Abdul Karim (the Munshi) - Later Life

Later Life

In late 1898 Karim's purchase of a parcel of land adjacent to his earlier grant was finalised; he had become a wealthy man. Reid claimed in his diary that he had challenged Karim over his financial dealings: "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 . This is a lie and means that you wish to cheat the Queen." The Munshi told the Queen he would provide receipts in answer to the allegations, and Victoria wrote to Reid dismissing the accusations, calling them "shameful".

Karim asked Victoria to make him a "nawab", the Indian equivalent of a peer, and to give him a knighthood in the Order of the Indian Empire. A horrified Elgin suggested instead that she make Karim a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO), which was in her personal gift, bestowed no title, and would have little political implication in India. Privy Purse Sir Fleetwood Edwards and Prime Minister Lord Salisbury advised against even the lower honour. Nevertheless in 1899, on the occasion of her 80th birthday, Victoria appointed Karim a commander of the order (CVO), a rank intermediate between member and knight.

The Munshi returned to India in November 1899 for a year. Waziruddin, described as "a courtly old gentleman" by Lord Curzon, Elgin's replacement as Viceroy, died in June 1900. By the time Karim returned to Britain in November 1900 Victoria had visibly aged, and her health was failing. Within three months she was dead.

After Victoria's death her son, Edward VII, dismissed the Munshi and his relations from court and had them sent back to India. However, Edward did allow the Munshi to be the last to view Victoria's body before her casket was closed, and to be part of her funeral procession. Almost all of the correspondence between Victoria and Karim was burned on Edward's orders. Lady Curzon wrote on 9 August 1901,

Charlotte Knollys told me that the Munshi bogie which had frightened all the household at Windsor for many years had proved a ridiculous farce, as the poor man had not only given up all his letters but even the photos signed by Queen and had returned to India like a whipped hound. All the Indian servants have gone back so now there is no Oriental picture & queerness at Court.

In 1905–06, George, Prince of Wales, visited India and wrote to the King from Agra, "In the evening we saw the Munshi. He has not grown more beautiful and is getting fat. I must say he was most civil and humble and really pleased to see us. He wore his C.V.O. which I had no idea he had got. I am told he lives quietly here and gives no trouble at all."

The Munshi died at his home, Karim Lodge, on his estate in Agra in 1909. He was survived by two wives, and was interred in a pagoda-like mausoleum in the Panchkuin Kabaristan cemetery in Agra beside his father.

On the instructions of Edward VII, the Commissioner of Agra, W. H. Cobb, visited Karim Lodge to retrieve any remaining correspondence between the Munshi and the Queen or her Household, which was confiscated and sent to the King. The Viceroy (by then Lord Minto), Lieutenant-Governor John Hewitt, and India Office civil servants disapproved of the seizure, and recommended that the letters be returned. Eventually the King returned four, on condition that they would be sent back to him on the death of the Munshi's first wife.