QUEEN VICTORIA was the “Empress of India”, but what did she really think of Indians and India?
Kensington Palace, which is inaugurating a new exhibition on Queen Victoria on May 24 to mark her 200th birth anniversary, has consulted a number of historians, including Professor Miles Taylor of York University, author of Empress: Queen Victoria and India, who spoke last month to Eastern Eye.
To get an Indian perspective, the palace also incorporated the “nuanced” views of Dr Priya Atwal, who did her PhD on Queen Victoria as a student at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She is now a teaching fellow in modern south Asian history at King’s College London.
Atwal’s PhD thesis, which she has given to Polly Putman, curator of the forthcoming exhibition, focused on Queen Victoria’s relationship with the family of Maharajah Ranjit Singh and especially his son, Duleep Singh, to whom she was “deeply sympathetic”.
“I spent a lot of time in the royal archives at Windsor Castle and at the British Library in London and various other archives trying to piece together correspondence, the diaries, the photograph albums,” the historian reveals. Atwal says although Queen Victoria became “Empress of India” in 1876, following the uprising in 1857, the monarch’s interest in India dated back almost to 1837 when she came to the throne.
This was a passion she was to share with her scholarly husband, Prince Albert, from their marriage in 1840 until his death in 1861.
She does not whitewash Queen Victoria but Atwal’s central thesis is that during her reign from 1837 to 1901 – only the current monarch has been on the throne longer – Queen Victoria did her best to make British rule in India as “benevolent” as possible.
Atwal is wary of using today’s morality to judge Queen Victoria and events from the past, but nevertheless asserts: “She was not a racist, she was an orientalist – she did respect the cultural difference and was very fascinated by it. It was a much more complex, nuanced way of looking at different civilisations.”
“My view of this is that she understands royal blood – people’s blood as being different rather than skin colour,” Atwal goes on.
“Someone like Duleep Singh she sees as an equal because he is of royal blood – he is a Christian as well.”
Atwal refers to Lord Dalhousie, the governor-general of India from 1848 to 1856, who seized the Kohinoor diamond as war booty and gave it to Queen Victoria.
“Dalhousie thinks Duleep Singh is inferior to him because he is brown whereas Victoria sees Duleep Singh as the superior figure because he is royal. Can you see how that would irritate a British government minister? You want to have control over these Indian royals in order to make the Raj work and the British Queen is an irritation in that sense.”
“She did want to have a close relationship with India and for the government of her empire to be a benevolent thing,” explains Atwal.
Queen Victoria’s royal proclamation of 1858, after the British government back in London had taken over direct control of India from the East India Company, was later hailed by Indian nationalists, including Mahatma Gandhi, as “the Magna Carta of India”.
“Victoria uses the proclamation to say (to Indians), ‘from now on you are going to be my subjects just as much as the British subjects – you are entitled to the same rights and privileges’.
“The proclamation is meant to be offering Indians freedom of religious worship and to assure the maharajahs that none of their states are going to be taken over as long as they remain loyal.
“This is the first time they have a secretary of state for India,” Atwal says.
“You have the viceroy created as well, and the viceroy is meant to represent the crown in India.
“Victoria takes on this image of the Mother Queen and because of the way the proclamation is phrased, she has a liberal image in a public domain.”
But she also makes the point: “At the end of the day it was still an empire. She wasn’t going to give freedom to Indians in that sense. It was still all about enhancing the power of the Crown – you can’t take that away.
“She believes in the power of royalty, she believed monarchs had a right to rule. Of course, she understood it had to be in a responsible constitutional way, that times had changed. She was deeply sympathetic to Duleep Singh and really wanted him to maintain his royal status but was she ever going to give him the Punjab or the Kohinoor back? No, of course, she wasn’t going to.”
That said, Queen Victoria corresponded directly with the Begums of Bhopal, and “met the Maharajah and Maharani of Cooch Behar – she loved them. She thought they were beautiful and glamorous.”
But when, “Duleep Singh’s mother Jind Kaur comes to London in 1861, Victoria never meets her. It is also the time that Albert dies. Victoria’s private court is involved in trying to keep Duleep Singh and his mother separate because there were fears he would backslide into native ways if he is influenced by his mother. Victoria continues to speak to Duleep Singh in this time, but she never meets Jind Kaur.”
Atwal concludes: “The empire perspective needs to be added to Victoria’s story. That is why it is so nice to work with Historical Royal Palaces.”
A FORMER West Yorkshire Police officer has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison after being convicted of misconduct in a public office.
Wasim Bashir, 55, who worked as a detective constable in Bradford District, was found guilty of one count of misconduct in a public office for forming a sexual relationship with a female victim of crime. He was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, 29 August.
Bashir retired from the force while under investigation but will still face misconduct proceedings.
The charge related to an incident of abuse of position for a sexual purpose, with Bashir engaging in a sexual relationship with a woman who had reported to West Yorkshire Police that she had been the victim of a sexual offence. He was involved in investigating her case.
The conviction followed an investigation by West Yorkshire Police’s Counter Corruption Unit under the direction of the Independent Office for Police Conduct. During the trial, the judge directed the jury to find Bashir not guilty of a second count of misconduct in a public office.
Detective Superintendent Natalie Dawson, Deputy Head of West Yorkshire Police’s Professional Standards Directorate, said: “For a police officer to pursue a sexual relationship with a vulnerable woman who had come forward to report being victim of a sexual offence is nothing short of abhorrent.
“I want to reassure victims of crime and the wider public that this former officer is not representative of our organisation. One of the Force’s key purposes is to protect vulnerable people, and our officers and staff work tirelessly to protect people from harm and to safeguard victims.
“Former DC Bashir has retired from the organisation, but we will still continue with misconduct proceedings with a view to him being banned from gaining any further employment in the policing profession.”
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Protesters calling for the closure of The Bell Hotel, which was housing asylum seekers, gather outside the council offices in Epping on August 8, 2025. (Photo: Getty Images)
Court of Appeal has overturned injunction blocking use of Epping hotel for asylum seekers.
Judges say human rights obligations outweigh local safety concerns.
At least 13 councils preparing legal action despite ruling.
Protests outside the Bell Hotel lead to arrests and police injuries.
MORE than a dozen councils are moving ahead with legal challenges against the use of hotels for asylum seekers despite the Home Office winning an appeal in the Court of Appeal.
Judges ruled that meeting the human rights of asylum seekers by providing accommodation outweighed local safety concerns.
The injunction was secured by Epping Forest District Council after protests following the alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl by an Ethiopian asylum seeker.
The man has been charged and denies wrongdoing. A full hearing on the planning dispute over the Bell Hotel will take place in October.
At least 13 councils are preparing similar legal action, The Times reported, including Labour-run Wirral, Stevenage, Tamworth and Rushmoor. Epping Forest Council said it may appeal to the Supreme Court.
Asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle said the government remained committed to ending hotel use by 2029 and argued the appeal was needed to move migrants “in a controlled and orderly way”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the government for prioritising “the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of British people” and urged councils to continue legal action.
Reform leader Nigel Farage said the government had used the European Convention on Human Rights “against the people of Epping”.
Councils including Broxbourne and Spelthorne confirmed they were pressing ahead with enforcement action on planning grounds.
Protests outside the Bell Hotel on Friday led to the arrest of three men, while two police officers sustained minor injuries.
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India and Canada have appointed new envoys in a step to restore diplomatic ties strained since 2023. (Representational image: iStock)
INDIA and Canada on Thursday announced the appointment of new envoys to each other’s capitals, in a step aimed at restoring strained ties following the killing of a Sikh separatist in 2023.
India has named senior diplomat Dinesh K Patnaik as the next high commissioner to Ottawa, while Canada appointed Christopher Cooter as its new envoy to New Delhi.
The move comes more than two months after Indian prime minister Narendra Modi met Canadian prime minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the G7 summit at Kananaskis in Canada.
Patnaik, a 1990-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, is currently India’s ambassador to Spain.
“He is expected to take up the assignment shortly,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
In Ottawa, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand announced that Cooter will be the next high commissioner to India, succeeding Cameron MacKay.
“The appointment of a new high commissioner reflects Canada’s step-by-step approach to deepening diplomatic engagement and advancing bilateral cooperation with India,” Anand said. “This appointment is an important development toward restoring services for Canadians while strengthening the bilateral relationship to support Canada’s economy.”
A Canadian statement described the appointments as an important step towards restoring diplomatic services for citizens and businesses in both countries.
Cooter, who has 35 years of diplomatic experience, most recently served as Canada’s charge d’affaires to Israel and has earlier been high commissioner to South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Mauritius and Madagascar. He also worked as first secretary at the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi from 1998 to 2000.
In June, Modi and Carney had agreed to take “constructive” steps to bring stability to bilateral ties, including the early return of envoys to both capitals.
Relations between the two countries had deteriorated sharply after then prime minister Justin Trudeau alleged in 2023 that India may have had a role in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Following this, India recalled its high commissioner and five other diplomats in October last year, while expelling an equal number of Canadian diplomats after Ottawa linked them to the case.
Carney’s victory in the parliamentary election in April has since helped initiate a reset in relations.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Security officers escort Sri Lankan former fisheries minister, Rajitha Senaratne (C), outside a court in Colombo on August 29, 2025. (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP via Getty Images)
SRI LANKAN former government minister surrendered himself to a court on Friday (29) after two months on the run, the latest high profile detention in a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown.
Anti-graft units have ramped up their investigations since president Anura Kumara Dissanayake came to power in September on a promise to fight corruption.
Former fisheries minister Rajitha Senaratne, who served in the cabinet of then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa, is accused of illegally awarding a 2012 contract to a foreign firm, allegedly causing a loss to the state of $83,000 (£61,478).
Senaratne had repeatedly dodged questioning, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption said.
High Court judge Lanka Jayaratne ordered him transferred to a lower court to face multiple cases.
Several politicians from the Rajapaksa administration, as well as family members, are either in jail or on bail pending corruption investigations.
Former president Ranil Wickremesinghe was arrested last week on a charge of misusing $55,000 (£40,738) of government funds for a private stopover in Britain.
Wickremesinghe, 76, who was granted bail on Tuesday (26), insisted the stopover was part of his official duties.
Under Dissanayake, two former senior ministers have been jailed for up to 25 years for corruption.
The police chief has been impeached, after he was accused of running a criminal network that supported politicians, and the prisons chief was jailed for corruption.
The head of immigration -- arrested just before Dissanayake took power -- remains in detention on a charge of contempt of court.
(AFP)
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Protesters from the group Save Our Future & Our Kids Future demonstrate against uncontrolled immigration outside the Cladhan Hotel on August 16, 2025 in Falkirk, Scotland. (Photo: Getty Images)
UK appeals court overturns ruling blocking hotel use for asylum seekers
Judges call earlier High Court decision “seriously flawed”
138 asylum seekers will not need to be relocated by September 12
Full hearing scheduled at the Court of Appeal in October
A UK appeals court has overturned a lower court order that had temporarily blocked the use of a hotel in Epping, northeast of London, to house asylum seekers.
A three-judge panel said the High Court ruling that set a September 12 deadline to move migrants from the Bell Hotel contained "a number of errors".
The case followed protests outside the hotel after a resident was charged with sexually assaulting a local girl. Demonstrations have continued for weeks and at times turned violent, triggering debate on immigration policy.
The Court of Appeal said the earlier ruling was "seriously flawed in principle" and could act as an "impetus or incentive for further protests". It added that it failed to consider the "obvious consequence that the closure of one site means capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system".
The government will now not be required to relocate 138 asylum seekers from the hotel by September 12. The decision also weakens local efforts to challenge the use of other hotels to house asylum seekers.
The Home Office is legally required under a 1999 law to house "all destitute asylum seekers whilst their asylum claims are being decided".
The case will return for a full hearing at the Court of Appeal in October. Both the Home Office and the hotel’s owner, Somani Hotels, are opposing Epping Forest District Council’s bid to prevent the hotel being used for asylum accommodation.
The council argued that the hotel posed a public safety risk and that its use breached planning rules.
The hotel became the focus of national attention after resident Hadush Kebatu was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. He has denied the charges, which include sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, and harassment without violence. His trial began this week.
Protests in Epping have since spread to other parts of Britain, as small boat arrivals across the Channel continue.