'The Special Relationship' between the British Empire and its Jewel India in Shrabani Basu’s Victoria and Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant

Abstract

This work covers the hidden story of Victoria and Abdul ; a young Indian Muslim who came to play a central role at the heart of the British Empire and his influence over Queen Victoria at a time when there was so much talk of sedition and unrest in India.Yet, at its heart it is a gentle friendship story between an ordinary Indian who was sent to serve the Queen for her Golden Jubilee, and who opens up a new world of culture to the ageing Monarch that survived the resentment, jealousy and racism that he caused amongst Victoria’s inner circle and the British Royal family who attempted to destroy this amity ,and took their revenge from him after the death of Kaiser El Hind.This research is a quest for rediscovering the Raj nostalgia by tracing how the Queen was surprisingly modern in her views on people from other cultures. Through the analysis of Victoria and Abdul: The True Story of The Queen’s Closest Confidant written by Shrabani Basu and which is adapted as a movie motion recently,this work aims at exploring the distorted relationship and cultural conflicts between India and Britain against the backdrop of a context wherein individuals failed to connect because the humanistic virtues, tolerance, sympathy and good temper were ineffective in a time of religious and racial discrimination. It is a story of an unknown Indian servant and his Queen, of an Empire and the Jewel in the Crown, and above all, of love and human relationships. On how a culture between different places are usually very diverse, the culture of an Englishman and an Indian are opposites. Despite the recent demands that try to reclaim any possible real synergy for the future ties between Britain and India on both the political and the economic fronts.