Elusive and tragic, Princess Victoria Gouramma (1841–64) was an unlikely immigrant to 1850s England, who was solidified as a symbol of the Crown’s civilising mission through varied imperial visual representations of the time. Displaced from her homeland and culture, she was anglicised and Christianised, and yet never truly considered Victorian royalty.

The Queen’s favourite artist foregrounded Gouramma’s “oriental’” exotic Indian heritage in his painting as well as her conversion to Christianity (notice the Bible in her hand gifted by the Queen herself). This articulation of her position as both a Christian Victorian subject while still being the oriental “native” princess, as seen through the eyes of the Empire, continues through her short life.

The Ex–Rajah of Coorg, and his Daughter the Princess Gouramma, and Suite. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 17 July 1852.; English School ; 19th century; Engraving; Look and Learn History Pictures Archive

In the marble bust, gifted by the Queen to Prince Albert on his birthday, she wears the crucifix over her sari while the photograph pictures her donning a gown and a pared-down hairstyle; a far cry from the jewels, ornamental headdress and gold-lined sarees.

Gouramma was initially orientalised due to the general disdain towards her father, Chikka Virarajendra, who had offered her as a ward to the Crown to appeal for his reinstatement as the king of Coorg. While Gouramma was a religious convert and appeared in public embodying Europeanism, the Rajah remained an oriental “other”, an “old reprobate” according to Lord Dalhousie, the then Governor-General of India. In an October 1852 news report, the Rajah’s opulence was panned as “barbaric”, but Gouramma is described to have a “disposition most amiable and considered to be very intelligent”, a model “native”. On the day of her baptism on June 30th, 1852, the Queen wrote in her journal, “The dear child behaved beautifully, with so much composure, dignity & grace. I led her to the front & named her…” 

Princess Gouramma.; Franz Xaver Winterhalter; c. 1852; Oil on canvas; 153.2 x 91.8 cm ; Royal Collection Trust
Princess Gouramma of Coorg.; Baron Carlo Marochetti; c.1852–6; Marble, painted in watercolour, gilded alabaster, slate (rock), gilt sculpted, parcel gilt, watercolour painting; 68.0 x 38.0 x 24.0 cm; Royal Collection Trust
Princess Victoria Gouramma of Coorg.; Roger Fenton; 1854; Albumen print; 19.0 x 14.7 cm; Royal Collection Trust
Page 297 from Queen Victoria’s Journals; Queen Victoria; 30 June 1852; The Royal Family

When Gouramma died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-two, the Queen told her guardian, Lady Lena Login, of her plans to erect a marble memorial: “the fact of [me] having been godmother to the poor Indian child may not be forgotten.” From her baptism to her death, Gouramma’s image was irrevocably tied with narratives about the Empire. However, despite her own longing to find her place in 1850s England, she remained a “subaltern” Victoria to all around her.

Chandrica Barua holds a master’s in Medieval Literatures and Cultures from the University of Edinburgh, UK and a bachelor’s in English from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University. She is currently a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, researching posthumanism, critical race theory and archives of global coloniality. Chandrica edits and contributes to research and scripts for Impart’s Online Courses. She is currently based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.