Although King Edward VII never returned to India himself, he sent first his brother and later his son, the future King George V (r. 1910–36), on royal tours of the South Asia in the hope of improving public perception of and loyalty to the Crown. Both the Prince of Wales and his wife, Princess Mary of Teck, fell in love with ‘dear beautiful India’.^[3] Following their initial visit in 1905–6, they returned to the subcontinent as Emperor and Empress for a Coronation Tour in 1911–12 (fig. 34), and made many acquisitions of South Asian works of art for the Royal Collection both there and later in Britain. King George V and Queen Mary amassed large souvenir scrapbooks and photograph albums documenting their tours and both annotated them on their return.^[4] During George V’s reign, South Asian art and literature gained increasing prominence in the West. Rabindranath Tagore became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, and 1935 saw the first exhibition of modern Indian art in London, to which Queen Mary loaned two of her own paintings.

King George V’s reign was however to witness war, rebellion and revolution which not only transformed Europe but had a momentous impact on the subcontinent. Britain’s post-war economic recession led to a sharp rise in taxes in India but not the rewards South Asians expected for their loyalty and the substantial contribution of men and material they had made to the war effort. Widespread demands for freedom eventually led to the end of British rule and independence for the subcontinent, though not without the violent and devastating endgame that was Partition.

ACQUISITIONS OF THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES 

Early signs of unrest came with the severe criticism in the Indian press of the pomp and extravagance of the imperial durbar organised by the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, to officially mark King Edward VII’s coronation (fig. 35). To the Viceroy’s great disappointment, the new King chose not to attend in person but instead sent his brother, the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. The elaborate celebrations lasted two weeks over the New Year 1902–3 and cost over £500,000, at a time when much of the western and central subcontinent was recovering from a severe famine. Curzon also scheduled a huge exhibition of Indian art and crafts, military reviews, sporting events and fireworks and closed the celebrations with a ball held in the Diwan-i Amm (‘Hall of Public Audience’) of the Red Fort. The coronation entertainments were regarded by many as excessive and an attempt to conceal the real poverty of India. Curzon’s exhibition came in for particular criticism as his economic policies were considered the direct cause of the collapse of Indian industry.^[5]

The Viceroy received even greater vilification in the Indian press following his partition of Bengal in 1905. In an attempt to promote divisions among the Bengali revolutionaries, he separated the province into a large, rich and predominantly Hindu West and a smaller, poorer, Muslim-majority East, claiming this would ease the administration of the region. Mounting political unrest prompted the first visit to South Asia of the Prince and Princess of Wales (the future King George V and Queen Mary). Their tour lasted from November 1905 to March 1906 (fig. 36) and was (indeed still is) the most extensive and far-reaching royal visit ever undertaken.^[6] Facing opposition at home and in India, Curzon resigned as Viceroy that August but, having organised their entire schedule, insisted he remain to welcome the royal couple. As before every foreign tour, the Princess of Wales carried out extensive research, reading at least 36 books on India in the months leading up to their departure.^[7] In a letter written at Agra, she wrote to a friend that Sir Walter Lawrence, her husband’s chief of staff, had remarked ‘you have a very good grasp of Indian affairs, quite remarkable in a woman’. ‘The religions too I know something of’, she continued, ‘Hindu, Muhammedan, & Buddhism [...]. All this knowledge, however small, helps one to take a keen interest in all one sees & I therefore enjoy to the utmost every detail of the wonderful sights.’^[8] In her diaries she described the Taj Mahal as ‘the most perfect + wonderful building, I should say in the world’.^[9] The Prince and Princess also met Abdul Karim in Agra as well as some of Queen Victoria’s other servants who had moved back to India after her death.

THE FATE OF QUEEN MARY’S COLLECTION

After the death of King George V in 1936 the now Dowager Queen Mary moved from Buckingham Palace to Marlborough House. It was around this time that she presented many of her books relating to India and much photographic and archival material to the India Office Library.^[36] She also gave away a number of her South Asian works of art, including a selection of Pahari portraits and decorative objects, to the Victoria and Albert Museum.^[37] As Queen Victoria earlier recorded, ‘a Queen Consort can do with her own things what she pleases’.^[38] During the Second World War, Queen Mary was again active in promoting the achievements of Indian forces in the war effort. Cornelia Sorabji, an eminent social reformer and the first woman to read law at Oxford University, suggested that Queen Mary compile and edit an anthology of poetry and prose to be called Queen Mary’s Book for India (fig. 37) all profits from which would go towards the Indian Comforts Fund based at India House. Queen Mary agreed, and renowned writers including T.S. Eliot and Dorothy L. Sayers contributed pieces on topics relating to the role that Indian men and women played in the world conflict. Queen Mary wrote the book’s introduction from Marlborough House in 1942, a message directed to the mothers of India’s fighting men.^[39]

INDEPENDENCE 

FOOTNOTES

^{[1] The original date of 26 June for the ceremony had been revised at short notice after the King took ill.}   

^{[2] For Curzon see Gilmour 1994 and Curzon Papers, BL IOPP MSS Eur F111 and F112.}   

^{[3] RA QM/PRIV/QMD: 19 March 1906.} 

^{[4] These are now divided between the Royal Archives and the Royal Commonwealth Society library, University of Cambridge.}   

^{[5] Codell ed. 2012, pp. 37–9.}   

^{[6] See Abbott 1906 and Reed 1906.} 

^{[7] Princess of Wales to Mlle Bricka, 13 September 1904: RA QM/PRIV/CC 44/86. Many of these books are now in the Royal Commonwealth Society library, University of Cambridge.}   

^{[8] Princess of Wales to Mlle Bricka, 13 September 1904: RA QM/PRIV/CC 44/92.} 

^{[9] RA QM/PRIV/QMD: 16 December 1905. See also 17 December 1905; 27 February 1906; BL IOPP MSS Eur F143/46 and BL IOPP MSS Eur F143/47.}

^{[10] Back in London, the Indian Princes were invited to dinners and their wives separately to afternoon parties hosted by Queen Mary. See RA QMD: November and December 1930.}

^{[11] Painted by the well-known artist M.F. Pithawalla, one of the first generation to graduate from the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay, this is now in the collection of the Royal Commonwealth Society, University of Cambridge (RCMS 89_70).}

^{[12] RA QM/PRIV/QMD: 27 November 1905.}

^{[13] Princess of Wales to Grand-Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Dehra Dun, 6 March 1906: RA QM/PRIV/CC24/45.}

^{[14] Prince of Wales to Lord Esher 1906, quoted in Rose 1983, p. 65.}

^{[15] Ibid., p. 66.}

^{[16] RA QM/PRIV/QMD: 13 December 1911.}

^{[17] RA QM/PRIV/QMD: 4 January 1912.}

^{[18] ‘Their Majesties’ Indian Gifts’, The Times, 25 May, 1912, p. 11.}

^{[19] RA GVD: 10 January 1912. For the wording of the address see Historical Record 1911, pp. 269–70.}

^{[20] RA GV/PRIV/AA37/40}

^{[21] Pope-Hennessy 1987, p. 462.} 

^{[22] For India’s contribution to the war effort, see Basu 2015.}

^{[23] Ibid.}

^{[24] Ibid., pp. 43–4.}

^{[25] RCINS 1128080, 1128096, 1171549, 1128002, 1128025, 1128026 and 1128029.} 

^{[26] Gandhi 2013, pp. 285–6.}

^{[27] Letter from the Maharajah of Bikaner to Clive Wigram: RA N563/41, p. 8.}

^{[28] Public letter addressed to Lord Chelmsford, Viceroy of India, published in The Statesman, a leading English-language Indian newspaper, 3 June 1919, and in the Modern Review, a Calcutta monthly, July 1919.}

^{[29] See Fisher and Read 1997; Judd 1996.} 

^{[30] See Mitter 2007, p. 213.}

^{[31] RA QM/PRIV/QMD: 8 July 1930 and 29 October 1930. For the rivalry between the Bengal and Bombay schools see Mitter 2007, chapter 4, ‘Contested Nationalism: The New Delhi and India House Murals’.}

^{[32] Mitter 2007, p. 223 and note 194. In a letter to Dhurandhar dated 28 March 1931, Wilson wrote: ‘It was of course a great honour that Her Majesty, the Queen should have desired the picture, and I was very proud to be able to present it to her, but I was, at the same time, not unnaturally, sorry to part with it, and am glad indeed to think that a copy will soon be hanging on the wall.’}

^{[33] RA QM/PRIV/QMD: 5 November 1931.}

^{[34] Quoted in Fisher and Read 1997, p. 242.} 

^{[35] See Copland 1997, pp. 144–82.}

^{[36] For a list of the items presented see BL IOPP MSS Eur F303/196.}

^{[37] These included Pahari-style portraits of Sikh rulers and costume paintings on mica.}

^{[38] RA VIC/ADD/A7/406.}

^{[39] See BL IOPP MSS Eur F165/202: correspondence, contributions, proofs and reviews of Queen Mary’s Book for India, edited by Cornelia Sorabji in support of the Indian Comforts Fund. For Cornelia Sorabji see Sorabji 2010.}

^{[40] Draft Declaration for Discussion with Indian Leaders, published 30 March 1942.}

^{[41] Letter dated 9 November 1947, RA QEII/ADD/MISC.}

^{[42] Pope-Hennessy 1987, p. 397. Mary was consciously echoing Mary I who, after the English loss of Calais in 1558, is believed to have said ‘When I am dead and opened, you shall find “Philip” and “Calais” lying in my heart.’}

^{[43] Pope-Hennessy 1987, p. 621.}