For 13 years, Queen Victoria wrote letters to Abdul Karim almost daily, sometimes several a day, in some fondly calling him “Dearest Munshi” and “your closest friend”. Shrabani Basu told BBC that on some occasions Queen Victoria even signed off her letters to Abdul Karim with a flurry of kisses.
Abdul Karim, a 24-year-old, tall and handsome Muslim from Agra worked as a clerk at Central Jail. He was sent to England during the Golden Jubilee celebrations to ‘wait tables’. Basu told the BBC the young Muslim was contemplating leaving his job soon after his employment began because it was “too menial” but the Queen successfully persuaded him not to.
The Queen gained a fondness for all things Abdul Karim; he once cooked curry for the Queen and she loved it so much that it remained on the royal menu for 13 years. She also asked Abdul Karim to become her Urdu teacher, taking daily lessons. She was then able to read and write Urdu. Now Abdul Karim became her ‘Munshi’ (teacher).
In 1888 she had written to Sir Theodore Martin that “Munshi is an excellent, clever, truly pious and very refined gentleman, who says ‘God ordered it’, God’s orders is what they implicitly obey. Such faith as theirs and such conscientiousness sets us a great example”. An original letter (from Dr Farhan Asrar’s collection) written by the Queen’s secretary Sir Ponsonby to Sir Stanley Lane Poole thanking him for the speeches and table talk on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) he gave to the Queen, shows her interest in Islam.
The Queen looked after Abdul Karim when he had a boil on his neck. Her personal physician Dr Reid was called to attend to him. Dr Reid wrote “Queen was visiting Abdul Karim twice daily in his room taking Hindustani lessons, signing her boxes, examining his neck, smoothing his pillows, etc”. He thought it was ‘Munshimania’.
The Queen expressed her admiration for Munshi by giving him cottages, expensive gifts, honours, his own horse-drawn carriage and driver, etc. In one of Queen’s letters to Abdul Karim she writes “The long letter I enclose (separately) which was written nearly a month ago is entirely and solely my own idea not a human being will ever know of it or what you answer me.If you can’t read (referring to her hand-writing) I will help you and then burn it at once”.
I have always wondered what she must have written to him that she wanted to be burnt after reading. She had also written to the Duchess of Connaught “I am so very fond of him, he is so good and gentle and understanding”.
Munshi was then promoted to become Indian Secretary to the Queen. The Queen took him on her visits and vacations in Europe; this proximity along with her trust for him caused great friction and jealousy. Ponsonby, Col Bigge, Dr Reid and others tried turning the Queen against Munshi with insinuating comments about his social status in India, finances and even his health but the Queen considered it to be racial prejudice and called it “shameful”. According to the BBC once someone had tried to say ill about Abdul Karim and the Queen angrily responded “this is typical of you British”.
Bonhams’ 2008 catalogue mentions the Queen “recognised that their racist attitude would leave him vulnerable after her death so she made provisions for him in her will”. She asked the Viceroy to arrange some land for him in Agra. The Viceroy reluctantly made the arrangements but wrote back mentioning another man who during the 1857 mutiny had helped blow up the Kashmiri Gate in Delhi at the risk of his life had received land yielding of 250 rupees for life and Abdul Karim was receiving double the amount. The Queen had also given instructions that Munshi be given the honour of being among the principal mourners at her funeral.
Queen Victoria died on January 22nd 1901. Abdul Karim was the last person to see the Queen before her casket was closed.With the Queen’s passing, the royals were able to take revenge on the man they resented but whom the Queen stubbornly defended. Queen Alexandra along with guards banged the doors of Abdul Karim’s cottage, asking to bring correspondence pertaining to him and the Queen and burnt it in a bonfire. Munshi and his wife stood helplessly watching the lovingly written words of the Queen being consumed by fire. King Edward immediately ordered Munshi to be sent back to India.
Even after Munshi’s return to India, King Edward continued to be infatuated with their correspondence and kept ordering raids on Munshi’s house in Agra, one even after Munshi’s death. Viceroy Minto and staff disapproved of the raid and recommended the seized papers be returned to Abdul Karim’s widow.
Munshi never boasted or told anyone about his friendship with the Queen as it could have embarrassed her memory. Perhaps he wanted that bond only to be known to him and the Queen Empress of India. This friendship only came to light in recent times not due to Munshi but through royal archives and Frederick Ponsonby’s published memoirs. Munshi’s relatives in India and Karachi insist it was a mother-son relationship.
Munshi did not live long after the Queen’s death. He died in 1909 at the age of 46. Abdul Karim had written in his diary “I pray to the Almighty for the richest blessings to be showered down on our good Queen Empress”.
—The writer is based in Ontario, Canada