context

Queen Victoria + Abdul

• forced out of royal life and erased from memory after her death

• first a servant, then a friend and Munshi

• little understanding of Indian culture before she met him

• challenged racist social boundaries

Gender roles

• limited opportunities outside the domestic sphere

• at this stage in England’s history, women had not yet secured voting/education rights

• Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 (men no longer financially resposible for illegitimate children)

East India Company + British Raj

• drain of resources theory

• Koh-i-Noor diamond (1849) is still in the Queen mother’s crown

• famines

independence

• Indian National Congress wanted independence

• Naoroji (The Grand Old Man of India)

• support the Indian advocacy for Home Rule

Lascars

• physical labour in Clan Line ships

• lascars not counted in death toll (ship sinking)

• lascars had less food, became very ill (boiler room work)

ayahs

• limited employee protections, faced abuse/mistreatment

• dismissal at docks was normal

Poverty + workhouse

• Poor Law Amendment Act

• workhouses were harsh (families split, hard labour, basic food) only the most desperate would go (discourage laziness/cut costs)

• poverty was a moral failure

• social reform in the end

Victorian Era

• play begins in 1887

• throughout Queen Victoria/the British Empire’s rule