editions by 1891; HC Debs, 337 (9 July 1889), 1850–53.

  50. Hasan (ed.) Proceedings, vol. 1 (1889), lxviii–lxix; Bradlaugh, ‘The Indian National Congress, What It Is and What It Demands’, New Review 2 (March 1890), 242–53.

  51. Bishan Narayan Dar, Mr Bradlaugh’s Indian Reform Bill (Lucknow: G. P. Varma and Bros 1890); Hasan (ed.), Proceedings, vol. 1 (1889), 17.

  52. Hasan (ed.), Proceedings, vol. 1 (1889), 86. Of the twenty addresses to Bradlaugh that have survived, seven (Awadh, Benares, Dacca, Kanpur, Madras (Triplicane Literary Society), Satara and Sirsi) lauded the queen-empress as well: Charles Bradlaugh papers, Hackney Archives, C. L. R. James Library, D/F/BRA/1/1–5, D/F/BRA/7/2–15.

  53. For example, Romesh C. Dutt, ‘Indian Aspirations under British Rule’ in W. C. Bonerjee (ed.), Indian Politics (Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1898), 57.

  54. ToI, 25 December 1888, 5. Privately, Dufferin assured Queen Victoria that the INC was not disloyal: ‘the most extravagant Bengalee Baboo that ever “slung ink” . . . cherishes at heart a deep devotion to your Majesty’s person’, Dufferin to Queen Victoria, 31 March 1887, Dufferin papers, PRONI, D10171/H/MI/I, no. 64

  55. Audi alteram partem: Being Two Letters on Certain Aspects of the Indian National Congress Movement, with an Appendix, etc. (Simla: Station Press, 1888); Two Memorable Speeches of Eardley Norton, Delivered at Patchcappah’s Hall, Madras, etc. (Lucknow: G. P. Varma and Bros, 1889), 13–14; Eardley Norton, ‘The Indian National Congress’ in Bonerjee (ed.), Indian Politics, 27.

  56. ‘Abstract of Secret Intelligence from the Special Branch of the Thugee and Dacoity Department’ (1887–8), Dufferin papers, PRONI, D1071/H/M/11/2.

  57. For the UIPA’s support, see: The Seditious Character of the Indian National Congress, and the Opinions Held by Eminent Natives of India who are Opposed to the Movement (Allahabad: Pioneer Press, 1888), iv, xv–xxxi. For the petition: Salim al-Din Quraishi (ed.), Correspondence of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and his Contemporaries (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 1998), 139–45. For the background: Zafur-ul-Islam, ‘Documents on Indo-Muslim Politics (1857–1947): The Aligarh Political Activism (1888–93)’, Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society 12 (1964), 14–25; Francis Robinson, Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces’ Muslims, 1860–1923 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), 120–1.

  58. ‘Speech at Lucknow’ (28 December 1887) in Syed Ahmed Khan, The Present State of Indian Politics. Speeches and Letters (1888; Lahore: Sang-e-Meed Publications, 1982 edn), 12; cf. Syed Khan, ‘The National Congress and the Government of Madras’, Aligarh Institute Gazette, 11 September 1888, 1023–6. For the attribution of Syed Khan’s authorship of articles in the Gazette, see: Asghar Abbas, Print Culture: Sir Syed’s Aligarh Institute Gazette, 1866–1897 (Delhi: Primus Books, 2015), 126–37.

  59. Bilgrami, ‘Letter to the UIPA’ in Present State, 52–3; cf. Raja of Bhinga, ‘Democracy not Suited to India’ in Seditious Character of the INC, 2.

  60. Syed Ahmed Khan to the Maharaja of Patiala, 25 August 1888, in Sir Syed Correspondence, comp. Siddiqui, 116–18; Beck, ‘In What Will it End?’, Aligarh Institute Gazette, 29 May 1888, 595–603.

  11 Jujubilee

  1. Bangabasi, 12 February 1887, ibid., 26 February 1887, NNR (Bengal), IOR L/R/5/13, 202, 252. For the newspaper, see: Shyamananda Banerjee, National Awakening and the Bangabasi (Calcutta: Amitava-Kalyan 1968).

  2. ‘Lists of Addresses and Presents’ (1887), TNA LC2/115. In 1897 the Lord Chamberlain’s office listed only sixty-two ornamental addresses from India, out of a total from the UK and overseas of 469: ‘Catalogue of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee Presents, 1897’, TNA LC2/146. However, these comprised only a selection from those sent on by the Government of India, which itself recorded a total of 263 addresses: NAI, Home Dept Proceedings (September, 1897), 573. Even that was probably a low estimate of the total. The Bombay government listed over 140 addresses alone: MSA, Political Dept Proceedings (1897), vol. 104, passim.

  3. Cross to Dufferin, 13 August 1886, IOR Mss Eur. E243/17; Henry Ponsonby to Charles Bradley (the Dean of Westminster Abbey), 17 October 1886, Jubilee correspondence, Muniment Room, Westminster Abbey, 394.4; Cross to Dufferin, 3 February 1887, 11 February 1887, IOR Mss Eur. F130/9, 15–18. For the 1887 jubilee, see: John Fabb, Victoria’s Golden Jubilee (London: B. T. Seaby, 1987); Thomas Richards, ‘The Image of Victoria in the Year of Jubilee’, Victorian Studies 31 (1987), 7–32.

  4. Francis Knollys to Ponsonby, 9 December 1886, RA PPTO/PP/QV/ADDX/G/16; Ponsonby to Queen Victoria, 19 February 1887, RA VIC/MAIN/F/45/81; The Times, 13 May 1890, 5.

  5. Dufferin to Cross, 27 August 1886, IOR Mss Eur E243/22, 4; Cross to Dufferin, 22 September 1886, IOR Mss Eur. E243/17, fol. 17.

  6. Charles Lawson (comp.), Narrative of the Celebration of the Jubilee of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, Empress of India, in the Presidency of Madras (London: Macmillan, 1887), 1–3; ToI, 30 November 1886, 5 (Bombay).

  7. Dufferin to Cross, 23 November 1886, IOR Mss Eur. E243/22, fol. 6; Cross to Dufferin,
25 November 1886, 16 December 1886, IOR Mss Eur. E243/17; Dufferin to Queen Victoria (telegram), 18 December 1886, Dufferin papers, PRONI, D1071/H/MI/1, no. 59.

  8. Printed circular, 8 February 1887, MSA, Pol. Proceedings, vol. 57.

  9. Telegram from the Foreign Dept, Government of India to the Political Dept, Bombay, 17 January 1887, MSA, Political Proceedings, 1887, vol. 56.

  10. NAI Foreign Proceedings, International A, (July 1887), 141–8 (relaxation of rules); ILN, 17 September 1887, 336 (Mysore); ibid., 24 September 1887, 369 (Travancore).

  11. O. T. Burne, ‘The Empress of India’, Asiatic Quarterly Review 3 (January 1887), 11–31; cf. O. T. Burne, Memories (London: Edward Arnold, 1907), 298–301.

  12. Printed circular (Imperial Institute), 24 January 1887, MSA, Political Proceedings, 1887, vol. 61; ‘The Countess of Dufferin’s Fund: Jubilee Year’ 14 October 1886 (printed circular), Dufferin papers, PRONI, D1071 J/6/8/1.

  13. Ananda Bazar Patrika, 14 February 1887, NNR (Bengal) IOR L/R/5/13, 203–4 (criticism of royal family involvement); Dakar Prakash, 2 January 1887, ibid., 78 (distribution of wealth and repeal of the Arms Act); Sanjivani, 15 January 1887, ibid., 101–2 (more Indians in the administration); Mahratta, 6 February 1887, NNR (Bombay), IOR L/R/5/112, 4 (pressure on the poor); Indu Prakash, 17 January 1887, ibid., 5 (reform of the Legislative Council); Poona Vaibhar, 16 January 1887, ibid., 5–6 (restoration of Indian rulers); Hindi Pradip, 27 January 1887, NNR (Punjab, North-West Provinces, etc.), IOR L/R/5/64, p. 119 (Akbar and money being forced from the poor); Hindoo Patriot, 17 January 1887, 27 (criticism of the Imperial Institute).

  14. For the release of prisoners: ToI, 21 February 1887, 7; Randolph Churchill to Queen Victoria, 7 December 1886, RA VIC/MAIN/F/45/24. For the jubilee medal, see: ILN, 4 June 1887, 629; For criticism of native honours: Bangabasi, 12 February 1887, NNR (Bengal), IOR L/5/13, p.202. A Gujarati writer summed up the dilemma of the travelling princes, criticised if they went, accused of disloyalty if they stayed at home: Ambashankar Gavrishankar, Devatai svapnun, or the Celestial Dream (Bombay: the author, 1887), QLB (Bombay). For the list of Indian honours, see: Englishman, 16 February 1887, 5.

  15. HC Debs, 311 (18 February 1887), 45–6; HL Debs, 311 (22 February 1887), 280–6.

  16. NAI, For. Proceedings (1897), Internal B, 42.

  17. MSA, Pol. Proceedings (1887), vol. 57, 22 February (Jambusar), ibid., vol. 60, 7 February 1887 (Bandora).

  18. For other renditions of this theme, see: Bhai Aya Singh, Jubilee prakash athwa Sri Bhartesuri da sankhep samachar (Jubilee Sketch of Queen Victoria) (Lahore: Muifid-i-Am Press, 1889), QLB (Punjab); Behram Dosabhai Basla, Poem for the Children for the Jubilee of the Queen-Empress Victoria (Godhra: Nathabjai Lalubhai, 1887), QLB (Bombay); Pandit Lalchand, Jubilee pramodika, or the Jubilee Rejoicings (Bombay: Bhimsi Manak, 1887), QLB (Bombay). For criticism of government interference in the wording of addresses: Sahachar, 23 February 1887, NNR (Bengal), L/5/13, 250–1.

  19. Madras Standard, 22 June 1887, 4; Hara Devi, Landan-jubili (Lahore: Imperial Press, 1888); Bombay Gazette, 21 June 1887, 5; ‘A Brief Account of the Action Taken in Connection with the Celebrations of the Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen Empress in the Various Centres in the Presidency of Bombay’, 7 July 1887’, MSA, Pol. Proceedings (1887), vol. 64, 12, 26, 79 (pandals, arches and palanquin processions).

  20. For examples of this in Kathiawar (Bombay), see: Charles Wodehouse to William Wedderburn, 16 April 1887, MSA, Pol. Proceedings (1887), vol. 63, 190. And in Madras: Lawson, Narrative of the Celebration of the Jubilee . . . in the Presidency of Madras, 1–3.

  21. ToI, 1 March 1887, 4.

  22. ToI, 21 February 1887, 7; Cross to Dufferin, 17 February 1887, IOR Mss Eur. E243/17, fol. 382.

  23. ‘A Brief Account of . . . the Celebrations of the Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen Empress . . . in the Presidency of Bombay’, 3, 15.

  24. Duchess of Connaught to Queen Victoria, 4 February 1887, Duke of Connaught to Queen Victoria, 17 February 1887, RA VIC/MAIN/Z/182/9, 13.

  25. For a list of the addresses and gifts from India, see: Celebration of Her Majesty’s Jubilee, 1887 (London: privately printed, 1887), 136–50; ToI, 19 February 1887, 5 (message from the viceroy); RA VIC/MAIN/F/45/45 (Sanskrit and Telugu tributes sent onto the queen) ibid., RA VIC/MAIN/F/45/48–77 (addresses sent onto the queen). A selection of the 1887 addresses are at IOR G55, 1–10; Dufferin to Queen Victoria, 28 February 1887, Dufferin papers, PRONI, D1071/H/MI/I, no. 63.

  26. ‘List of Feudatory Chiefs who are Expected to be in England on the Occasion of the . . . Jubilee, etc.’, IOR L/PS/18/D122. The other three Indian visitors were Kunwar Harnam Singh (the uncle of the Maharaja of Kapurthala), the Thakur of Limri and the Thakur of Gondal. For the presentation of the Cooch Behars at court, see: QVJl., 9 May 1887. For the queen’s request for the escort, see: Cross to Dufferin, 11 February 1887, IOR Mss Eur. F130/9, no. 6, and for details of the escort in England, see: IOR L/MIL/7/5767.

  27. Dufferin to Cross, 20 March 1887, IOR Mss Eur. F130/8a, fols 48–9; Cross to Dufferin, 22 April 1887, IOR Mss Eur. E243/17, fol. 91; Dufferin to Cross, 21 April 1887, IOR Mss Eur F130/8a, fols 68–70; Pol. Proceedings (1887), NAI, International B, 258–64 (‘thoroughly European’).

  28. Celebration of Her Majesty’s Jubilee, 11–12. The Indian guests are depicted in the far background of William Lockhart’s oil painting of the occasion (RCIN 404702).

  29. Celebration of Her Majesty’s Jubilee, 40, 69–74; QVJl., 27 June 1887, 2 July 1887, 14 July 1887; The Times, 15 July 1887, 11.

  30. For the history of the Imperial and Colonial Institute, see: William Golant, Image of Empire: The Early History of the Imperial Institute, 1887–1925 (Exeter: University of Exeter, 1984); John Mackenzie, ‘The Imperial Institute’, Round Table 302 (1987), 246–53; George Bremner, ‘“Some Imperial Institute”: Architecture, Symbolism and the Ideal of Empire in Late Victorian Britain, 1887–93’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 62 (2003), 50–74.

  31. The Times, 5 July 1887, 10.

  32. Report of the Late Organising Committee, Presented to the Permanent Governing Body (23rd July 1891), etc. (London: Waterlow and Sons, 1892), 9–10; School for Modern Oriental Studies Established in the Imperial Institute . . . Syllabus of Lectures (printed brochure), TNA PRO 30/76/13; Max Müller, School for Modern Oriental Studies Established by the Imperial Institute of the United Kingdom, the Colonies and India, in Union with University College and King’s College, London (London: Judd & Co., 1890). For the commercial guides, see: David Muddiman, ‘Information and Empire: The Information and Intelligence Bureaux of the Imperial Institute’ in Toni Weller (ed.), Information History in the Modern World: Histories of the Modern Age (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 108–29.

  33. For membership of the Governing Body, see: The Imperial Institute of the United Kingdom, the Colonies and India, etc. (London: Imperial Institute, 1892), 9. For the fall-off in funds: ToI, 3 September 1891, 4; Indian Daily News, 20 October 1891, 3.

  34. Report Presented to the First General Meeting of the Imperial Institute, etc. . . . November 26th 1892 (London: Waterlow and Sons, 1892), 12. For the donations of the Maharaja of Jaipur and Sir Cowasjee Jehangir, see: Imperial Institute, Finance Committee, Minutes, 29 July 1891, 2, 6 September 1893, 104, TNA PRO 30/76/2. For that of Bhavnagar, see: John McLeod, ‘Mourning, Philanthropy, and M. M. Bhownaggree’s Road to Parliament’ in John Hinnells and Alan Williams (ed.), Parsis in India and the Diaspora (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), 136–56.

  35. Moonshine, 20 May 1893, 234–5; Imperial Institute. Opening Ceremony, May 10th 1893 (printed circular), TNA HO45/9871/B14351; W. E. H. Lecky, The Empire, its Value and its Growth: An Inaugural Address Delivered at the Imperial Institute, November 20, 1893 (London: Longmans, Green 1893).

  36. For photographs of the Indian cavalry, see: The Sketch, 17 May 1893, 117. The Native Officer’s Diary. The Diary Kept by . . . Abdul Razzak of the 1st Madras Lancers, on his Guard of Honor Duty to the Empr
ess of India in the Imperial Institute (Madras: Higginbotham & Co., 1894).

  37. Daily Telegraph, 6 May 1893, 4; Graphic, 13 May 1893, 550; ibid., 25 November 1893, 651; ILN, 20 May 1893, 591; George Birdwood, ‘The Indian Metal Work Exhibition at the Imperial Institute’, Magazine of Art 16 (1893), 172–7.

  38. For its history see Gillian Evinson, The Orientalist, His Institute and the Empire: The Rise and Subsequent Decline of Oxford University’s Indian Institute (2004) available at: www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/27774/indianinstitutehistory.pdf (accessed 4 April 2018); Record of the Establishment of the Indian Institute in the University of Oxford, etc (Oxford: Horace Hart, 1897), 6–7.

  39. Herbert Sidebotham, ‘Labouchere, Henry Du Pré (1831–1912)’, rev. H. C. G. Matthew, ODNB.

  40. Truth, 18 March 1897, 651–2.

  41. Daily News, 29 July 1899, 6; The Times, 29 July 1899, 15.

  42. The diamond jubilee awaits a full history, but see: Edward Ellsworth, ‘Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and the British Press: The Triumph of Popular Imperialism’, Social Studies 56 (1966), 173–80; Jan Morris, Heaven’s Command: An Imperial Progress (London: Faber, 1973), ch. 27; Walter Arnstein, ‘Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee’, American Scholar 66 (1997), 591–8; Greg King, Twilight of Splendor: The Court of Queen Victoria during her Diamond Jubilee Year (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2007). The global reach of the celebrations beyond Britain and the Empire is conveyed in Willoughby Maycock, The Celebration in Foreign Countries of the Sixtieth Anniversary of Her Majesty’s Accession to the Throne (London: Harrison and Sons, 1897). For the telegram arrangements, see: QVJl., 22 June 1897; Hamilton to Elgin, 11 June 1897, IOR Mss Eur. C125/2, 1–2.