York-based historian Miles Taylor has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize for his book on Queen Victoria and India.

Seen from our world view today, the story of British rule in India is something many people in this country would rather forget.
Queen Victoria was fascinated by India even though she never went there. (Picture: PA Wire).Queen Victoria was fascinated by India even though she never went there. (Picture: PA Wire).
Queen Victoria was fascinated by India even though she never went there. (Picture: PA Wire).

It’s also one that has been systematically dismantled in India itself. However, during Queen Victoria’s reign it was a very different story, and it’s one that author Miles Taylor, professor of modern history at the University of York, examines in his excellent book Empress: Queen Victoria and India.

It’s a compelling account highlighting not only her cultural, political and diplomatic influence on India, but also how closely involved with the country she became, despite never setting foot in the country.

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The book throws fresh light on the British Raj and Taylor is one of six authors shortlisted for this year’s prestigious Wolfson History Prize, with the winner of the £40,000 prize named at a ceremony at Claridge’s Hotel next month.

“If you read Victoria’s correspondence it’s clear that the empire was very important to her, and particularly India,” says Taylor. “I think early on it was an element of the unknown and the exotic because it was a part of the world where the empire was expanding.”

The Indian people were equally fascinated by her. “There were a lot of popular biographies and illustrations of her and they’re quite Indianised versions, so she was made to look more like an Indian princess. Indian culture has a long tradition of kingship and queenship and what they do is incorporate Victoria into that tradition.”

Victoria saw foreign policy as one of the very few areas where she could exert some influence. “The empire was involved in the extraction of wealth and dominance over the people of India without giving them any form of representative government. But what’s interesting is Queen Victoria was not part of the criticism levelled at the British government back in the 19th century. For many Indian reformers she was seen as part of the solution not the problem, because although she never visited she symbolised justice and fairness and they see her as a stick with which to beat the British officials in India. So she becomes this kind of patriotic figure for a lot of Indians during her lifetime.”

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After she died in 1901, there were countless parks, statues and hospitals named after her. Her legacy, though, was short lived.

“After the First World War it all changed quickly. It’s a hundred years since the Amritsar massacre and that was a major turning point in attitudes towards the British monarchy in India,” says Taylor.

Today, most remnants of the British empire have been expunged. “All the statues have gone, there’s only the Queen Victoria Memorial Hall left in Calcutta. India is a proud, democratic republic and it’s done a lot to remove all the reminders of colonialism, so if Queen Victoria is mentioned it’s usually in the same breath as British colonialism.

“What my book is trying to say is it’s a rather different story if you go back to the 19th century.”

Empress: Queen Victoria and India, published by Yale University Press, is out now.

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