Royalty - Queen Victoria with servant Abdul Karim 1893 photo on NPG postcard

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Queen Victoria (1819-1901) and her servant Abdul Karim - photo by Hills and Saunders, 1893
• Publisher:  National Portrait Gallery, c.1980s
• Postally used:  no - has date purchased written on it (1989)
• Stamp:  no
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• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died, leaving no legitimate, surviving children. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments. Publicly, she became a national icon, and was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the nickname ""the grandmother of Europe"". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.

Her reign of 63 years and seven months, which is longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history, is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. Her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father.

Hafiz Mohammed Abdul Karim CIE, CVO (1863–1909) (Hindi: ??????? ??????? ?????? ????, Urdu: ???? ???? ??? ???????) known as ""the Munshi"", was an Indian Muslim attendant of Queen Victoria. He served her during the final fifteen years of her reign, gaining her maternal affection over that time.

Karim was born near Jhansi in British India, the son of a hospital assistant. In 1887, Victoria's Golden Jubilee year, Karim was one of two Indians selected to become servants to the Queen. Victoria came to like him a great deal and gave him the title of ""Munshi"", an Urdu word often translated as ""clerk"" or ""teacher"". Victoria appointed him her Indian Secretary, showered him with honours, and obtained a land grant for him in India.

The close platonic relationship between Karim and the Queen led to friction within the Royal Household, the other members of which felt themselves to be superior to him. The Queen insisted on taking Karim with her on her travels, which caused arguments between her and her other attendants. Following Victoria's death in 1901, her successor, Edward VII, returned Karim to India and ordered the confiscation and destruction of the Munshi's correspondence with Victoria. Karim subsequently lived quietly near Agra, on the estate that Victoria had arranged for him, until his death at the age of 46.

...

After a journey by rail from Agra to Bombay and by mail steamer to Britain, Karim and Buksh arrived at Windsor Castle in June 1887.^[10] They were put under the charge of Major-General Dennehy and first served the Queen at breakfast in Frogmore House at Windsor on 23 June 1887. The Queen described Karim in her diary for that day: ""The other, much younger, is much lighter [than Buksh], tall, and with a fine serious countenance. His father is a native doctor at Agra. They both kissed my feet.""^[11]

Five days later, the Queen noted that ""The Indians always wait now and do so, so well and quietly.""^[12] On 3 August, she wrote: ""I am learning a few words of Hindustani to speak to my servants. It is a great interest to me for both the language and the people, I have naturally never come into real contact with before.""^[13] On 20 August she had some ""excellent curry"" made by one of the servants.^[14] By 30 August Karim was teaching her Urdu,^[15] which she used during an audience in December to greet the Maharani Chimnabai of Baroda.^[16]

Victoria took a great liking to Karim and ordered that he was to be given additional tuition in the English language.^[17] By February 1888 he had ""learnt English wonderfully"" according to Victoria.^[18] After he complained to the Queen that he had been a clerk in India and thus menial work as a waiter was beneath him,^[19][20] he was promoted to the position of ""Munshi"" in August 1888.^[21] In her journal, the Queen writes that she made this change so that he would stay: ""I particularly wish to retain his services as he helps me in studying Hindustani, which interests me very much, & he is very intelligent & useful.""^[22] Photographs of him waiting at table were destroyed and he became the first personal Indian clerk to the Queen.^[23] Buksh remained in the Queen's service, but only as a khidmatgar or table servant,^[24] until his death at Windsor in 1899.^[25]

According to Karim biographer Sushila Anand, the Queen's own letters testify that ""her discussions with the Munshi were wide-ranging—philosophical, political and practical. Both head and heart were engaged. There is no doubt that the Queen found in Abdul Karim a connection with a world that was fascinatingly alien, and a confidant who would not feed her the official line.""^[26] Karim was placed in charge of the other Indian servants and made responsible for their accounts. Victoria praised him in her letters and journal. ""I am so very fond of him"" she wrote, ""He is so good & gentle & understanding all I want & is a real comfort to me.""^[27] She admired ""her personal Indian clerk & Munshi, who is an excellent, clever, truly p[i]ous & very refined gentle man, who says, 'God ordered it' ... God's Orders is what they implicitly obey! Such faith as theirs & such conscientiousness set us a gt. example.""^[28] At Balmoral Castle, the Queen's Scottish estate, Karim was allocated the room previously occupied by John Brown, a favourite servant of the Queen's who had died in 1883.^[29] Despite the serious and dignified manner that Karim presented to the outside world, the Queen wrote that ""he is very friendly and cheerful with the Queen's maids and laughs and even jokes now—and invited them to come and see all his fine things offering them fruit cake to eat"".^[30]

In November 1888, Karim was given four months' leave to return to India, during which time he visited his father. Karim wrote to Victoria that his father, who was due to retire, had hopes of a pension and that his former employer, John Tyler, was angling for promotion. As a result, throughout the first six months of 1889, Victoria wrote to the Viceroy of India, Lord Lansdowne, demanding action on Waziruddin's pension and Tyler's promotion. The Viceroy was reluctant to pursue the issues because Waziruddin had told the local governor, Sir Auckland Colvin, that he desired only gratitude and also because Tyler had a reputation for tactless behaviour and bad-tempered remarks.^[31][32]

Karim's swift rise began to create jealousy and discontent among the members of the Royal Household, who would normally never mingle socially with Indians below the rank of prince. The Queen expected them to welcome Karim, an Indian of ordinary origin, into their midst; they were not willing to do so.^[30] Karim, for his part, expected to be treated as an equal. When Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), hosted an entertainment for the Queen at his home in Sandringham on 26 April 1889, Karim found he had been allocated a seat with the servants. Feeling insulted, he retired to his room. The Queen took his part, stating that he should have been seated among the Household.^[33] When the Queen attended the Braemar Games in 1890, her son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, approached the Queen's private secretary Sir Henry Ponsonby in outrage after he saw the Munshi among the gentry. Ponsonby suggested that as it was ""by the Queen's order"", the Duke should approach the Queen about it.^[34] ""This entirely shut him up"", noted Ponsonby.^[35]

Victoria biographer Carolly Erickson described the situation:

The rapid advancement and personal arrogance of the Munshi would inevitably have led to his unpopularity, but the fact of his race made all emotions run hotter against him. Racialism was a scourge of the age; it went hand in hand with belief in the appropriateness of Britain's global dominion. For a dark-skinned Indian to be put very nearly on a level with the queen's white servants was all but intolerable, for him to eat at the same table as them, to share in their daily lives was viewed as an outrage. Yet the queen was determined to impose harmony on her household. Race hatred was intolerable to her, and the ""dear good Munshi"" deserving of nothing but respect.^[36]

When complaints were brought to her, Victoria refused to believe any negative comments about Karim.^[37] She dismissed concerns about his behaviour, deemed high-handed by Household and staff, as ""very wrong"".^[38] In June 1889, Karim's brother-in-law, Hourmet Ali, sold one of Victoria's brooches to a jeweller in Windsor. She accepted Karim's explanation that Ali had found the brooch and that it was customary in India to keep anything that one found, whereas the rest of the Household thought Ali had stolen it.^[39] In July, Karim was assigned the room previously occupied by Dr (later Sir) James Reid, Victoria's physician, and given the use of a private sitting room.^[40]

The Queen, influenced by the Munshi, continued to write to Lord Lansdowne on the issue of Tyler's promotion and the administration of India. She expressed reservations on the introduction of elected councils on the basis that Muslims would not win many seats because they were in the minority, and urged that Hindu feasts be re-scheduled so as not to conflict with Muslim ones. Lansdowne dismissed the latter suggestion as potentially divisive,^[41] but appointed Tyler Acting Inspector General of Prisons in September 1889.^[42]

To the Household's surprise and concern, during Victoria's stay at Balmoral in September 1889, she and Karim stayed for one night at a remote house on the estate, Glassalt Shiel at Loch Muick. Victoria had often been there with Brown and after his death had sworn never to stay there again.^[42] In early 1890, Karim fell ill with an inflamed boil on his neck and Victoria instructed Reid, her physician, to attend to Karim.^[43] She wrote to Reid expressing her anxiety and explaining that she felt responsible for the welfare of her Indian servants because they were so far from their own land.^[44] Reid performed an operation to open and drain the swelling, after which Karim recovered.^[44] Reid wrote on 1 March 1890 that the Queen was ""visiting Abdul twice daily, in his room taking Hindustani lessons, signing her boxes, examining his neck, smoothing his pillows, etc.""^[45]

type=printed

subject=royal figure - women

period=post-war (1945-present)

postage condition=unposted

number of items=single

size=continental/ modern (150x100 mm)

county/ country=england