She was Queen Victoria's goddaughter. At 16, forgot her language. Meet the Indian princess adopted by British royalty but never accepted

At the age of 11, she went to England and became the goddaughter of Queen Victoria. However, Princess Gouramma’s story was far from being a fairy tale. Today, it remains a cautionary tale about the limits of cultural assimilation and how immigration can often demand a huge price for racial minorities.

A Royal Childhood Shattered By Colonial Conquest

Princess Gouramma was born into Indian royalty, the cherished daughter of Chikka Virarajendra, the last sovereign ruler of the Kodagu kingdom, more commonly known as Coorg. However, her privileged beginnings were soon interrupted by a pivotal historical conflict. On April 24, 1834 CE, the Coorg War ended in defeat for her father, resulting in his dethronement by the British East India Company. Acting under the directives of Army officer James Stuart Fraser, the British forces formally annexed Coorg into their growing dominion, incorporating the territory into British India. The defeated monarch was relocated as a political detainee to Benaras, where he spent approximately 14 years in enforced exile.

Voyage to an Alien World

In 1852, the deposed king embarked on a voyage that would drastically alter his daughter's fate. With eleven-year-old Gouramma by his side, he journeyed to London. The objective was twofold: to petition the British authorities for the restitution of his seized assets and to ensure that his daughter was afforded security and protection under the Christian faith. It was during this trip that both father and daughter became the first documented Indians to set foot in Britain. The king, guided by his close confidante Dr. William Jeafersson, prioritized the discussion of Gouramma’s upbringing and welfare in the British court before pursuing claims to his property.

A Queen's Patronage, A Princess's Rebirth

Upon arrival, Princess Gouramma caught the attention of Queen Victoria. The British monarch formally adopted her as a goddaughter, bestowing upon her the name Victoria Gouramma of Coorg. This symbolic christening marked her official entry into British aristocracy. Though it seemed like a dream opportunity, it instead laid the foundation for a complex and ultimately tragic life.

Cultural Erosion and the Loss of Identity

According to Chandrica Barua in her scholarly article ‘Poor Little Princess’: Queen Victoria’s Court as a Site of Imperial Conquest,' Gouramma’s life in Victorian Britain was not one of warmth and welcome, but of calculated display and cultural estrangement. Barua described how the young princess, forcibly detached from her homeland and roots in the 1850s, underwent a sweeping transformation. She was converted to Christianity, forced into English customs, trained in Western etiquette, and paraded as a symbol of imperial success—a colonial trophy. Despite being presented as a civilizational triumph of the Empire, she never truly found a place in the restrictive and racially charged environment of Queen Victoria’s court.

Placed under the guardianship of Major and Mrs. Drummond, a British military couple, Princess Gouramma was systematically distanced from her heritage. Educated in the ways of the West, she embraced the external trappings of Victorian high society. Contemporary accounts described her as graceful, vivacious, and adept in social settings, but these traits masked the silent dislocation she experienced.

Language Lost, Roots Severed

Barua highlighted Queen Victoria’s frequent references to her in her diaries, often using the phrase “poor little princess.” This phrase, though affectionate on the surface, reflected the condescension and racialized pity directed toward Gouramma. The British elite viewed her father with suspicion and disdain, often describing him as a "hoary reprobate," a relic of Asiatic despotism, morally questionable and a bad influence.

Barua cited recollections from Gouramma’s imperial guardians that confirmed a disturbing cultural erasure. The princess, over time, lost all connection to her mother tongue, Kannada, and became incapable of speaking with her father. By her teenage years, any curiosity or concern for her homeland had been deliberately subdued, and she showed indifference to Coorg’s political or cultural affairs.

Romantic Misfortunes and a Crumbling Facade

In Victoria Gouramma: The Lost Princess of Coorg, author C. P. Belliappa detailed the emotional void in Gouramma’s personal life. She sought love in forbidden places—initially with a stablehand and later with a butler named George Christmas while living with Colonel Vernon Harcourt and his wife, Lady Catherine Harcourt. These relationships, although brief, underscore her longing for companionship.

Queen Victoria had aspirations of orchestrating a royal union between Princess Gouramma and Maharaja Duleep Singh, another royal orphan absorbed into the British establishment. However, the relationship between the two godchildren never blossomed romantically. Instead, they developed a close, sibling-like friendship. Duleep Singh, recognizing the limits of British acceptance, eventually arranged her marriage to Colonel John Campbell—a military officer five decades her senior.

Prejudice Cloaked In Politeness

Despite her formal inclusion in British high society, Gouramma faced subtle but entrenched racial biases. Chandrica Barua cited Lady Login’s journal entries, which described Gouramma's desperate attempts to be embraced by her husband’s family.

"'It was pathetic, the eagerness with which poor Gouramma identified herself with her husband's family,'" Login wrote in her notes.

Lady Login’s tone appeared mocking, reflecting the underlying sentiment that no amount of Westernization could make an Indian woman truly acceptable within elite British circles. Even though she had been baptised, educated, and Anglicised, Gouramma remained an outsider in the eyes of many—suitable only for symbolic unions with other colonized elites, not as an equal within the British gentry.

Sickness, Solitude, And Betrayal

Outwardly maintaining appearances, Gouramma’s inner world was deteriorating. Chronic illness gnawed at her body — she frequently suffered from bouts of coughing and weakness. Her emotional pain deepened when she realized the true nature of her marriage. Colonel Campbell, it turned out, was less interested in her as a partner and more concerned with the wealth she had brought into the relationship. The dream of stability and love faded into a harsh reality of neglect and exploitation.

Historian Dr. Priya Atwal revealed in a The Quint report that Queen Victoria had prohibited Gouramma from seeing her father, fearing he would "corrupt" her with his “heathen” and native influences. This further cemented her emotional isolation.

In 1861, Gouramma gave birth to her daughter, Edith. However, rather than basking in motherhood, she was forced into the role of a solitary parent, for Campbell had no interest in fatherhood. Two years later, at the tender age of 22, Gouramma lost her life to tuberculosis. She died in obscurity, having endured a lifetime of alienation, exploitation, and cultural loss.

Legacy And Rediscovery

For decades, it was assumed that Princess Gouramma’s bloodline ended with her. However, C. P. Belliappa later discovered that her legacy lived on. As reported in The Deccan Herald, Belliappa was contacted by Anne Phillips, a descendant of Campbell and his first wife, Margaret Mathew. Phillips shared rare, previously unseen photographs of Gouramma and her daughter Edith from her family's private collection.

Further tracing revealed that one of Gouramma’s great-great-grandsons, Robert Yardley, resides in Australia. Despite this continuation of her bloodline, the memory of the princess remains obscure in popular discourse.

Her grave lies neglected in Brompton Cemetery, London—a solemn monument to a life that began in royalty and ended in loneliness. Gouramma’s story, filled with displacement, unreciprocated love, and quiet resilience, stands as a powerful reminder of the often-overlooked personal costs of colonialism. Her journey, while paved with imperial promises, ultimately revealed the harsh limitations of cultural assimilation and the enduring scars of racial marginalization.