QUEEN Victoria (1819-1901), the queen of the United Kingdom, who had assumed the title of the Empress of India as well in 1876 (hence Karachi’s Empress Market), had been learning Urdu for about 13 years from Munshi Abdul Karim, an Indian Muslim.
Abdul Karim was from Agra and went to England in 1887. At that time he was 24 and was sent to deliver the ‘mohar’, or the seal, prepared in India to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee of her accession to the throne. Charmed by his personality and exotic tales from the east, Queen Victoria employed Abdul Karim as a servant and soon promoted him to the post of a munshi. Much to the displeasure of the establishment managing the royal affairs, known as the Household, Abdul Karim became one of her most trusted men who not only made her love curry, but also taught her to read and write Urdu. He taught the Queen Urdu for about 13 years and returned to India after she died in 1901. At times, the Queen’s fascination with the munshi was thought to be “scandalous” by some, though at that time she was almost 68 and signed her letters to him as “Your loving mother”.
This interesting story was dug up by Shrabani Basu and narrated in her book Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant (2010). Though the British movie Victoria & Abdul, based on the book, has received some very dismal reviews, some of the critics have praised it, too. Nominated for many awards and winning a couple of them, the movie was dubbed by some naysayers as an endeavour to whitewashing the British and cover up the brutalities of the colonialism. But others thought the book was “fascinating” and “well-researched”. So, in a way, it has won accolades and disapprovals in almost equal measures. But one feels that it is one of those cases we often hear about: the book was better than the movie.