Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
Forget the Queen... God save me from the boring monotony of this book. I tried to read it several times in three years and still couldn’t do more then ten pages without falling asleep! I’m giving up!
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
A strong willed Queen, titled the ‘Empress of India’, and a mutinously intransigent Household, with their ideas of ‘genteel birth’ and ‘good breeding’, and all the elitist, classist notions of those times. Caught in the middle, is an Indian Muslim, who went as a ‘khidmatgar’ (personal servant), and became the ‘Munshi’ (secretary) to One of history’s most powerful and well known monarchs. This is a riveting tale of the rise and fall of one man’s fortune, a Queen’s kindness and strong sense of morality, and of just how cruel and biased the British of the colonial era could be, underneath the veneer of civility and civilization.
Abdul Karim was 24, when he sailed for England, as part of a two men entourage intended as a gift for the then 68 years old Queen Victoria. While not of ‘noble birth’, Karim nevertheless came from a good family, and was well educated by the Indian standards of the day, as well as employed in a decent profession. Upon reaching England, he realized that he had been sent in the capacity of a ‘servant’ to the Queen, a position far lower than what he had been led to believe was awaiting him at London. Instead of quietly accepting his ‘fate’, he decided to make matters known to the Queen, who decided to appoint him as her personal tutor, and slowly elevated him to the rank of her ‘India Secretary’. Neither of the two spoke the other’s language, and yet between them, grew a deep friendship and abiding respect, fostered by Victoria’s determination to set right the wrong done to Karim by those who mislead him into accepting the role of a servant, and by Karim’s earnest desire to be of service to his Queen, and bring her closer to the land of which she had recently been styled as ‘Empress’.
Karim didn’t just tutor Victoria in the ‘Hindustani’ language, he introduced her to India in a way that she never had been before, having interacted only with the Indian Royalty that had graced her Durbar and Jubilee celebrations. He gave her insights into Indian customs and traditions, into the religious issues of the day between the Hindus and the Muslims (actively fomented by the British, as part of their ‘Divide and Rule’ policy), into Indian Art and Architecture, and ofcourse, Indian cuisine. The Queen had a specially designed ‘Durbar Room’ created to showcase India, and curries and biryani quickly became a part of the daily lunch menu. Karim slowly became indispensable to the Queen and she often sought his advice on serious matters, especially those relating to India and its governance, as much as she looked forward to spending time in his company and learning a new language.
For her part, Victoria spared no effort in making Karim feel welcome, and at home, in a land at once foreign and forbidding. Infact, this aspect of the Queen, as evident in her letters and deeds, shines throughout this book – her innate kindness, warm-hearted nature, goodwill towards people and a willingness to look beyond the shallow precepts of birth and circumstance into the essential heart of a fellow human being. Being an Empress, and thus the ‘first amongst equals’, she alone treated a brown skinned ‘Mahomedan’ as worthy of receiving dignity, respect, trust, and enduring affection.
The book continues at a steady pace, as it chronicles the rise of the Munshi, in Victoria’ estimation, and therefore in status and prosperity. As he starts to receive royal beneficence, and the titles and comforts and financial munificence that go with the same, the Munshi starts to garner attention and a lot of hatred and envy from other members of the Queen’s Household, including from fellow Indians who could not rise to his levels. Some of the remarks and statements made by other Royal servants (in letters and journal entries) are really shocking and horrifying to read (Marie Mallet, a royal maid, wrote ” Why the plague did not carry him off, I cannot think, it might have done one good deed!”). At one point, the entire Royal Household, tacitly backed by some of the Queen’s children, including the then Prince of Wales, actually mutinied and made their displeasure known to the Queen, including threatening to resign en masse. However, Victoria, true to her stubborn nature and inner conscience, remained steadfast in her affections for and promotions of her ‘beloved Munshi’.
Key themes that emerge out of this meticulously researched book, touch upon the nature of the Queen, the hatred and bigotry towards Indians that was prevalent amongst the Colonials at that time, the essentially quiet and for most parts self effacing nature of the Munshi, as well as the complicated relationship between the Empress and her Government. For all her royalty and titles, there was very little that Victoria could actually do, by way of influencing official policy and decision making in the Colonial provinces. However, she wasn’t the kind to give in quietly, and I’m sure a lot of the officials she regularly corresponded with would have found her rather vexing too, with her constant letters and notes and royal ‘requests’. And yet, she remains a wonderfully endearing personality, and a truly gracious Queen, throughout the book . One starts to see why she continues to remain a much loved royal, a century after her death.
With Victoria’ death though, Karim’s world changed, as the new King wanted to have nothing to do with him, or the rest of the ‘Black Brigade’, as the Indian retinue were referred to behind the Queen’s back. Even as the faithful secretary mourned the passing of his much loved royal mistress and friend, the whole wrath of the new ‘Edwardian’ establishment descended on him in full force, and he was forced to handover the bulk of his personal correspondence with the late Queen, as well as signed photographs and other tokens of affection presented to him by her. These were burned in a bonfire, while a gleeful Household rejoiced, having finally gotten their revenge on the man they saw as ‘lowly’ and undeserving of the Queen’s affection. The fact that he spent over a decade, giving an aging and lonely woman both comfort and steady companionship, when her own children chose to ignore her to the point of not even nursing her as she lay dying, somehow managed to escape the all. The persecution of Karim continued after his death, when acting on King Edward’s explicit orders, officials from the colonial government marched into Karim Lodge at Agar, and threatened his grieving family with dire consequences, and forced them to give up even the last of their correspondences and mementos of their time with the late Queen. Apparently King Edward was extremely scared of it becoming known or recorded in history, that his mother had an Indian Secretary that she was extremely fond of, trusted, and valued as a steady friend and companion, despite his humble background and his race.
Too bad for him then, that Shrabani Basu managed to unearth both documents and pictures, and compile them into a meticulously researched and finely crafted book, that will soon become a movie. As a chronicle of 13 years of an improbable ‘love story’, between an ageing Empress, and her Indian friend, this one will go down in history as a reminder of the age old adage that ‘ishq aur mushq, chhupaye nahi chhupte’.
Read this if you like well researched historical facts, presented as fiction, a la William Dalrymple.
Abdul Karim was 24, when he sailed for England, as part of a two men entourage intended as a gift for the then 68 years old Queen Victoria. While not of ‘noble birth’, Karim nevertheless came from a good family, and was well educated by the Indian standards of the day, as well as employed in a decent profession. Upon reaching England, he realized that he had been sent in the capacity of a ‘servant’ to the Queen, a position far lower than what he had been led to believe was awaiting him at London. Instead of quietly accepting his ‘fate’, he decided to make matters known to the Queen, who decided to appoint him as her personal tutor, and slowly elevated him to the rank of her ‘India Secretary’. Neither of the two spoke the other’s language, and yet between them, grew a deep friendship and abiding respect, fostered by Victoria’s determination to set right the wrong done to Karim by those who mislead him into accepting the role of a servant, and by Karim’s earnest desire to be of service to his Queen, and bring her closer to the land of which she had recently been styled as ‘Empress’.
Karim didn’t just tutor Victoria in the ‘Hindustani’ language, he introduced her to India in a way that she never had been before, having interacted only with the Indian Royalty that had graced her Durbar and Jubilee celebrations. He gave her insights into Indian customs and traditions, into the religious issues of the day between the Hindus and the Muslims (actively fomented by the British, as part of their ‘Divide and Rule’ policy), into Indian Art and Architecture, and ofcourse, Indian cuisine. The Queen had a specially designed ‘Durbar Room’ created to showcase India, and curries and biryani quickly became a part of the daily lunch menu. Karim slowly became indispensable to the Queen and she often sought his advice on serious matters, especially those relating to India and its governance, as much as she looked forward to spending time in his company and learning a new language.
For her part, Victoria spared no effort in making Karim feel welcome, and at home, in a land at once foreign and forbidding. Infact, this aspect of the Queen, as evident in her letters and deeds, shines throughout this book – her innate kindness, warm-hearted nature, goodwill towards people and a willingness to look beyond the shallow precepts of birth and circumstance into the essential heart of a fellow human being. Being an Empress, and thus the ‘first amongst equals’, she alone treated a brown skinned ‘Mahomedan’ as worthy of receiving dignity, respect, trust, and enduring affection.
The book continues at a steady pace, as it chronicles the rise of the Munshi, in Victoria’ estimation, and therefore in status and prosperity. As he starts to receive royal beneficence, and the titles and comforts and financial munificence that go with the same, the Munshi starts to garner attention and a lot of hatred and envy from other members of the Queen’s Household, including from fellow Indians who could not rise to his levels. Some of the remarks and statements made by other Royal servants (in letters and journal entries) are really shocking and horrifying to read (Marie Mallet, a royal maid, wrote ” Why the plague did not carry him off, I cannot think, it might have done one good deed!”). At one point, the entire Royal Household, tacitly backed by some of the Queen’s children, including the then Prince of Wales, actually mutinied and made their displeasure known to the Queen, including threatening to resign en masse. However, Victoria, true to her stubborn nature and inner conscience, remained steadfast in her affections for and promotions of her ‘beloved Munshi’.
Key themes that emerge out of this meticulously researched book, touch upon the nature of the Queen, the hatred and bigotry towards Indians that was prevalent amongst the Colonials at that time, the essentially quiet and for most parts self effacing nature of the Munshi, as well as the complicated relationship between the Empress and her Government. For all her royalty and titles, there was very little that Victoria could actually do, by way of influencing official policy and decision making in the Colonial provinces. However, she wasn’t the kind to give in quietly, and I’m sure a lot of the officials she regularly corresponded with would have found her rather vexing too, with her constant letters and notes and royal ‘requests’. And yet, she remains a wonderfully endearing personality, and a truly gracious Queen, throughout the book . One starts to see why she continues to remain a much loved royal, a century after her death.
With Victoria’ death though, Karim’s world changed, as the new King wanted to have nothing to do with him, or the rest of the ‘Black Brigade’, as the Indian retinue were referred to behind the Queen’s back. Even as the faithful secretary mourned the passing of his much loved royal mistress and friend, the whole wrath of the new ‘Edwardian’ establishment descended on him in full force, and he was forced to handover the bulk of his personal correspondence with the late Queen, as well as signed photographs and other tokens of affection presented to him by her. These were burned in a bonfire, while a gleeful Household rejoiced, having finally gotten their revenge on the man they saw as ‘lowly’ and undeserving of the Queen’s affection. The fact that he spent over a decade, giving an aging and lonely woman both comfort and steady companionship, when her own children chose to ignore her to the point of not even nursing her as she lay dying, somehow managed to escape the all. The persecution of Karim continued after his death, when acting on King Edward’s explicit orders, officials from the colonial government marched into Karim Lodge at Agar, and threatened his grieving family with dire consequences, and forced them to give up even the last of their correspondences and mementos of their time with the late Queen. Apparently King Edward was extremely scared of it becoming known or recorded in history, that his mother had an Indian Secretary that she was extremely fond of, trusted, and valued as a steady friend and companion, despite his humble background and his race.
Too bad for him then, that Shrabani Basu managed to unearth both documents and pictures, and compile them into a meticulously researched and finely crafted book, that will soon become a movie. As a chronicle of 13 years of an improbable ‘love story’, between an ageing Empress, and her Indian friend, this one will go down in history as a reminder of the age old adage that ‘ishq aur mushq, chhupaye nahi chhupte’.
Read this if you like well researched historical facts, presented as fiction, a la William Dalrymple.
3.5 What an enlightening read! I have not really read anything quite like this before. Sadly the blatant racism is not so shocking of the Victorian era, but the sexism the usually considered beloved Queen faced by those closest to her was surprising to me. (Probably shouldn't be, I just love the idea of an all-powerful and admired female ruler as there are so few throughout history. I know.... hah! I truly am a dreamer!) It was also interesting to read about the love and positivity the Queen had over her conquered subjects in India, which is so not the perceived norm usually of the British Empire (for good reasons.) Always a joy to read something so eye-opening!
Interesting story, but very repetitive and dully told.
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
My husband & I thoroughly enjoyed the movie "Victoria & Abdul," starring the wonderful Judi Dench as Queen Victoria, based on a true story about the monarch and her relationship with her Muslim Indian servant, Abdul Karim. I promptly bought the book it was based on the next time we visited our local bookstore, and dove right into it.
In 1887, celebrating her Golden Jubilee, Queen Victoria was proud & delighted by the warm reception she received from her people -- but she was also filled with nostalgia, loneliness & grief that so many of her loved ones had not lived to share this milestone with her -- including her beloved husband, Albert, and her devoted Scottish servant, John Brown.
That's when Abdul Karim came into her life -- one of several Indian servants and soldiers brought to England for the Jubilee year as a "gift" from India. Victoria was fascinated by all things Indian, and an unusual friendship developed between the two. Within weeks, he became her "Munshi" (teacher), helping her learn to speak & write in Urdu. Over time, his influence grew, and he became her chief secretary/advisor on all matters related to India.
Victoria proved to be much more enlightened, accepting of and interested in India, its people and culture than other members of her family and court, who (typical of most Britons of the era) shunned Karim socially and deeply resented his position and influence.
The movie seems to take place over just a few years time, but Karim actually spent more than 13 years in England, from 1887 until the Queen's death in January 1901. He was the last person to see her body before the coffin was sealed, and among the few mourners present for her burial (as she had instructed). Soon afterward, however, members of the Royal Family and several guards entered his cottage, confiscated and burned all the letters he had received from the Queen, and ordered him (and the Queen's other Indian servants) to return to India immediately. (I thought this part of the movie was perhaps a Hollywood embellishment. Sadly, it was not. And, in fact, British government envoys visited Karim's family in India not just once but TWICE after his death in 1909, too, demanding the return of any further correspondence from the Queen.) The Queen's youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, removed all references to Karim from her mother's diaries (not realizing that her mother also wrote about Karim in her Urdu lesson notebooks...! which sat untouched for decades in the royal archives, until they were rediscovered by Basu 100+ years later).
The last part of the book dragged a bit as the courtiers messaged each other and the Queen about their displeasure over the Munshi, and conspired to get rid of him. Overall, though, I thought this was a fascinating & well researched story. Kudos to Basu for uncovering this hidden gem of history!
In 1887, celebrating her Golden Jubilee, Queen Victoria was proud & delighted by the warm reception she received from her people -- but she was also filled with nostalgia, loneliness & grief that so many of her loved ones had not lived to share this milestone with her -- including her beloved husband, Albert, and her devoted Scottish servant, John Brown.
That's when Abdul Karim came into her life -- one of several Indian servants and soldiers brought to England for the Jubilee year as a "gift" from India. Victoria was fascinated by all things Indian, and an unusual friendship developed between the two. Within weeks, he became her "Munshi" (teacher), helping her learn to speak & write in Urdu. Over time, his influence grew, and he became her chief secretary/advisor on all matters related to India.
Victoria proved to be much more enlightened, accepting of and interested in India, its people and culture than other members of her family and court, who (typical of most Britons of the era) shunned Karim socially and deeply resented his position and influence.
The movie seems to take place over just a few years time, but Karim actually spent more than 13 years in England, from 1887 until the Queen's death in January 1901. He was the last person to see her body before the coffin was sealed, and among the few mourners present for her burial (as she had instructed). Soon afterward, however, members of the Royal Family and several guards entered his cottage, confiscated and burned all the letters he had received from the Queen, and ordered him (and the Queen's other Indian servants) to return to India immediately. (I thought this part of the movie was perhaps a Hollywood embellishment. Sadly, it was not. And, in fact, British government envoys visited Karim's family in India not just once but TWICE after his death in 1909, too, demanding the return of any further correspondence from the Queen.) The Queen's youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, removed all references to Karim from her mother's diaries (not realizing that her mother also wrote about Karim in her Urdu lesson notebooks...! which sat untouched for decades in the royal archives, until they were rediscovered by Basu 100+ years later).
The last part of the book dragged a bit as the courtiers messaged each other and the Queen about their displeasure over the Munshi, and conspired to get rid of him. Overall, though, I thought this was a fascinating & well researched story. Kudos to Basu for uncovering this hidden gem of history!
informative
slow-paced
Non so neanche da dove cominciare per parlare di tutto quello che non va in questo libro, penso che "inutile" sia la definizione più efficace però.
Innanzitutto è una vicenda piuttosto insulsa: un giovane indiano arriva a Londra come servitore della regina Vittoria e lei lo prende a benvolere, tanto da renderlo il membro più importante del suo entourage, scatenando molti malumori. Le cinque pagine di introduzione bastano a darci un'idea chiara della storia, le 300 pagine seguenti sono semplicemente ripetizioni e lungaggini. Qualunque avvenimento, anche il più insignificante (sono tutti insignificanti in realtà), ci viene descritto almeno tre volte, con tanto di estratti di lettere e brani di diari: insomma tanto rumore per nulla.
Lo stile poi è piatto e spesso retorico; se ci aggiungiamo la mancanza di obiettività dell'autrice (palesemente sempre a favore del conterraneo Abdul Karim), si capirà come questo sia un libro che non consiglierei a nessuno, nemmeno agli amanti della Regina Vittoria e delle biografie, dato che io rientro in entrambe le categorie e l'ho apprezzato così poco.
Innanzitutto è una vicenda piuttosto insulsa: un giovane indiano arriva a Londra come servitore della regina Vittoria e lei lo prende a benvolere, tanto da renderlo il membro più importante del suo entourage, scatenando molti malumori. Le cinque pagine di introduzione bastano a darci un'idea chiara della storia, le 300 pagine seguenti sono semplicemente ripetizioni e lungaggini. Qualunque avvenimento, anche il più insignificante (sono tutti insignificanti in realtà), ci viene descritto almeno tre volte, con tanto di estratti di lettere e brani di diari: insomma tanto rumore per nulla.
Lo stile poi è piatto e spesso retorico; se ci aggiungiamo la mancanza di obiettività dell'autrice (palesemente sempre a favore del conterraneo Abdul Karim), si capirà come questo sia un libro che non consiglierei a nessuno, nemmeno agli amanti della Regina Vittoria e delle biografie, dato che io rientro in entrambe le categorie e l'ho apprezzato così poco.