- indenturedadjectiveChapter 1 →
Bound by a formal contract to work for an employer for a set period, often under exploitative conditions and with little freedom to leave — a system widely used to move cheap labour across the British Empire.
- MunshinounChapter 1 →
An Urdu word for a teacher or language instructor; in this play it refers specifically to the role Abdul Karim held as Queen Victoria's personal Indian teacher and secretary.
- lascarnounChapter 1 →
A South Asian or Southeast Asian sailor employed on European ships, typically in low-paid and dangerous roles; the word was in common use in the British Empire era.
- court ritualsphraseChapter 1 →
The fixed, formal ceremonies and rules of behaviour that governed daily life around the royal household, often more about displaying power and hierarchy than any practical purpose.
- camaraderienounChapter 1 →
A warm sense of friendship and mutual loyalty that grows between people who share difficult experiences or a common outsider status.
- imperial hierarchyphraseChapter 1 →
The ranked order of power within the British Empire, placing the monarch and British-born subjects above colonised peoples, and used here to describe the social distance between Victoria and Abdul.
- petitionersnounChapter 2 →
People who formally approach someone in power to make a request or plea, hoping for a favour, ruling, or relief that only that authority can grant.
- composed stillnessphraseChapter 2 →
A deliberate, outwardly calm and unreadable manner that a person in power uses to project authority and keep others uncertain about her true feelings or intentions.
- ruleverbChapter 2 →
To govern or exercise supreme authority over others; in this text used to contrast ruling through affection with ruling through the threat of past ruthless action.
“I do not rule by love. I rule by the memory of what I was willing to do.”
- erasurenounChapter 2 →
The deliberate destruction or suppression of a person's history, letters, and memory, so that no trace of their existence or influence survives — used here about what was done to Abdul Karim's legacy.
- defiancenounChapter 2 →
Open, stubborn refusal to submit to a power or authority that is trying to silence or remove you; here it describes the emotional tone with which the play ends.
- keepsakesnounChapter 2 →
Small personal objects or letters kept as reminders of a person or relationship; their destruction in the play represents the deliberate wiping out of Abdul's bond with Victoria.
The EmpressPlay by Tanika Gupta