CollectionVictorian Papers, Main Series
ReferenceVIC/MAIN/QVJ/HIND
TitleQueen Victoria's 'Hindustani Diaries'
Date1892-1900
DescriptionWithin a few weeks of their arrival in 1887, Queen Victoria notes in her journal that '[I] am learning a few words of Hindustani [Urdu] to speak to my [Indian] servants'. This progressed to writing lessons from Mohammed Abdul Karim whose role had become that of the Queen's Indian Secretary and 'Munshi', or teacher. The volumes in this series appear to be the record of the daily exercises the Queen undertook, as a section of her daily journal entry is written in Urdu. As the first 7 volumes of those that survive here are numbered 6-12 on the covers, there may have been at least 13 volumes in all. The final volume in the series appears to be a vocabulary and phrase book probably written by the Munshi himself.
LanguageUrdu
English
Extent9 volumes
Physical Description8 black and gold volumes and 1 small red and gold volume
Access ConditionsAvailable in surrogate form only
LevelSub-series
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