Victoria & Abdul (13 page)

The Queen’s favourite Indian Prince, the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, dropped in during the Christmas season to say goodbye before returning to India. Karim and Buksh had gotten quite accustomed to serving him and now knew his favourites. The Maharani had already turned back for India as she could not stand the cold.

The Queen went to bed on New Year’s Eve in a reflective mood. That night she wrote in her Journal:

The Jubilee time was so richly blessed, not one mishap or disturbance, not one bad day … Never, never can I forget this brilliant year, so full of the marvellous kindness, loyalty and devotion of so many millions, which really I could hardly have expected …
¹⁶

It had been a year of celebration and splendour and the Queen had been moved by the devotion of her servants. Her discovery of India, her Indian servants and her freshly acquired knowledge of Hindustani had all given her a new-found happiness. Looking
out of her window in Osborne, over the grounds she had walked with Albert and John Brown, she thought of the years past and what lay ahead. She was learning a new language and discovering a new culture. The Queen gave a satisfied sigh. The possibilities were endless.

K
arim felt a thrill of excitement as he took his first curtain call. Sitting in the front row, leading the clapping, was the Queen. He was on stage, wearing costume and make-up and performing before a select audience in Osborne House during the New Year celebrations. The tableau was the
Queen of Sheba
starring Princess Beatrice in the title role and Ponsonby as Solomon. Both Karim and Buksh were playing Indian servants.

Theatricals were an essential part of the festive season at Osborne. The Queen loved the shows. She would often drop in for the dress rehearsals, supervise the costumes and the back drops and even look at the scripts. Alick Yorke, the Queen’s equerry, was the director of these productions. Known for his easy wit and penchant for telling rude jokes, Yorke famously was the subject of one of the Queen’s classic reprimands. Once, during a dinner party at the Palace, he had whispered a rather risqué joke to a German guest seated next to him. When the Queen heard the laughter from the top of the table, she asked Yorke to repeat the joke. Though there were several ladies present at the table, Yorke repeated it for the Royal ear. Yorke’s joke immediately invited the famous Victorian one-liner: ‘We are not amused.’ The good-humoured equerry, however, took all this in his stride and concentrated on staging the Christmas plays before the Queen and her guests. The tableaux were very much a family affair; treading the boards were the Queen’s children and members of the Royal Household. Ponsonby dreaded dressing up for the performances, but the Queen’s enthusiasm for these evenings left him with no choice. Karim and Buksh also found themselves swallowed up in the costume extravaganza.

After the sound of a silver-toned bell, the dark red curtains parted disclosing the various groups.
Queen of Sheba
was the first tableau to open the 1888 season, with the Indians making their theatrical debut. They took their place in full costume standing behind Ponsonby’s King Solomon. Next was
Carmen
with Minnie Cochrane, lady-in-waiting to Princess Beatrice, playing the lead role. Prince Henry of Battenberg, Princess Beatrice’s husband, took on the role of Toreador, and Major Arthur Bigge played Don Jose. The third tableau –
Queen Elizabeth and Raleigh
– was performed by Princess Beatrice and her husband. All the tableaux were staged with elaborate backdrops and costumes and the Queen applauded heartily, congratulating each person individually. Karim and the other Indian servants were soon to take an active part in these tableaux, with Karim later getting a lead role in some. Visiting dignitaries and local families would often be present and Karim found it exciting to be on stage with the Royals. He had lost some of his initial reserve and shyness and could often be seen laughing and talking with the Queen’s maids.

In the family atmosphere of Osborne, the Queen treasured her moments with Karim. Yet Karim had informed General Dennehy that he wanted to return to India. Dennehy had said he was extremely sorry to hear about this and agreed to frame a petition to the Queen on Karim’s behalf. ‘I waited in dread anxiety to see what view our Kaiser-i-Hind would take of the matter,’ recorded Karim in his Journal.

On 5 January, the Queen replied to Karim.

General Dennehy has read me your petition. I am sorry you think you cannot remain permanently in my service, but I quite understand your motives and feel you are right. I only regret that you should never have been told before you came what you were expected to do.

I shall be sorry to part with you for I like and respect you, but I hope you wil remain till the end of this year or the beginning of the next that I may be able to learn enough Hindustani from you to speak a little. I shall gladly recommend you for a post in India which could be suitable for you and hope that you may be able to come and see me from time to time in England.

V.R.I.

[True copy signed T. Dennehy, Major General]

The Queen was relying more than ever on Karim. Her ever-increasing demands on his time, to attend to her boxes and correspondence and give her Hindustani lessons, left Buksh struggling to manage their regular tasks alone. Keen to relieve Karim from some of his menial duties, the Queen decided she needed reinforcements and ordered for more Indian servants to be brought to the Royal palaces. In February she wrote to her eldest daughter Victoria (Vicky), Princess Royal, and Empress of Germany:

I take a little lesson every evening in Hindustani and sometimes I miss writing by post in consequence. It is a great interest and amusement to me. Young Abdul (who is in fact
no
servant) teaches me and is a vy. strict Master, and a
perfect
Gentleman. He has learnt English wonderfully—and can now copy beautifully and with hardly any faults. He will I hope remain and be vy. useful in writing and looking after my books and things and a third is coming to wait at meals. Mahomed, the stout one, is going on 4 months leave to our great regret and the new one will arrive before he goes.

The Queen had decided that when Buksh returned, ‘Karim would no longer wait
at meals
wh. is what he feels a good deal’. She now felt that Abdul deserved to be elevated in rank from the other servants.

In March 1888 she recorded the arrival of another servant: ‘Have a new servant, called Ahmed Husain, a fine soldier-like looking man, very tall and thin.’ Other Indian servants who were soon added to the Queen’s services were Hourmet Ali, Abdul Hussain, Sheikh Ghulam Mustapha and Sheikh Chidda. The portly and cheerful Buksh immediately welcomed the newcomers and taught them the ropes. Karim was always more reserved, though he too was happy to have more Indian company and catch up with the news from back home. Nearly all the servants were from Agra.

The Indian servants could now be seen everywhere and formed a small coterie, enjoying cosy after-dinner chats by themselves. They became a familiar sight on the streets of Windsor as they wandered around on their days off, looking in at the shop windows and strolling along the river. Their colourful clothes and
turbans always set them apart and inevitably aroused curiosity among the locals. The Indians were given rooms in King John’s Tower in Windsor Castle. However, the regular staff at the castle refused to tidy their rooms and a charwoman came in from the town to clean their rooms every week. They were allowed to keep their own chickens, which could be seen running around the castle yard, as they were free to slaughter their own livestock and prepare their meals.

Karim remained the Queen’s favourite. He had a proud bearing and the Queen’s reliance on him increased every day. She had already started discussing the contents of some of her letters with Karim. He listened politely, sometimes offering his comments. The religious riots during Muharram continued to trouble him and he discussed it again with the Queen, pressing her gently to do something about it. She never tired of praising Karim to her children and her Household, and wrote to Reid:

I wish to observe with respect to Abdul that he has changed very much and though his manner may be grave and dignified he is very friendly and cheerful with the Queen’s maids and laughs and even jokes now – and invited them to come and see all his fine things, offering them fruit cake to eat … he is very handy and intelligent and obliging and is useful for his great knowledge of his own language and of course I am now quite accustomed and at home with him.
¹

The Queen’s favourite Indian Prince, the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, came visiting in March and she invested him with the Knight Grand Cross of the Indian Empire. She also met Duleep Singh’s children, Princesses Bamba, Catherine and Sophy and Prince Edward Duleep Singh, who called on her. Despite the indiscretions of their father, the Queen showed the utmost affection for the children. The Queen hosted the first Drawing Room of the year at Buckingham Palace and proudly wore the Koh-i-Noor as a brooch, revelling in her new-found knowledge of India.

Soon it was time for the annual trip to Europe. The Queen had decided that Karim and the other Indian servants would accompany her. She travelled
in cognito
as the Duchess of Balmoral when she went on her European trips. However, since her annual
departure was always reported in
The Times
newspaper, there was little secrecy about it. The entourage that left for Florence was particularly colourful as it included a band of newly arrived Indian servants dressed in their traditional clothes and turbans, who attracted large crowds at each station. The Household always marvelled at how the Indians managed to travel so light, carrying their things on board in a small cloth bundle, while they themselves struggled with several boxes. The Queen herself travelled with her entire paraphernalia, including the memos, souvenirs, medals, photographs, diaries, ink-pots and pens that usually cluttered her desk at Windsor, Balmoral and Osborne. In later years, her donkey went too as she often took a ride on the donkey cart. Boxes of food were carried from Windsor packed in special containers, looked after by the Indian servants and the Queen’s maids. It felt very much like a picnic.

The crossing took place from Portsmouth to Cherbourg on 22 March, the
Victoria and Albert
escorted by torpedo boats. The Queen spent the night on board at Cherbourg, not forgetting to have her Hindustani lessons with Abdul in the evening. These would continue no matter where the Queen was. Abdul had made a phrase book of everyday Urdu words for her and written them out in the Roman script. The red pocket-size book with gold edging contained words and phrases that the Queen would use with her Indian servants and visiting Royalty.

The words set out from A to Z included under A:

The phrases included a selection of everyday terms plus some intriguing sentences reflecting the Queen’s life in Court:

For the Indians it was their first trip to Europe. From Cherbourg, the Royal train took them to Florence, passing through the French countryside into Italy. The carriages were designed for maximum comfort. The day car consisted of a drawing room and a small compartment which was once used by John Brown and later by Karim. The sleeping car had a dressing room, bedroom and a compartment for light luggage where the maids slept on sofas. The Queen shared the bedroom with Beatrice; she occupied the large bed, while her daughter slept on the smaller one. The dressing room had a Japanese motif with the washstand covered in dark red Moroccan leather and toiletries made of white metal. The drawing room was luxurious, the walls covered with silk drapes in pale yellow brocade with the shamrock, rose and thistle. A dark Indian carpet lined the floor and the curtains were blue and white. The furniture was comfortably regal, consisting of a sofa, two armchairs and Louis XVI style footstools covered in blue silk with yellow fringes and tassels. Four lights suspended from the padded ceiling completed the look of ‘antiquated splendour’.
³