An Introduction to Indian Title Badges
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AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN TITLE BADGES ED HAYNES Introduction to centralize these titles. The morass of regional titles, Rajas, Nawabs, Dewan Bahadurs, Rai Bahadurs, Khan Arguably, the title badges which the British awarded Sahibs, Sardars, and others, constituted an important, in India, for Indian services (and to Indians alone) are but confusing patchwork of honors. While the award of some of the least understood but most interesting of these titles usually was accompanied by formal robes or pre-1947 British awards for India. Few of the standard turbans, the preferred accompaniment to these honors was reference books even acknowledge the existence of these financial in nature and these often large sums of money awards and their important role has been consistently involved in bestowing honors in the form of titles was, and studiously overlooked, though they have not always understandably, another area of concern for the British been so ignored in recent auction prices. In part, this may as they had become the rulers of India, for their eye were reflect biases within the collecting fraternity, as these focused on the balance sheets. awards were bestowed only on Indians and never on natives of the British Isles. The historical importance of In 1910, King-Emperor Edward VII died and his son these badges and the often fascinating research results ascended the throne as King-Emperor George V. The which they can yield make them deserving of focused new ruler, who had visited India while Prince of Wales, and detailed treatment. wished to supplement his coronation as king (in London) with an elaborately concocted orientalist ceremony to be Titles had been awarded since before even Sultanate held in India at which he would be crowned as emperor and Mughal times in India (that is, since before the 13th of India. This would be the first (and only) time that a century C.E.) and remain one of the important indigenous king-emperor would visit his Indian domains in person, means of recognizing achievement. A title, sometimes and it became a moment of major symbolic celebratory inheritable and sometimes not, could be appended as a announcements (such as transferring the capital from part of one’s personal name, and was often used often Calcutta to Delhi and making it possible for the first time in lieu of that personal name, and could represent in for Indians to receive the Victoria Cross). To mark the a public fashion bravery on the battlefield, service to king-emperor’s visit to India for the Durbar (a formal the state, public generosity, or medical and academic ceremonial gathering) at Delhi, a number of additional achievement. The right to bestow titles and other honors proposals emerged. had, by the late 16th century, came to be accepted as one of the prerogatives of the rulers and one of the indicators One of the most important of these new proposals was of state power and legitimacy. As the Honourable East the addition of physical badges to the honorary titles that India Company emerged as one of the regional power had been awarded in India since the 1820s by the East players in the Indian Subcontinent by the early 18th India Company and, later, by the Government of India. century, they, too, became both the recipient and the One of the Indian “Princes,” Maharaja Ganga Singh of bestower of titles, giving titles in the areas where they Bikaner, urged that as one of the “Durbar Boons” for the were influential and receiving titles (somewhat bizarrely upcoming Durbar, the king-emperor establish a series of as they were a crown-chartered joint stock company) accompanying “badges” which could be worn publically from the Mughal emperors. By the early 19th century the and tangibly to represent the title awarded. This scheme Company had moved aggressively to eclipse the Mughal also implied a tight central standardization of the titles emperor in almost all aspects of his power (outside the awarded, an effort to instill some system into the practice, walls of the palace), including the right to award titles. and a replacement of the costly financial compensations This practice continued and grew even into the years after with (presumably) less expensive badges. Within the 1858, when India was brought under vaguely- defined government this proved a popular proposal: “On the Crown rule. Yet the patterns of awarding titles remained merits I respectfully think there is everything to be said a distinctly provincial and regional activity, and there was for the proposal; the value of the Rai Bahadurships, etc., no central “system” until efforts began in the late 1880s will be greatly enhanced and their influence as rewards at standardizing and rationalizing the award of titles. for loyalty and good service greatly enlarged.”1 The The haphazard nature of the titles awarded by the British parallel official academic titles of Mahamahopadhyay regime in India was a frequent point of bureaucratic (for scholars of Sanskrit) and Shams-ul-Ulama (for discussion and efforts, mostly futile, were undertaken scholars of Arabic and Persian) had already had badges Vol. 64, No. 5 (September-October 2013) 5 added to distinguish their recipients in 1910 and it was in detail. perhaps only a logical step that the more common titles would now be physically represented. Neither the geographical distinction between Rais and Raos nor the dividing line between the great imagined The Badges defining category of British India, religion, was entirely impermeable. In general, the Rai title was awarded to Hindus in north India (Bengal, East Bengal, Assam, To understand the badges as they would emerge, it is Burma, the United Provinces, Punjab, the North-West important to clearly detail the “state of play” regarding Frontier, and Baluchistan). The Rao titles were awarded titles as they existed circa 1911. As the system had been to Hindus in Madras and Bombay (including Gujarat). roughly structured, titles were awarded on three levels Awards to Princely States in these regions (the grey areas (not quite “classes”): on the map) were roughly analogized to the awards in adjoining territories under British administration. Other 1. Diwan Bahadur to Hindus; and Sardar areas were more ambiguous, and Rai and Rao titles Badadur to Muslims (mainly in Baluchistan were bestowed in almost equal numbers in the Central and Sind) and Sikhs (in the Punjab only). Provinces and Central India, in Hyderabad, in Mysore, 2. Rai Bahadur to Hindus in north India; Rao and in Rajputana and Ajmer-Merwara’ In many cases, Bahadur to Hindus in south India; and Khan nominated title recipients were consulted in advance as Bahadur to Muslims. to their personal preference between the Rai and Rao 3. Rai Sahib to Hindus in north India; Rao appellations.2 Sahib to Hindus in south India; Khan Sahib to Muslims; and Sarbar Sahib to Sikhs in Religious distinctions, however certain they sometimes the Punjab. appeared in the census process and in government policies, posed especially complex problems. In general, As a map may be of use here, one is appended as Figure 1. Hindus were “Hindus” and Muslims were “Muslims,” mostly, sort of, and received the relevant titles. But this Appointments, except in truly exceptional cases, would comparatively easy first-order categorical judgment be expected to be initally made at the lowest level (for clarified the landscape of honor for only some 90 percent example, a Muslim would first be made a Khan Sahib), of India’s 1911 population, leaving the remaining 10 and later appointments would come as promotions to the percent (almost 30 million people) in categorical limbo. intermediate (Khan Bahadur) and rare highest (Sardar These groups had posed problems before 1911. In general, Bahadur) titles. Direct appointments to higher titles Parsis (Zoroastrians) had been treated as “honorary were possible, but unpopular, and needed to be justified Figure 1: Map of the Indian Empire in 1915. 6 JOMSA Muslims” and received the standard Khan Sahib-Khan depicted the king facing to the right (as we view him) Bahadur-Sardar Bahadur progression of honorifics. rather than to the left, “as this is a peace decoration.”7 There were, however, cases of Parsis being appointed in The distinction between a “peace decoration” and a “war the “Hindu” series” of titles.3 Sikhs posed a particular decoration” had grown up (for no clear reason) in the problem, occupying as they did both a prominent position previous king’s reign and was, at best, obscure. To depict in the “martial races” ideology of British India and in the king facing to the right would also seem to violate the Indian Army but with an ambiguous religious niche the well-established practice of alternating the ruler’s somewhere between Hinduism and Islam. This difficulty facing on coinage with each successive reign. The badge, was compounded by late-19th-century social movements finally approved in October 1911, was to depict the king within the Sikh community that aimed at asserting an surrounded by a circle containing the name of the title increasingly distinct religious identity, asserting a status and was to be worn on the left breast from a ribbon. Yet, as something other than an intermediate faith. As these the designs by C. W. Kirkpatrick as sent to London and movements progressed throughout the early 20th century, presumably approved by the king depicted a left-facing they generated greater problems in India than just what ruler, and not the right-facing monarch proposed from title should be awarded to deserving Sikhs. Yet, in the the Calcutta mint8 (Figure 2). realm of titles before 1914 most provinces treated Sikhs as Hindus and awarded them the “Hindu series” of titles. Only the Punjab government (and this is hardly surprising, as this was the Sikh homeland) had adopted a different policy, and had been awarding the title of Sardar Sahib to Sikhs at the lowest level of achievement and, apparently, promoting Sardar Sabibs direct to Sardar Bahadur as their next step in the title hierarchy, thus bypassing the normal second-level titles entirely.