Victoria & Abdul (36 page)

A year later, the Queen wrote to Lord Rowton:

Lord Salisbury had a very satisfactory conversation with the Muslim Rafiuddin Ahmed, whose loyalty is now beyond all doubt and uncertainty and the contrary which was believed 2 years ago by some of the ill-disposed and misinformed people at the India Office and elsewhere and was eagerly believed and used against the poor shamefully used Munshi.
⁷

Nothing was unearthed on Rafiuddin and the accusations against him gradually fizzled out. It was clear that the whole business had been a case of overreaction and an attempt to discredit the Munshi.

The Munshi affair seemed, for the time being, to be under control. The Household had begun to accept that they could do nothing about him during the Queen’s lifetime and were prepared to draw up a secret plan with the police chief to deal with him after her death. Meanwhile, the Munshi travelled to Balmoral and invited the usual media attention. On 23 May 1898, the
Aberdeen Journal
reported the ‘Arrival of Queen’s Indian Secretary’ to Balmoral.

The Queen’s Indian secretary, Munshi Hafiz Abdul Karim, arrived in Aberdeen station from Windsor in a special saloon carriage by the 7.15 West Coast route train, and after having been served with breakfast in the carriage by Mr McDonald, station refreshment rooms, left by the 8.05 train for Ballater.

While at Balmoral, the Queen, with the Munshi, watched a performance of Lord George Sanger’s Circus Company, which featured the elephant ‘Prince’ on which Prince Albert Edward rode through India. The local newspaper reported that the Queen was ‘exuberant and laughed at the clown’s jokes’. Karim was also invited to the opera
Romeo et Juliet
by the Royal Opera Company from Covent Garden at Windsor Castle on 27 June, according to
The Times
newspaper.

The Queen had finished her eleventh Hindustani Journal that year. Karim wrote the end-piece in Urdu. For the first time he noted the hostility he had faced in Court.

Thanks to God that today this book No 11 of Her Majesty’s lesson in Hindustani was completed well and nicely, which is a small sign of her exalted honour and dignity. And Her Majesty’s readiness and interest in this Urdu language is evident as fondness for it did not cease in the face of contentions and difficulties which I have often faced since the previous year because of the persons jealous of me. Since the charges have no stability and firmness, they faced humiliation. By God’s grace, Her Majesty enjoyed good health during this period except for occasional complaints of indigestion which was cured by administering purgatives. Though Her Majesty did not like that but had no choice and agreed to it. The demise of Duchess of Teck [mother of Princess May of Teck, later to become Queen Mary] and especially His Highness the Prince of Wales’s hurting himself in a fall were sad, otherwise there was peace and safety in all respects. In this very auspicious month, the future destiny of India began to take shape. After much effort and search, Mr Curzon, was appointed the new Viceroy of India. May God show His mercy and everything may end well! Amen! Humbly Abdul Karim, 13th August 1898.
⁸

The Munshi left for India at the end of the year, mainly with the aim of sorting out the purchase of his land in Agra. He had been negotiating the sale for over a year, having identified a large plot of land adjacent to what the Queen had gifted him in 1890. The land consisted of 147 acres, three roads and ten poles in the Mauza Sarai in the heart of Agra, close to the jail where his father worked.
⁹
Several letters had been exchanged, as the land was considered government land and the formalities had to be dealt with by the Collector of Agra. The Munshi had paid Rs 7,032 for the land early in 1897 and was liable for the land revenue of Rs 335 per annum with immediate effect. However, the deeds took a long time to get finalised. On completion, he showed a clever head for figures, asking to be relieved of some of the taxes that would be assessed then or in the future as he had paid the full amount two years back on a high interest loan, but had not been able to benefit from the yearly profits from the land in that period.

The polite request was immediately agreed to, as it was considered very reasonable. The handwritten letter from Balmoral reveals the progress the Munshi had made in English as it was flawless. Karim was eventually handed the papers at the end of 1898 and joined the ranks of Agra’s landed classes.
¹⁰
So famous was the Queen’s Munshi that he apparently considered keeping a guestbook at his home in Agra, but soon abandoned the idea.

When the registration forms entered his name as the son of ‘Munshi Waziruddin, Khan Bahadur’, Karim immediately wrote to the Collector of Agra: ‘Please note that my father’s name should be written either Dr Waziruddin or Mahommed Waziruddin &
not
Munshi.’ He remained proud and fussy about the title given to him by the Queen. The final land deed was made in the name of ‘Munshi Hafiz Abdul Karim, C.I.E, Her Majesty the Queen’s Munshi’.
¹¹

When the Munshi arrived in Nice in April 1899, a French newspaper referred to him as ‘Le Prince’. It also said the ‘Prince Munshi’ was very well known in Nice where he visited every year with Queen Victoria.

The Queen was calmer now, the rebellions she felt had been contained, and she knew Karim had a secure future after her death. She took her Hindustani lessons in the landscaped gardens
of the Hotel Regina and in her favourite donkey chair which always travelled with her. The French were used to seeing the two together. While in Cimiez, the Queen received the news that Mohammed Buksh had fallen seriously ill and died in Windsor on 24 April. Buksh had come with Karim to England for the Jubilee and remained an attendant while Karim had moved upwards. He had been ‘the stout and jovial one’, who had meticulously served his Queen, never once complaining that he had not been hand-picked by her for further promotions as Karim had been. Some years ago, Buksh had been devastated by the death of his young daughter. The Queen remembered how he had broken down and wailed in front of her and she had tried to console him. The Queen knew how heartbreaking it was to lose a loved one. Karim, too, felt the loss of Buksh, a man with whom he had shared the excitement and thrill of travelling to England for the first time, and who had been one of the few who had remained remarkably free of jealousy towards him.

Article in a French newspaper showing the French referring to Karim as
Le Prince
.

The Queen’s eightieth birthday passed in a sea of celebration, following as it did just two years after her Diamond Jubilee. In India the occasion was marked by the issue of a special medal of honour, the
Kaiser-e-Hind
medal, and the Queen took a keen interest in the recipients of the honour. The Munshi gave her a brass jar decorated with scrolling foliage and a handmade card. Despite opposition from the Household, the Queen honoured the Munshi with the CVO (Commander of the Victorian Order).

On 29 May 1899, five days after her birthday, Karim made one of the lengthiest entries in the Hindustani Journal. The three-page entry, written in Urdu, was a record of his time at the Court and a frank assessment of the attitudes towards him. It was almost as if it was written for posterity, secretly recorded in the Journal to which only his Queen and he had access.

Sir Henry [ponsonby] died and after him there is no one who can be called your adviser or who can be said to be a worker as per your dictate, in the same manner as he was. Once he died, the persons jealous of me got a chance to defame. But all such persons had to repent and fall down just in the same way as their thoughts were mean. I have often heard you telling the stories of Henry Ponsonby and this too that he was more attached to the city of Delhi.

It is due to him that you have so many other well meaning servants, for example William Sahib etc. Otherwise, in this cunning world, really well meaning servants are few and far between. This is why none of your work or assignments have come to a halt. It is just another thing that it is too difficult to create a place for oneself in your heart. But still, if you have more faith on and believe more in the servants of other nation; then it is certainly a result of your Highness’ inborn certitude and great faith.

Today, you are 80 and still your health, by the grace of God is better than youths. You take good meals and there is no change in the daily life of yours; it goes on as ever. Your morning and evening outings have stopped just for now and you travel just a little less. Nevertheless, your health and sight is still excellent by the grace of God. Because having such a nice health despite such exercising work and tensions of so many nations and issues of capital, can be nothing but a grace of God.

Apart from above-mentioned blessings, your highness is blessed with one more thing and that is wisdom and fine senses or alertness. So on this date, I would like to end this letter with a good wish that you may be graced by one hundred years and may always enjoy further happiness with your family. Also, like to thank God, that since you have punished those who were jealous of me, I would not be forced to face them. May God, make your sense of justice more and more robust day by day.

The Munshi did not end there, however. He seemed to be in full flow and continued for another two pages:

But there has been an increase in jealousy and prejudice against Muslims and Islam; and in comparison with other religions, they [Muslims] have suffered greater pain and losses. Apart from this after 28 years, people of Sudan have been made part of some other nation.

Again in 1891–98, you defeated the jealousy and pride of my enemies and they got nothing but humiliation and remorse. Nevertheless, I would now like to tell something about myself unto you, the Queen of India (Kaiser-e-Hind).

You are wholly honest, good and truthful. I was given a chance to serve you despite the fact that hundreds of others are always eager to serve you. You have been gracious enough to take me
in your service. And have been gracious during all these years. I swear that you are entirely a truthful and solemn personality. Your name will always be there, and more particularly from the time your rule was established in India.