Authors: Shrabani Basu
The Queen won the argument, the Household did not resign and on 10 March the Royal suite started for Cimiez. The Court Circular noted that the Munshi was part of the suite along with Phipps, Arthur Bigge, Lieutenant-Colonel W. Carrington, Lieutenant-Colonel Davidson and Reid. The mood was decidedly grim.
A report in
The Times
newspaper from Cherbourg on 12 March rubbed further salt into their wounds and it carried the usual praise for the Munshi: ‘In a twinkling the platform between the two trains became animated and the somber tones on the twilight hour of a gray day were quickly relieved by the scarlet coats of the servant and the picturesque dress of the Scotch attendants. The colors and style of the dress worn by the Munshi and Indian secretary, Hafiz Abdul Karim, added to the effect,’
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wrote the correspondent.
That year, Cimiez simmered like a cauldron with tension over the Munshi. Though the Excelsior Hotel Regina had been
renovated to a high standard and even provided electric lights and sweeping views of the Mediterranean, the break was ruined by the tension. The Household was on the warpath and they were now joined by the Prince of Wales. Matters were made no better by Princess Beatrice, who had a selfish streak in her and often made the Queen very unhappy. Reid recorded in his diary a day after reaching Cimiez: ‘HM came and sat with me for sometime in my room to tell me about her health and Princess Beatrice’s unkindness to her.’
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Reid was then called to Bigge’s room where he had a meeting with the Prince of Wales about the Munshi and the crisis which the Queen’s relations with him were bringing on. Bigge, Carrington and Davidson had already been discussing the matter with the Prince. ‘I told HRH much that I know and how serious I think it. He was much impressed and promised to support us in any action we take,’ wrote Reid.
To the fury of the Household, Rafiuddin Ahmed joined the Munshi. He had not been invited to Cimiez, and within forty-eight hours of his arrival the Household expelled him, something that angered the Munshi. The Queen too found it ‘disgraceful’ and wrote to Lord Salisbury that he should apologise for the expulsion and tell Rafiuddin that this had happened only because he was a journalist. She also asked Lord Salisbury to invite him to at least one ball in the Royal Court. The Munshi remained in Nice, enjoying the weather in the French Riviera. The locals, who saw him drive around the town in his carriage, would never have imagined the storm in the Court.
The Galignani Messenger
reported: ‘As for the Munshi Abdul Karim, although every deference is paid to him, and he is generally seen following the Royal carriage in a separate carriage drawn by splendid horses, each Nicois is firmly convinced that he sees in him a captive Native Prince, attached, as it were, to the chariot wheels of the Empress of India.’
The atmosphere in the Household continued to get heated. On 27 March Reid held several meetings with Bigge, Carrington and Davidson about ‘acting together in the Queen and Munshi question’. Their resolve to close ranks on the issue was strengthened even more when the Queen drew Prince Louis of Battenberg into the matter and asked him to tell Davidson that the Household ‘must associate more’ with the Munshi.
‘We all agreed to stand together and resign if HM presses the matter,’ wrote Reid in his diary.
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The daily conferences went on, the expedition to Cimiez getting totally hijacked over the question of Karim. Bigge, Carrington and Davidson were joined now by Prince Louis who had been charged by the Queen to find out the reasons for the Household’s objections to the Munshi. Late at night, Reid visited the Queen and stayed for an hour. He recorded: ‘Told her
all
I knew about the Munshi.’
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Reid’s diary at this time has a daily entry on the ‘Munshi affair’. He had meetings on the issue as early as seven o’clock in the morning to well past midnight. The Queen would send for him several times during the day to discuss Karim. He went through the various points he had been keeping in his dossier with her. On 30 March Reid noted that she admitted ‘she had been foolish by acceding to his constant requests for advancement’ but yet tried to shield him. Reid told the Queen about the comments he had heard about her and the Munshi both outside the Palace and by her own family, and how he had ‘been questioned as to her sanity’. After a particularly stressful day, when the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Coburg and Princess Beatrice rounded on him about the Munshi, the doctor wrote: ‘Saw Queen twice again about Munshi – sick of it.’
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Despite the endless rounds of stormy meetings, nothing was being resolved. The Queen remained stubborn, protecting her Munshi, and the doctor bore the brunt of complaints from both the Household and the Royal family. ‘Another killing day with the Queen about the Munshi,’ he recorded on 31 March. After a particularly tempestuous meeting one night, when the Queen accused Reid of being in ‘league against the Munshi’, he finally lost his temper and said he was ready to resign. The Queen was being worn out by the pressure on her, but she remained firm. In her defence of the Munshi, she felt she was taking on a fight for the underdog against the racism and snobbery of the upper classes. After her showdowns with the Household, she would sob to the Munshi about her troubles with her family, especially Princess Beatrice and the Prince of Wales.
The Prince of Wales now tried another approach. He asked the Household to get details of the Munshi’s family so he could be discredited in the Queen’s eyes. A telegram was despatched to the Viceroy requesting ‘particulars regarding birth, parentage and
history of Queen’s Munshi, giving exact social position at time of engagement in his present place, also particular as to wife or wives’, with instructions that a reply was required ‘as soon as possible’.
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Once the details were collected, the Viceroy sent a telegram to the Secretary of State, Lord Hamilton, on 3 April 1897.
Your telegram of Mar 30. Munshi’s father Sheikh Mohammed Waziruddin is subordinate Medical service as Hospital Assistant. Pay Rs 60.00 reported. Respectable and trustworthy. Native of Agra. No record of ancestry but position of family humble. Eldest son served in jail department, promoted tehsildar in 1893 at Her Majesty’s wish. Four daughters, married. Husbands in jail departments or constables. One of them Harmat Ali, formerly in Queen’s service. There are other relations but of no mark or education.
Munshi was Mohurir or vernacular clerk in Agra jail at ten rupees a month till he left Indian to become household servant to the Queen. No information about wife or of there being more than one. Will enquire if desired.
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The enquiries revealed nothing that the Household or Secretary of State did not know already. The meetings and rows, however, continued at Cimiez.
Reid remained at the centre of the Munshi controversy. When not seeing the Queen, he was locked in discussion with the Prince of Wales or Prince Louis. After an ‘excited interview’ with the Queen and her dresser, Mrs Macdonald, Reid had to telephone Lord Rowton, former private secretary to Disraeli, to visit the Queen as she wanted to discuss the Munshi with him. The Queen often sought Rowton’s advice.
At one meeting the doctor decided to tell the Queen in no uncertain terms that people thought she was losing her sanity:
It seems to me that Your Majesty is only thinking of the Munshi’s feelings. But that is of infinitesimal importance compared with the gravity of the situation as regards Your Majesty. As I said to Your Majesty before, there are people in high places, who know Your Majesty well, who say to me that the only charitable explanation that can be given is that Your Majesty is not sane, and that the time will come when to save Your Majesty’s memory and
reputation it will be necessary for me to come forward and say so: and that is a nice position for me to be in. I have seen the Prince of Wales yesterday and he again spoke to me very seriously on the subject. He says he has quite made up his mind to come forward if necessary, because quite apart from all the consequences to the Queen, it affects
himself
most vitally … Because it affects the throne.
Reid’s words had the opposite effect on the Queen. Far from being cowed down by her doctor’s charges of insanity, she went on the offensive. Torn between her loyalty to the Munshi and upset by the pressure from her Household and family, she concluded that the Household was being racist, and her own son, selfish and mean. She summoned Reid yet again ‘in a most violent passion’ and said they had all ‘behaved disgracefully’. The doctor stood his ground and the Queen broke down again, apologising for her harsh words to him. The doctor did not have any more unpleasant scenes with the Queen after that (‘the first day since the 28,’ wrote Reid) and the Prince of Wales thanked him for all he had done and assured him of his full support. The ceasefire lasted a few uneasy days, to be broken the moment the Queen heard that another member of her Household, John Carstairs McNeill, had said something disparaging about the Munshi. The Queen was confiding in the Munshi about her family and the strain was becoming almost unbearable for her as she found herself fighting a lone battle against her sons and youngest daughter.
Reid, meanwhile, decided to tackle the Munshi himself. He rounded on him and told him that he had created a situation which could no longer be permitted to exist.
The Queen has believed all the lies you have told her and in her kindness has given you all you have asked for up to now; but she is beginning to find out what everyone in England and India knows, viz., that you are an imposter. On the subject of your origin we have a certificate from India about your Father, your wife and yourself. You are from a very low class and
never
can be a gentleman. Your education is nil. To be called ‘Secretary’ is perfectly ridiculous; you could not write either an English or an Indian letter that would not disgrace the name of Secretary.
You have a double face, one that you show to the Queen, and another when you leave her room. The Queen says she finds you humble and ‘honest’ and kind to everybody! What is the reality? The Queen says the other Indians like and respect you. What do they tell me? And what would they say if they were not afraid of you and the old ones were brought back to give evidence? You have been deceiving the Queen in other ways …You have told the Queen that in India no receipts are given for money, and therefore you ought not to give any to Sir F Edwards [Keeper of the Privy Purse]. This is a lie and means that you wish to
cheat
the Queen. The Police know this and other things. The Queen’s letters in your possession are asked for by H.M. Where are they? Why have you not given them up at once? You had better do so now or it will be the worse for you. If the Queen were to die and any letters of hers were found in your possession no mercy will be shown you. The Queen does not know
all
I have told you because it would shock her greatly to know how completely you have deceived her and what a scoundrel you are, and she hopes it may be possible for you to stay with her still. But this can only be if your ‘position’ is altogether taken away.
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Reid told the Munshi that none of the Queen’s gentlemen would recognise the Munshi’s position and that it would be impossible for him to remain in England if they informed the Queen of everything they knew about him and how he had ‘deceived’ her. He also advised him that Prince Louis was being sent by the Queen to speak to him, but he had come instead. That would be much more serious than the doctor speaking to him, but it would be done next time.
Though some of the allegations made by Reid were true, the rest were exaggerated. The Munshi had never claimed that his family was from the upper classes. He had merely said his father was a doctor in Agra Jail and he himself had been a clerk, which was true. He had rightly told the Queen that he had never done menial jobs and had never been a servant. Regarding the position of his father, perhaps some of it was lost in translation. A hospital assistant was a native doctor with some medical qualifications and allowed to do minor operations. His father was in charge of a clinic in Agra, which had been confirmed by Tyler. It was true that the other Indian servants had complained about the Munshi,
but this was natural as none of them had been rapidly promoted by the Queen in the manner that Karim had been, leading to inevitable jealousy and resentment. Karim had not helped matters by being somewhat high-handed with them and preening about his closeness to the Queen.
The outburst from Reid left Karim in shock. The force of the ill-feeling towards him became clear to him. The threats of police action would have also frightened the man, who was, after all, a brown man in a white country, with only the elderly Queen prepared to stand up for him. He had told the Queen that he had been so distressed by the hostility towards him that he had not been able to eat or sleep.
The doctor turned these words against him as well.
The Queen says you tell her you are in great distress and can’t sleep or eat and Her Majesty in her great kindness is sorry to hear it. But if you do this again, and try to humbug the Queen, the Q. will be told everything about you, and then her pity will be turned to anger when she finds out how you have deceived her and you will only hasten your ruin.
The Munshi retreated into silence after this. He did not know what the police had against him, unaware that it was his friendship with Rafiuddin that was putting him in the firing line. He had no idea that Rafiuddin was suspected of being a spy for the Amir of Afghanistan and for fuelling discord among the Muslims in India by his association with the Muslim Patriotic League. Though all these charges were dismissed later, the mud had come to stick on Rafiuddin and, indirectly through him, on the Munshi.
The rest of the fortnight in Cimiez passed tediously with frayed tempers, jumpy nerves, a sullen Munshi and a distraught Queen who was still having long meetings with Lord Rowton and Reid on the affair. The Munshi complained to the Queen that he had seen a Frenchman ask Bigge who he (the Munshi) was, and that he was sure Bigge had told him ‘something bad about him’. Everybody, it seems, was disgruntled. The Queen’s own children, being too frightened to approach her directly, passed everything through Reid, who became the lightning conductor for all parties. He wrote in his diary on 14 April: ‘The Q still constantly speaking to me about the Munshi and trying all she
can to get me to hedge and agree with her. And when she sees I will not is rather angry.’