Free Victoria & Abdul by Shrabani Basu Page A

War in 1849, and seized the prized Koh-i-Noor as war booty. The young Prince was torn from his mother’s side and exiled to Britain where he arrived in 1854 at the age of fifteen. He had become a Christian. Whether out of guilt or a genuine motherly instinct, the Queen became his guardian. Duleep Singh formally presented her with the Koh-i-Noor. Victoria felt the young Prince looked sad and vulnerable and became a mother figure to him, allowing him to wear his native clothes. Fascinated by Duleep Singh’s good looks, she had him painted in all his princely finery at the age of fifteen by Francis Xavier Winterhalter. Over three decades later, the Queen was taking the young Abdul Karim under her wing. She was soon to have portraits of Karim painted by Von Angeli and Rudolph Swoboda.
    Despite being devoted to the Queen as a young boy, Duleep Singh had grown up and rebelled against her, wanting to be recognised as the sovereign ruler of Punjab and demanding the return of the Koh-i-Noor. While at Balmoral, the Queen received further bad news from Duleep Singh, and she recorded:

    The unfortunate Maharajah Duleep Singh has published a most violent crazy letter, speaking of being ‘the lawful sovereign of the Sikhs’ and ‘England’s implacable foe’. I heard this evening that his poor abandoned wife, the Maharanee Bamba, had died quite suddenly yesterday. I feel terrible for the poor children who are quite fatherless and motherless. 8

    To Karim, the actions of Duleep Singh were deplorable and he sympathised with the Queen in her moment of sorrow. To the Household, Duleep Singh’s conduct was another reason for the Queen not to be indulgent with Abdul Karim and grant him special favours.
    Karim was not aware of the Household’s early wariness of him. He remained close to the Queen and asked her many questions of his own. She told him about her family, her grandchildren and the relations in Europe. The Queen reminisced about Albert and thehappy times they had spent in Balmoral. Karim saw the statues of John Brown that the Queen had erected in Balmoral and learnt about the Highland servant who had been so close to her. He told her about his extended family, his father, wife, brother and sisters. In the slight chill of the September days, Karim and the Queen got to know each other better. In less than two months he had mastered reading Queen Victoria’s handwriting, which at most times defeated even the patient Ponsonby. The Queen started writing to him directly instead of giving instructions through her Household.
    In a letter to Reid she said: ‘You might I think see Abdul alone to give him this letter which I think he will be able to read. Good kind Mahomet I will read those few words to myself.’ Clearly Buksh had not benefited from his lessons as much as Karim.
    The Queen, always interested in Indian affairs, now pressed her Viceroy for more news. She also wondered if she could have some Indian troops around her permanently and wrote to Lord Cross, the Secretary of State for India, who in turn asked the Viceroy: ‘Would it not clash with the Mutiny Act?’ 9 She began discussing India with her ministers and the Indian Princes who called on her. One of her frequent visitors was the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, who visited her again in Balmoral, brightening up the bleak castle with his sparkling jewellery and embroidered tunics. The Queen found the Maharajah ‘very amiable’, 10 as he described to her the thrill of a tiger hunt. The Thakore of Morvi, who had presented the Queen with his special horse at Windsor, left from London in mid-November after having fulfilled his desire to see a London fog. ‘He had one yesterday, to his heart’s content. It was horrible,’ 11 a cynical Cross informed the Viceroy. Most of the Indian Royalty had left before the onset of winter and they had all expressed their satisfaction at the Jubilee celebrations, much to the relief of the British administration.
    Despite his closeness to