Monarch Butterfly

This is probably one of the more difficult stories to write that of a powerful,but aging monarch,and her trusted,but often manipulative,khidmatgar.

This is probably one of the more difficult stories to write that of a powerful,but aging monarch,and her trusted,but often manipulative,khidmatgar. If this were the tale of a male monarch,it would have been a much easier subject to explore; after all,close encounters of royals with the opposite sex are nothing new. But whenever an authoritative and formidable woman is alone,the men close to her become fodder for speculation. And in the case of Abdul Karim,the young Muslim whom Queen Victoria became inordinately fond of,there was a great deal of unease among her courtiers and her family who failed to understand why Victoria chose such an unsuitable boy to lavish her affections on. Fortunately,Karim was able to hold his own and as long as Victoria was alive,was quite able to thrive despite the attempts to oust him from her court. Indeed,he was able to turn these attacks on him into an advantage,successfully playing on the Queens fragile emotions.

The fact that he could succeed in remaining at her side,in the face of open criticism is both a vindication of Victorias fondness for him as well as a testimony to Karims own deft machinations. He was no pushover,as he knew that as long as the lonely,elderly queen was fond of him,he could also exploit the situation to his own advantage and was able to appropriate for himself and his family settlements of land and money which were quite above his official status.

Yet,the irony is,of course,that whether it was a Queen Victoria or the Rani of Jhansi,there is still a reluctance to accept that women can need male companionship and adulation.

Shrabani Basus meticulously researched book,although safely described as fiction on the back cover,has to maintain a delicate balance. Queen Victorias relationship with Karim may have been far more complex than just that of an indulgent master and a loyal slave. Unfortunately,as almost all the letters written by Victoria to Abdul were destroyed by her family after her death,the real character of the relationship remains shrouded. Nonetheless,Basu has pieced together the story through whatever other sources were available. She has traced Karims life from his early years in Agra to his arrival in Victorias courtand his elevation to a munshi who taught Urdu to the Queen.

It is definitely a forgotten chapter of history in a postcolonial world where the attempt is to analyse everything from the adversarial positions of the oppressor and the oppressed. But,in this story,the Queen is trying to defend her loyal attendant even though the forces around her would have her abandon him. The only way for many around her to understand the Queens interest in Karim was to reduce it to that of a master playing with an exotic pet. It was unthinkable and rather infra dig that she could give him equal status as other courtiers. Possibly,the most telling and probably appalling for her courtiers evidence of the Queens fondness for Karim lies in the lavish portrait of him painted by Rudolf Swoboda or in the many photographs that still exist of Karim acting in tableaux alongside other members of the court.