Why Did Britain Try to Erase Queen Victoria’s Bond With Her Indian 'Servant' Munshi Abdul Karim?

Long before their relationship was uncovered by modern historians, Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim shared a companionship that would be systematically erased by the royal family after her death. Victoria had

described the handsome young Indian attendant as “a real comfort,” and considered him her closest ally in her later years, a bond her family viewed with deep suspicion. When she died in 1901, her son Edward ordered that every letter exchanged between the pair be destroyed, while her daughter Beatrice spent years removing his presence from the queen’s journals. Karim was expelled from the home Victoria had gifted him, sent back to India, and written out of palace memory so thoroughly that it would take a century for the truth to surface.

The rediscovery began in 2003, when journalist Shrabani Basu spotted a curious detail in Victoria’s summer residence. Her investigation eventually revealed a friendship built over more than a decade, one that had once caused resentment among courtiers, who viewed Karim’s rise as a challenge to the social and racial hierarchy of the time. The remarkable rediscovery of this relationship eventually inspired the 2017 film Victoria & Abdul, directed by Stephen Frears and based on Shrabani Basu’s book. Judi Dench returned to the role of Queen Victoria while Ali Fazal played Abdul Karim with a gentle sincerity that mirrored the qualities Basu attributes to him in her research. While the film takes certain creative liberties, it captures the essence of a friendship that defied the rigid social codes of that time.

Queen Victoria & Her Indian 'Friend' Abdul Karim

Their story began in 1887, when Victoria sought Indian staff for her Golden Jubilee celebrations. Abdul Karim, the son of a hospital assistant from Agra, arrived in England as “a gift from India.” Victoria, then nearing 80, noted her first impression of him with admiration: “tall with a fine serious countenance.”

What started as routine service soon became a cultural exchange. At the Isle of Wight, Karim cooked dishes like chicken curry with dal and pilau, meals the queen enjoyed so much that they became part of her regular menu. Her curiosity grew, and she asked him to teach her Urdu, or Hindustani, as it was then known. As Victoria wrote, “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.”To strengthen their communication, she insisted that Karim continue his English lessons. Before long, she promoted him to “Munshi and Indian Clerk to the Queen Empress,” eventually elevating him to a decorated secretary.While the palace bristled at the queen’s growing affection for Karim, Victoria continued to grant him privileges that inflamed tensions. He travelled with her through Europe, received titles and honours, and sat beside elite guests at operas and banquets. She arranged a private carriage for him, offered gifts, welcomed his family to England, and even secured a pension for his father. Portraits of Karim were commissioned as well and these images actually helped later help historians trace the depth of their connection.

Karim’s influence was particularly unsettling to the household because he became the first servant to occupy such a position since John Brown, Victoria’s Scottish confidante. If Brown had raised eyebrows, Karim, young, Indian, unfamiliar to the Victorian court, was seen as far more unacceptable. As historian Carolly Erickson observed, “For a dark-skinned Indian to be put very nearly on a level with the queen’s white servants was all but intolerable… viewed as an outrage.”

A Confidante Unlike Anyone Else

Karim’s appeal lay in the comfort and normalcy he brought to Victoria’s life. As Basu explained to The Telegraph, “He spoke to her as a human being and not as the Queen… He told her about India, his family and was there to listen when she complained about her own family.”Victoria reflected the same warmth in her own words: “I am so very fond of him… he is so good and gentle and understanding . . . and is a real comfort to me.”

Over the years, the queen began to sign letters to him as “your loving mother” and “your closest friend.” Basu told the BBC that it was a relationship “operating on many different layers,” though she does not believe it was physical, given the vast age gap. Karim’s own descendants later affirmed this interpretation. In 2010, his great-grandson Javed Mahmood called it “a mother and son relationship.”Despite the family’s disapproval, Victoria insisted that Karim be counted among her principal mourners when she died. King Edward honoured this one request: Karim walked in the funeral procession at Windsor Castle and was the final person to view the queen’s body before her casket was sealed.