How did Queen Victoria fall in love with Abdul Karim?

Diane Black

“I am so very fond of him. He is so good and gentle and understanding… and is a real comfort to me.” Queen Victoria in 1888, at the age of 70, referring to her 24-year old Indian companion, Abdul Karim.

“Falling in love” indicates some sort of romantic feeling, and I don’t think that Victoria’s relationship with Abdul Karim stretched that far.

He arrived about four years after the death of John Brown, another relationship whose death left Victoria sad and lost. She found Karim exotic, and an interesting window into her Indian empire holdings. He was charming and was able to pique her interest in learning Urdu to help her understand India, and generally made himself useful. While he respected and admired the Queen, she was far, far too old to be considered a object of romance — rather, she felt herself to be almost motherly towards him, proud of his quickness in learning English, and came to depend on him for the kinds of conversations and talks that she would never engage with other members of her household or family. His presence was a constant outrage to the Household, who did not accept him as a member of Victoria’s inner circle — mostly based on his race, which was felt to be far inferior, but also out of jealousy for the emotional intimacy and trust that he enjoyed from Victoria. Victoria called them out on it, but it persisted. During one gathering, Abdul had been instructed to sit to dinner with the servants, not the Household. Offended, he left, and Victoria sent for him and insisted he be sat with the Household, much to their disgust. Another time, the entire Household said they would resign if “that man” was permitted to come on a holiday to Nice, which sent Victoria into a rage — they backed down, but their resentment did not. A couple of years later, they again insisted that he not accompany them — Victoria agreed, but once she arrived in Nice, she wired Abdul to come and join them, much to her Household’s chagrin.

He was the last person to see Victoria’s body before her casket was sealed. He returned to India immediately after Victoria’s death, and died in 1909 at the age of 46. Almost all of his correspondence with Victoria was destroyed upon her death at the order of Edward VII, but Karim’s diary, covering the years between 1887 and 1897, remained, coming to light in 2010. There was no suggestion of romantic love — rather, it was the musings of a man who felt himself tremendously blessed by the opportunities that had come his way, and his admiration for his Queen and Empress. It had been held by a relative, who rescued the diary after the Partition and their subsequent move, as Muslims, to Pakistan.