Abdul Karim (1863-1909), a clerk from Agra, joined Queen Victoria’s household in 1887, and rapidly won her affection. She made him her secretary responsible for Indian correspondence, and over the years learned a good deal of Hindustani from him. He came to be known as her ‘munshi’ (or teacher). A new film represents the relationship between them as a kind of model of 21st century racial and social equality. Alistair Lexden took issue with this ludicrous portrayal in a letter to The Daily Telegraph. Although due to appear in the paper in early August, in the event publication took place on this website alone on 2 August so that another letter on a quite different subject could become his August contribution to The Telegraph (the paper normally rations him to one letter a month).
Dear Sir
Shrabani Basu is wrong to depict the relationship between Queen Victoria and her Indian Muslim attendant, Abdul Karim, as a beautiful friendship between two people who came to think of themselves as equals (“A royal friendship erased from history”, 22 July). It is absurd that they should appear in the forthcoming film strolling together as a happy couple through the sunshine at Osborne. The elderly, lame monarch needed his constant assistance to get around. He performed this duty (and many others) with grave formality.
She spoilt him outrageously. Her gifts included three houses and some 100,000 rupees for his family in India. Wholly lacking in charm, he alienated everyone in royal circles along with the cabinet ministers who came his way (just like John Brown before him). Her other Indian servants told the Queen “he was a very bad man” and went home. His private life was not unblemished. Victoria was “greatly taken aback” when the royal doctor, Sir James Reid, informed her in 1897 that Karim was suffering from severe gonorrhoea.
Nothing, however, could shake her devotion to him. India fascinated her and Karim was her link to it. Soon after he entered her service, this remarkable woman, who was completely without racial prejudice, noted in her journal: “I am learning a few words of Hindustani. It is a great interest to me for both the language and the people, I have naturally never come into real contact with before”.
Yours faithfully
Lord Lexden
London SW1