Royal Grace
By Dr Akbar Ahmed
American University
Washington, DC
The Queen complained of a "bumpy" year with the behavior of some members of her family in mind. She will find this article uplifting for the positive impact other members have had.
In October 2019, Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, visited Pakistan and utterly charmed the nation. They wore local dress like the shalwar-kameez, spoke Urdu, and expressed their heartfelt feelings for Pakistan and Pakistanis. Neither William nor Kate are known for glamorous dressing, yet in Pakistan they discovered their sense of fashion. William in his tight-fitting colorful silken sherwani and Kate in her glamorous shalwar-kameez looked like Mughal royalty. When the two emerged from a rickshaw, Pakistanis were impressed by the extent of their attempts to reach out to ordinary Pakistanis. Most Pakistanis were understandably thrilled when they heard the warm and enthusiastic description of their country from the prince and princess during their visit.
The young couple appreciated the hospitality and generosity they received and were impressed with the magnificence of the sights shown to them. Kate described the visit as “fantastic” and “really special.” “We’ve seen a lot of Pakistan, the huge variety,” she said, speaking of her packed itinerary in places like Islamabad and Lahore. William, while discussing the sacrifices Pakistanis have made during the current difficult part of their history after 9/11, paid tribute to those Pakistanis who “helped to build the country we see today.” Kate made her remarks in Lahore in her first ever television news interview after marrying the Duke eight years previously, to CNN, highlighting the importance given to the Pakistan visit. It was a royal tour in the true sense.
While visiting the Kalash Valley in Chitral the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wore local Kalasha attire and met the Kalasha community. It was a delight for me to see them in this mountainous area, following the royal family’s tradition of building bridges.
In their wearing of local dress and the destinations chosen, including Chitral and a cancer hospital founded by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, William and Kate were evoking and paying tribute to William’s mother Diana, Princess of Wales, who visited Pakistan in the 1990s and was a friend of Khan’s. The visit was truly in her spirit. Seeing the photos of the Prime Minister walking alongside William and Kate more than echoed him escorting Princess Diana in Pakistan when Khan was then struggling to create his cancer hospital. The beaming Khan looked more happy and carefree than he had in a long time. These were the moments that the people of both Pakistan and the UK will savor for a long time.
The visit had a huge impact on the local people. Khalid Salam, my class fellow and a former senior civil servant from a distinguished family, wrote to me from Lahore on the arrival of the royals with his thoughts: “After a long time, I started feeling good about my country with Prince William, also enjoying the title of Duke of Cambridge, and his beautiful wife Kate Duchess of Cambridge visiting us. Their calm, relaxed demeanor, captivating smiles, and warmth leaves a beautiful impression. More than William being in line to the throne, Pakistanis I feel like him because he is Diana’s son who it seems had a special place in her heart for Pakistan. Security for the visit, especially in view of the tense atmosphere these days, has obviously been of the top order. Here’s hoping the visit goes off exceptionally well and the young couple returns with the happiest of memories.”
It should be noted that the House of Windsor’s fondness for Pakistan goes back further than William’s mother to his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who, with the Duke of Edinburgh, visited the country in 1961. At that time, the Queen spent several days in the enchanted valley of Swat in the hills of northern Pakistan. This turned out to be a memorable trip in an extraordinarily beautiful part of the world.
I can personally vouch for the soft spot that some members of the royal family have for Pakistan.
I had the pleasure of knowing and advising both Prince Charles and Princess Diana on Pakistan and Islam (see Journey Into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity, Oxford University Press, 2019).
Intelligently sensitive to the culture of others, Prince Charles appeared in local dress in various Muslim countries and was also glimpsed in an oriental-looking coat, which stumped the British press as to its origin. Tabloids like the Evening Standard suggested Charles had “borrowed” it from Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts. In fact, the garment was from Chitral and I had presented it to him in the late 1990s. An amused Charles referred to it in a letter he sent me in 2000: “I wear your wonderful coat you gave me on frequent occasions at Highgrove. . . It causes many comments amongst those who see me in it and most people think it is Tibetan!” In 2005 I received a letter from Charles with a photograph in which he is wearing the coat while feeding chickens in the royal backyard, accompanied by a note written across it: “Just to prove I wear your coat!”
When I was invited to lecture on Islam to Princess Diana at the Royal Anthropological Institute in London in 1990, she impressed me with her curiosity and desire to be a bridge builder between different peoples. After my lecture she walked up to me and asked me how she could be involved in building bridges. She radiated compassion. Later she invited me for tea at the palace before her first solo visit to Pakistan. When she traveled to Pakistan in 1991, I advised her to quote the great poet Allama Iqbal and wear the shalwar-kameez and she did both. I suggested a beautiful verse of Iqbal underlining the common humanity that binds us and is driven by love which in essence is divine. She quoted the verse at the formal state dinner. The Pakistanis loved her and there were glowing reports paying her tribute in the Urdu press the next few days. She would visit the country three times.
When I presented her my book Discovering Islam after my lecture she held it with its cover facing outward. As she stepped out of the Institute’s office she found dozens of photographers waiting for her. Next day glorious pictures of a smiling princess holding my book were everywhere. “I’m not Diana’s Guru, says Top Academic,” headlined the Daily Express.
The most celebrated woman in the world had accepted the work of an obscure author and quite deliberately given it an extraordinary boost. This, it is well to point out, in a time of growing Islamophobia. For her act of kindness, I will always honor her memory.
There is a phrase well-known in many parts of the world: “what comes from the lips goes to the ears; what comes from the heart goes to the heart.” The royal family’s treatment of Pakistan and their reception by Pakistanis is a testament to this saying. William and Kate, like other royals such as Prince Charles and Princess Diana before them, were reflecting a lasting love affair with Pakistan and its people.
(Akbar Ahmed is Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC. He is author of Journey Into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity, Oxford University Press, 2019)
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