Mohammed Abdul Karim (1863 – 20 April 1909), also known as "the Munshi", was an Indian attendant of Queen Victoria. He served her during the final 14 years of her reign, gaining her maternal affection over that time.
Karim was born the son of a hospital assistant at Lalitpur, near Jhansi in British India. In 1887, the year of Victoria's Golden Jubilee, 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" ("clerk" or "teacher"). Victoria appointed him to be 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.
Early life Mohammed Abdul Karim was born into a Muslim family at Lalitpur near Jhansi in 1863.Basu, p. 22 His father, Haji Mohammed Waziruddin, was a hospital assistant stationed with the Central India Horse, a British cavalry regiment.Basu, pp. 22–23 Karim had one older brother, Abdul Aziz, and four younger sisters. He was taught Persian and Urdu privatelyBasu, p. 23 and, as a teenager, travelled across North India and into Afghanistan.Basu, pp. 23–24 Karim's father participated in the conclusive march to Kandahar, which ended the Second Anglo-Afghan War, in August 1880. After the war, Karim's father transferred from the Central India Horse to a civilian position at the Central Jail in Agra, while Karim worked as a vakil ("agent" or "representative") for the Nawab of Jaora in the Agency of Agar. After three years in Agar, Karim resigned and moved to Agra, to become a vernacular clerk at the jail. His father arranged a marriage between Karim and the sister of a fellow worker.Basu, p. 24
Prisoners in the Agra jail were trained and kept employed as carpet weavers as part of their rehabilitation. In 1886, 34 convicts travelled to London to demonstrate carpet weaving at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in South Kensington. Karim did not accompany the prisoners, but assisted Jail Superintendent John Tyler in organising the trip, and helped to select the carpets and weavers. When Queen Victoria visited the exhibition, Tyler gave her a gift of two gold bracelets, again chosen with the assistance of Karim.Basu, p. 25 The Queen had a longstanding interest in her Indian territories and wished to employ some Indian servants for her Golden Jubilee. She asked Tyler to recruit two attendants who would be employed for a year.Victoria to Lord Lansdowne, 18 December 1890, quoted in Basu. p. 87 Karim was hastily coached in British manners and in the English language and sent to England, along with Mohammed Buksh. Major-General Thomas Dennehy, who was about to be appointed to the Royal Household, had previously employed Buksh as a servant.Basu, pp. 26–27 It was planned that the two Indian men would initially wait at table, and learn to do other tasks.Anand, p. 13
Royal servant
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.Basu, p. 33 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."Quoted in Anand, p. 15
Five days later, the Queen noted that "The Indians always wait now and do so, so well and quietly."Quoted in Basu, p. 38 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."Quoted in Basu, p. 43; Hibbert, p. 446 and Longford, p. 502 On 20 August she had some "excellent curry" made by one of the servants.Quoted in Basu, p. 44 By 30 August Karim was teaching her Urdu,Basu, p. 48 which she used during an audience in December to greet the Maharani Chimnabai of Baroda.Basu, p. 57
Victoria took a great liking to Karim and ordered that he was to be given additional instruction in the English language.Basu, p. 49 By February 1888 he had "learnt English wonderfully" according to Victoria.Quoted in Basu, p. 60 After he complained to the Queen that he had been a clerk in India and thus menial work as a waiter was beneath him,Marina Warner's Queen Victoria's Sketchbook, quoted in "Abdul Karim" . PBS. Retrieved on 15 April 2011Basu, pp. 64–65 he was promoted to the position of "Munshi" in August 1888.Basu, p. 64 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." Photographs of him waiting at table were destroyed and he became the first Indian personal clerk to the Queen.Basu, p. 65; Longford, p. 536 Buksh remained in the Queen's service, but only as a khidmatgar or table servant,Anand, p. 16 until his death at Windsor in 1899.Basu, p. 174
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."Anand, p. 15 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."Queen Victoria to the Duchess of Connaught, 3 November 1888, quoted in Basu, p. 65 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 g[rea]t example."Victoria to Sir Theodore Martin, 20 November 1888, quoted in Basu, p. 65 At Balmoral Castle, the Queen's Scottish estate, Karim was allocated the room previously occupied by John Brown, a favourite servant of the Queen who had died in 1883. 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".Anand, p. 18
Household hostility 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.Basu, pp. 68–69Victoria herself acknowledged that "he is a very irascible man, with a violent temper and a total want of tact, and his own enemy, but v. kind-hearted and hospitable, a very good official, and a first-rate physician", to which Lansdowne replied, "Your Majesty has summed up that gentleman's strong and weak points in language which exactly meets the case." (Quoted in Basu, p. 88)
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, but they were not willing to do so. 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 side, stating that he should have been seated among the Household.Anand, pp. 18–19; Basu, pp. 70–71 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.Waller, p. 441 "This entirely shut him up", noted Ponsonby.Basu, p. 71; Hibbert, p. 448
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.Erickson, Carolly (2002) Her Little Majesty, New York: Simon and Schuster, p. 241. . Paragraph break omitted after third sentence.
When complaints were brought to her, Victoria refused to believe any negative comments about Karim.Basu, pp. 70–71 She dismissed concerns about his behaviour, deemed high-handed by Household and staff, as "very wrong".Victoria to Reid, 13 May 1889, quoted in Basu, p. 70 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.Anand, pp. 20–21; Basu, pp. 71–72 In July, Karim was assigned the room previously occupied by James Reid, Victoria's physician, and given the use of a private sitting room.Basu, p. 72
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 rescheduled so as not to conflict with Muslim ones. Lansdowne dismissed the latter suggestion as potentially divisive,Basu, pp. 73, 109–110 but appointed Tyler Acting Inspector General of Prisons in September 1889.Basu, p. 74