Victoria & Abdul (32 page)

T
he Queen's Diamond Jubilee was rapidly approaching. It would be ten years since Abdul Karim had joined her Court. The Queen remembered the first day he had presented himself, a shy youth of twenty-three with a serious expression on his face. He had now grown portly, the wealth and fine living in the Queen's palaces adding to his girth. The Queen gazed at the photograph of Karim hanging in her Dressing Room in Osborne House. He looked like a Prince in his turban and fine clothes. The studio had coloured in the black and white photograph, filling in the rich colours of his Indian clothes. It hung just below a photograph of John Brown and was placed near her dressing table. Above her bed was a photograph of her beloved Albert. The Queen had chosen to be surrounded by the memories of the men who had been closest to her in life.

In the ten years that Abdul Karim had been by her side, the Queen had travelled in a different world as the Empress of India. She could now talk to her Indian servants in Hindustani and even say a few words to the Indian Princes who visited her. She had tasted Indian food, learnt the language and endeared herself even more to her Indian subjects. The large number of Jubilee presents from Indian Princes, committees and individuals showed how the Queen was revered as a mother figure in India. Yet what should have been a glorious celebration for Victoria, in the achievement of her milestone Diamond Jubilee, was soured by the ‘Munshi affair'. The world outside witnessing the glorious Diamond Jubilee celebrations of an iconic Queen did not know the anxiety and distress that she was going through and the trouble brewing in her Court.

Karim began the year on a philosophical note. He recorded in his Journal:

The memorable year did not open well. The court was still in mourning so that no entertainment of any kind took place in January. The unpleasantness I remarked on last year still existed. There was trouble and disaster in many parts of the world. There was much trouble between Turkey and Greece who finally came to blows over the Cretan question. There was that terrible Bazaar fire in Paris in which so many people lost their lives. Then there was the plague and famine in India which have carried off their thousands and made thousands miserable. And yet as the world goes are not these the natural events we must expect? History repeats itself and troubles and disasters vary … We have all a battle to fight. Some fight for God and some for themselves, to some comes success, to others failure. Every individual, every family, every country – each has its own interest to serve, its own battles to fight and its own joys and sorrows.

All the tension in Court was clearly taking its toll, but Karim makes only a passing reference to it in his Journal. Neither does he once mention the names of James Reid with whom he was having almost daily meetings.

Having been persuaded against the knighthood for Karim, the Queen wanted to grant him the MVO (Member of the Royal Victorian Order) as a Jubilee honour, but this too brought her once again into a headlong clash with the India Office and her Household. A letter from Sir Fleetwood Edwards, Keeper of the Privy Purse, about the Munshi threw her into a rage and she wrote to Reid to inform Edwards that he could not treat the Munshi as a servant. Reid, as always, was her first stop for all complaints. She angrily sent him a copy of a memo drafted by the late Henry Ponsonby, in which he had clearly stated the position of the Munshi in the Household, and asked that it be forwarded to Edwards. The Queen wrote:

Though I certainly do not want to revive the subject wh. for 3 months has so painfully impressed me and upset my nerves and peace of mind and though I don't want you to give any message to Sir Edwards – but I think you shd. show him these papers. He
must see what I was afraid of and how wrong I think the conduct of others has been … after this they cannot attempt to treat him as a servant. It is impossible and wd. be a breach of faith with him and me. I send them to you and hope this is the last I shall hear of conduct in no way creditable. Yrs. truly VRI.
¹

The tension of the last few months had taken its toll on the Queen and she wrote to Reid that she was ‘feeling very tired and somewhat depressed'. The Queen felt she had so much to do, so many questions to answer and that she had no rest. The Queen by now was seventy-eight years old and her eyesight was failing her. She insisted that Fritz Ponsonby, who copied her telegrams for her, should use a darker ink as she could not read the letters. Her own handwriting had become a spidery scrawl and her letters and memos were consequently also difficult to read. Yet she unfailingly carried on her daily correspondence and her Hindustani lessons.

The Jubilee preparations were in full swing, with Indian Princes lining up to pay their respects to the Queen. Even Captain Ahmed Husain, who had been packed off to India because of his frequent complaints about the Munshi, had returned for the Jubilee. The Queen, characteristically generous, was happy to have him back. Ahmed told the Queen that he would like to stay back with her for some time.

Reid took centre-stage in the Munshi affair. With the Queen relying on him to find a solution, he had no choice in the matter. The doctor took Sir Pertab, ADC to the Prince of Wales, into his confidence and held further talks with Fleetwood Edwards, Davidson and Bigge. He advised the Queen that Davidson was so upset that he was thinking of resigning and warned her that she would lose ‘One of the very best men she has'. Bigge, meanwhile, declined the KCVO and tempers were frayed over the Queen's determination to give the Munshi the MVO.

The Queen continued to clash bitterly with Edwards, who had become a vociferous anti-Munshi campaigner. When he wrote to the Queen that a decision to honour Karim would be ‘most unfortunate', the Queen wrote another angry letter to Reid on 28 June saying she was very ‘indignant' at the ‘unnecessary letter from Sir F Edwards'. She said he threatened her in such a way that he almost made it impossible for her to do what she needed to do as she had given her word. ‘I think that I might have been spared this unkind and uncalled for expression,' she wrote. ‘This set at me makes my position a very painful and cruel one, and I really shall never get over it with the Gentlemen or the pain wh. it caused the poor Munshi.'
²
The elderly Queen said she was crushed and annoyed by the hatred and determination to ‘treat a man whom I have no reason not to trust', and that Edwards' attitude amounted to ‘a shameful and unjust interference'. The
Queen was clearly distraught. The constant confrontations with her Household were tiring her out and she felt they had begun to bully her.

The Queen's photo signed in Urdu by her (1899).

Karim wrote about the Jubilee celebrations in his Journal, praising the Queen who had always stood by him:

This year every nation will show its respect to England's aged Queen and strive with one another in warmly congratulating Her Majesty upon her long and happy life … Our Great Queen Empress has by her wisdom and justice during her long reign done a vast amount of good for the country and its people. Wisely, prudently, without prejudice and without regard to the differences of religion and race, the Queen rules with equal justice her millions of subjects. For this, Universal Love and Loyalty prevail throughout her dominions, thus making Her Majesty's reign the happiest, the most glorious and the most successful the world has ever seen.

As I commence this tenth year's account of my sojourn at Her Majesty's court I offer up a humble and earnest prayer that God bless Her Majesty with countless blessings and preserve her safely not only during this trying and momentous year but also for many years to come.

Jubilee Day passed with the customary processions and fanfare, and the Queen drove – as she had done for her Golden Jubilee – in an open landau to St Paul's Cathedral with the Princess of Wales and Princess Helena by her side. The sun was shining again as it had that day on 22 June 1887, and the Queen was moved to tears by the cheers and ovations from the crowds. The Indian Escort led her carriage, the sight of the colourful uniforms and turbans once again raising a cheer from the crowds. The Queen – despite her seventy-nine years – looked in fine form. She had now ruled longer than any other English sovereign, having overtaken the record of George III. Telegrams flooded in from all over the world. She was the grandmother of Europe and enjoyed a tremendous following both on the Continent and in the colonies. Despite a crippling famine in India, the native Princes came to London to participate in the Jubilee and brought exquisite presents. Many of them – the Maharajah of Kapurthala and the Thakore of Morvi – were now well known to the Queen. The women of the Empire presented a statue of Prince
Albert which had an inscription in Sanskrit and was installed in Windsor Great Park. The Queen was overcome with all the love and affection she received.

‘
Ham ko bahut khushi howi ke aaj sath sal bakhuriyat khatam howi. Sab bachche aur aligar bahut ikhlak se pesh ai
,' she recorded in her Hindustani Journal on 20 June. (I am very happy that I have finished sixty years well. All the children and the pageantries were very well presented.)
³

A day later she wrote: ‘
Aj hamari sawari ka jalsa bahut khoshi aur umdagi se khatam howa. Mausam bahut achcha tha
.' (Today my procession passed through the city and the celebrations ended with a lot of joy and happiness. The weather was very good.)

Karim too ended his Journal with the Jubilee celebrations. In an emotional outpouring he wrote:

With the month of June this account of ten years of my life is completed. To me the little book is like the Compound Perfume wherin are gathered and mixed together the scent of many different flowers: and as some flowers are fragrant and attractive and others are offensive, so some episodes in my life are joyous and others are sorrowful and unpleasant.

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.'