A study of prominent figures drawn by a late nineteenth-century British magazine reveals what went into choosing subjects on whom the sun would never set
Queen Victoria and her Indian servant Abdul Karim. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Vanity Fair was one of the most celebrated society magazines in Victorian Britain, appearing weekly from 1868 to 1914. One of its most eagerly awaited features was its caricatures of prominent people. The South Asian Cinema Foundation had the brilliant idea of investigating the extent to which non-British celebrities were included among the magazine’s chosen subjects.
Dr Kusum Pant Joshi and her indefatigable team of researchers identified 28 Asian and African celebrities and diligently researched their biographies. Foreign sovereigns included in this list tended to be because they ruled countries in which Britain had a particular interest because of the great game of imperial diplomacy and international power politics. This would explain the presence of two successive Khedives of Egypt, Sultan Mulay Hasan of Morocco, Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia, Emperor Gojong of Korea, Sultan Abu Bakar of Johore and Crown Prince Vajiravudh of Siam.
There were thirteen Indian entries. With few exceptions, the Indians represented were princes or rulers who were being cultivated by the British government. They were favoured with audiences with Queen Victoria, invitations to grand royal events, stays at Buckingham Palace. Orders of knighthood and other decorations and honours were lavished on them. Many bought or rented handsome English country houses. There seems to have been a conscious attempt to incorporate them into British high society. British favour seems to have been directed to those princes who were seen to be modernising and westernising their states.
Sporting prowess attracted admiration, transcending race. Ranjitsinhji, the Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, became a cricketing legend and was the first non-white to play Test cricket. Sir Pratap Singh, Chief Minister of Jodhpur, was a superb polo player.
With few exceptions, the Indians represented were princes or rulers who were being cultivated by the British government. They were favoured with audiences with Queen Victoria, invitations to grand royal events, stays at Buckingham Palace.
This book is a tremendous achievement, opening up an invaluable insight into the mindset of the British establishment at the high noon of Empire. It is beautifully produced, handsomely illustrated and compulsively readable.
Kusum Pant Joshi: Selective Inclusion? African & Asian Celebrities in London’s ‘Vanity Fair’ magazine (1868-1914)
The author is Emeritus Professor of Cultural History at Lancaster University