THE TRADER

Dwarkanath Tagore

1794–1846

Throughout her long reign, a series of maharajahs and merchants, Hindu and Muslim reformers, princes and princesses came from India to see Queen Victoria. One of the first to be presented at court was Bengali landowner and merchant Dwarkanath Tagore, grandfather of the Nobel prize-winning artist and poet Rabindranath Tagore. He arrived in 1842, and joined the royal party on Victoria’s first state visit to Scotland.

Unlike most Indians, Tagore profited from British colonialism in India, making his fortune out of trading in indigo, opium and cotton. Prosperity brought loyalty, something that could be seen in Indian communities like the Parsi businessmen of Mumbai, who studded their city streets with statues and public buildings to commemorate the queen-empress. Victoria sketched Tagore on 16 June 1842, commenting in her journal: “He was in his native dress, all of beautiful shawls with trousers in gold & red tissue, & a tartan as in this little sketch.” Tagore died in London in 1846, many miles from home, and is buried in Kensal Green cemetery.

Queen Victoria’s sketch of Dwarkanath Tagore after he was presented at court, and ( left, inset) a wood engraving of the Bengali merchant