Victoria and Abdul

I am a self confessed history geek that loves nothing better than to get into a story from the past that not only has as much relevance to today’s context  as it did when it first made an appearance but was a trendsetter in terms of policy, attitude and thoughts then as it actually does now.

Few however have managed to tick all the boxes for me apart from the story of ‘Victoria & Abdul’.  When I first came across the book ‘Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s closest confidant’ written by Shrabani Basu, it was more of an innocent interest of a historical story that made me venture in, but by the time I was finished, I was convinced that this was something greater.  It is what prompted me to convince our organisation to have it as the launch of our new Cordoba Heritage Series on the 10^th of May 2012.

For those of us who have at one stage or another studied Victorian history, this is a relatively unknown story.

In June 1887 two Indian servants were sent to Queen Victoria as a present for her Golden Jubilee. One was the 24-year-old Abdul Karim.   Young Karim immediately caught the Queen’s eye and was rapidly promoted to become her Indian Secretary in 1894. He cooked her curries, became her Hindustani tutor and delighted the elderly Queen with his stories about India, especially as she had not visited the sub continent despite having the grand title of ‘Empress of India’, and soon became the lonely monarch’s closest companion.

She honoured him with titles, gave him houses in Windsor, Balmoral and Osborne and extensive land in Agra.   However this relationship did not go down well with the strict hierarchical world of the royal household.  They were not only opposed to the idea of a servant being catapulted into such prominence by the Queen’s side but were also scandalised by his race. At a time of great flux for the British Empire in India, the idea that there was an Indian advising the Queen ‘on Indian politics’ became unacceptable and rumours started to circulate that Abdul Karim was passing the Queen inflammatory advice about India and that he was a spy leaking sensitive and secret foreign policy information.

On the eve of her diamond jubilee her family and courtiers even threatened to declare her insane in a bid to quash a potentially scandalous relationship.  However despite these objections, the Queen stood by Abdul Karim, even accusing her household of racial prejudice, till her last days, refusing to let him go.  When she died in 1901, he was the final person to see her before she was buried and walked behind her funeral casket as her orders.  However with her death, Abdul Karim became an ostracised man and was immediately exiled back to India, with members of the royal household marching into Abdul Karim’s home, seizing all items bearing the royal crest and burning all his letters from the Queen.  He would die eight years later at the age of 46, a largely broken man in virtual obscurity, a far cry from the times he was the most recognised member of Queen Victoria’s household.  In the partition that would follow the independence of India in 1947, his descendants would be forced to move to Pakistan where they were relatively unknown and the story of Abdul Karim would be forgotten from their history, until Shrabani found them whilst doing research for her book.  Now his mausoleum in Agra, India is being catered for by his great grandson and the story has since made the public sphere in the UK in the past few weeks with an article in one of the tabloids and a documentary on TV and the rights being sold by the author for a movie to be made.

Victoria & Abdul is not only the story of an unusual relationship between the Empress of India and a humble servant which flourished at a time when the British Empire was at its height but it allows us a glimpse at the narrative of the British empire and their attitude towards their subjects which provides the foundation for much of our heritage and legacy today.  

Queen Victoria was definitely a pioneer in her fight for equality against racism and status.   What makes the story even more interesting is that for the last 10 years of her life, her bodyguards and servants were all Indian Muslim led by Abdul Karim.   The relationship between the crown and Islam could have been fractious given the socio political contexts of Crimea and the Ottoman empire, yet Queen Victoria was adamant on how she would approach the relationship with her Muslim subjects and the support she would give those under her rule.  This is an important message that transcends the history pages for today.

As the UK sets to celebrate only the second time in its history, the diamond jubilee of a reigning monarch, there are many similarities between that time and now.  There are problems in Europe and in relationships with the Muslim world, with Muslim citizens of the UK having a spotlight shone on them in terms of their loyalty.  The story of Victoria and Abdul shows that true friendship and loyalty transcends these boundaries of race, ethnicity and faith.  Yet for second and third generation Muslims in the UK and in Europe, the lesson from this story is that Islam has had a long, fractious but also healthy relationship (at the highest echelons of power), with mutual admiration and support being shown, with the UK (and Europe).  This is the heritage that we collectively have and must proudly propagate in the face of those who seek to be divisive.

This is what we at The Cordoba Foundation seek to do with our Cordoba Heritage Series which is aimed at exploring, understanding and appreciating our common heritage and creative legacy to offer solutions to difficult questions of identity and belonging in today's  'West'.  By exploring the shared history that acknowledges the many sources of western culture from the east, we recognise the history of empire as a history that belongs equally to all its heirs, of every race, faith and nation.  

It is about redefining the role of history as a dispassionate exploration of the past which supports entrenched positions and inhibits understanding looking at a more open minded approach to the writing of an intercultural history to modern Europe.   

It is in doing this study that we can establish a firm and secure identity for Europe and its second and third generation migrants.

An edited version of this was published on the British Council's Our Shared Future Blog