Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant

Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant
	File:Victoria & Abdul, The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant.jpeg
Author	Shrabani Basu
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Subject	History
Published	2010
Publisher	The History Press
Publication date	1st 2010, 2nd 2011, 3rd 2017
Pages	334
ISBN	978-0-7509-8258-0

Dear reader, We need your support to keep the flame of knowledge burning bright! Our hosting server bill is due on June 1st, and without your help, Bharatpedia faces the risk of shutdown. We've come a long way together in exploring and celebrating our rich heritage. Now, let's unite to ensure Bharatpedia continues to be a beacon of knowledge for generations to come. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference. Together, let's preserve and share the essence of Bharat.

Thank you for being part of the Bharatpedia family!
Please scan the QR code on the right to donate.

0%

transparency: ₹0 raised out of ₹100,000 (0 supporter)

Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant is a book about Queen Victoria and her Munshi, Abdul Karim, researched and written by Shrabani Basu, published by The History Press in 2010, and adapted to produce the feature film Victoria & Abdul in 2017.

Sources in the book include the Royal collections at St James's Palace, Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, Osborne House, material from the British Library, the diaries and scrapbooks of Sir James Reid and the unpublished personal memoirs of Abdul Karim, kept in Karachi. In addition to Queen Victoria and Karim, the main characters featuring in the book include some members of the Royal family, the Royal Household, viceroys and secretaries of state for India, British prime ministers and several Indians.

The historical context of when and where Karim was born is followed by an account of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 and how he was subsequently recruited by the superintendent of Agra Central Jail, John W. Tyler, to wait on the Queen in England during her Golden Jubilee.

Reviews of the book appeared in the Washington Post, The Washington Times, BBC History Magazine, Dawn, the New York Times, Vanity Fair and the Times of India.

Background[edit]

Shrabani Basu came across the friendship between Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim in the 1990s, during her research on the history of curry.^[1]^[2] Sources in the book include the Royal collections at St James's Palace, Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, Osborne House, material from the British Library, the diaries and scrapbooks of Sir James Reid and the unpublished personal memoirs of Abdul Karim, kept in Karachi.^[3]^[4] Specific sources listed in the book include India office records, journals written by Queen Victoria in Urdu, and several newspapers. Secondary sources include Michaela Reid's Ask Sir James (1987).^[4]

Layout[edit]

Victoria & Abdul was first published in 2010, then in 2011 and 2017, by The History Press, based in Gloucester. The book has 334 pages, beginning with a contents page, author's note, acknowledgements, a forward, a diagram of Queen Victoria's family tree, a mid-19th century map of British India territories, a map of the United Kingdom showing the locations of the Queen's palaces, and a dramatis personae, followed by an introduction, 15 chapters, an epilogue, notes and sources, a bibliography and an index. Between pages 224 and 225, are 16 pages of photographs.^[5]

Characters[edit]

In addition to Queen Victoria and Karim, the main characters featuring in the book include some members of the Royal family, the Royal Household, viceroys and secretaries of state for India, British prime ministers and several Indians.^[6]

Royal Family[edit]

The Royal Household[edit]

Prime ministers[edit]

Indians[edit]

Secretary of State for India[edit]

Viceroys[edit]

Synopsis[edit]

In the introduction, Basu explains how a visit to the restored Durbar room at Osborne House in 2001, in her research of the Queen's taste for curry, drew her attention to a painting of Karim on the wall of the Indian corridor, and how "he looked more like a nawab than a servant".^[1]^[7]

The historical context of when and where Karim was born is followed by an account of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 and how he was subsequently recruited by the superintendent of Agra Central Jail, John W. Tyler, to wait on the Queen in England during her Golden Jubilee. The display of Indian maharajahs is detailed before the story of how Karim came to be in Queen Victoria's regular presence, giving her daily lessons in Urdu.

Reviews[edit]

The Washington Times described the author as having "done solid homework".^[8] The BBC History Magazine stated that the book told a "charming tale which should have been told before", and in Dawn, the book was described as "a mélange of history, drama and fantasy".^[9] The Times of India said that its power lay in it being "fact rather than fiction".^[9]

The review in the Washington Post ended with "it's good that the story of the queen and her munshi has been brought to light, but the bright shine of Victoria & Abdul means there’s no room for history's more shadowy parts".^[10] A review in the New York Times was titled "When the Empress of India Met Her Muslim Teacher".^[11] Vanity Fair questioned why their relationship was so controversial. Basu had examined Queen Victoria's Hindustani journals and Karim's personal diaries, unlike previous biographers of the Queen.^[12]