on the metal and construction used, prices then began to precedent). A surrounding circlet in red enamel diverge; per-badge costs were estimated: solid gold, Rs. was proposed. 120; hollow gold, Rs. 80; silver-gilt, Rs. 12; silver, Rs. 10. 3. Rai Sahib level: the badge was to be in silver with a ribbon of dark blue with light blue Clearly, either solid or hollow gold badges presented edges (the reverse of the first-level colors). A severe budgetary challenges. Token additional charges surrounding circlet in dark blue enamel was of Rs. 1 to Rs. 4 for cases, Rs. 12 for gold suspension proposed.16 brooches, and Rs. 1 for silver suspension brooches added to the fiscal considerations.9 Preexisting titles awarded As the increasingly frantic production of these badges prior to 1911 would demand 1,180 gold badges and 787 was continuing in the Calcutta mint (which appears to silver badges. In addition, the new titles to be awarded have been swamped by all the additional design and at the Durbar would require 234 gold and 300 silver production work that the new reign demanded) problems badges.10 Assuming solid gold badges were awarded for began to emerge. The red enamel for the second-level the higher classes, the total cost would be in excess of badges would simply not work and fell off the badges. Rs. 2,06,000 (approximately £31,000 in 1911, a great Attempts to substitute white enamel were equally deal of money), while using hollow gold badges would unsatisfactory. The only enamel that would work was only reduce the cost to around Rs. 1,50,000 (£23,000). green, and it was deemed to be both unaesthetic with the Honor might not come so cheap and governments always red ribbon (which in any case had already been ordered count the cost. from China and could not be changed) and perhaps fully culturally appropriate only to the Muslim recipients of the As might be expected, these cost considerations Bahadur badges.17 With some evident frustration, triumphed and the Finance Department urged the it was finally decided to leave the second-class badges substitution of silver-gilt badges for the upper two levels naked of any enamel, as no other solution seemed to be of title badges.11 The substitution of silver-gilt badges possible.18 promised a reduction of the cost of this initial issue of title badges to around Rs. 38,000 (some £5,700, in 1911). It In addition, there were 21 somewhat unofficial Sardar was also in partial response to costs, specifically, the cost Sahib badges awarded to from the Punjab.19 These of the suspension brooches, that the wearing of the badge awards were seen as a “special case” and it was intended was altered from the left breast to a suspension from that the title no longer be awarded except in the Punjab, around the neck by a yard and a quarter of ribbon.12 Given where the awards were viewed as a special case.The the costs involved, the question was raised as to whether badges were, in essence, “special-order” items from the the badges should be returnable, for presumed reissue, mint.20 Award of Sardar Sahib to Sikhs residing outside upon the death or promotion of the titleholders.13 In the the Punjab was actively discouraged and they would final analysis it was determined that the attendant costs usually be treated as Hindus.21 of the governmental “overhead” involved in effecting the return of these badges outweighed the costs of making As finally established, the title badges can be summarized: the awards non-returnable.14 This was allowed, and in the minds of some, was required to insure that they were 1. A silver-gilt six-pointed rayed star (the gilt is very worn only by authorized recipients. The naming of the thin and has often disappeared in polishing or badges on the otherwise-blank reverse appears to have not simply evaporated over time) with a crown above been considered (indeed, no prior consideration appears and the image of the king-emperor in the center to have been given to any reverse design for these title (facing to the viewer’s right). The name of the title badges).15 is on a light-blue enameled circlet surrounding Additional design issues needed to be resolved, as it was the king’s image. The ribbon is light blue (Star the intent to enamel the surrounding circle on each badge, of India blue) with narrow dark blue (Order of the area in which the name of the title was to appear (in the Indian Empire blue) edges. The badges were English). As the overall structure clarified, enamel colors worn around the neck from a 45-inch length of began to suggest themselves; the structure, by level, was ribbon, hanging mid-chest. All badges, including established by June 1912 as: the 1911 retrospective awards, were named on the reverse. 1. level: the badge was to be silver gilt, with a ribbon of light blue (Star 1a. Sardar Badadur to Muslims (almost uniquely of India color) with edge stripes of dark blue (Indian Empire color). A surrounding circlet in in Baluchistan and Sind) and to Sikhs (in the light blue enamel was proposed. Punjab only). Many awards 2. Rai Bahadur level: the badge was to be silver were individuals with significant military gilt with a ribbon of red with a dark red border service. Great confusion accompanied the (this ribbon color had no roots in Indian fact that the title Sardar Bahadur was also

8 JOMSA awarded with the 1st Class.

1b. Diwan Bahadur to Hindus (in practice, these were mostly in southern and central India)

2. As for the 1st Class, but with the encircling band unenameled. The ribbon is light red with narrow, darker red edges.

2a. to Muslims, Parsis, Jews, and Christians (unless they were known to have been converted from Hinduism) 2b. Rai Bahadur to Hindus in “north India” 2c. to Hindus in “south India”

3. As for the 1st and 2nd Classes, but all in silver. The encircling band with the name of the title is enameled in dark blue. The ribbon is dark blue (Order of the Indian Empire blue) with narrow Figure 3: A first-type George VKhan Sahib light blue (Order of the Star of India blue) edges. awared to Inayatulla Khan. Indian police to wear the ribbon of the award along with 3a. to Muslims, Parsis, Jews, and the service ribbons of other awards and medals when in Christians (unless they were known to have khaki service dress.23 This decision, of course, raised been converted from Hinduism) even more directly the place of title badges within the 3b. Sardar Sahib to Sikhs, in Punjab only order of honor as it was reflected in the sequence in which (elsewhere, they were rewarded as Hindus) medals were to be worn. Ultimately, it was placed in the 3c. Rai Sahib to Hindus in “north India” order of wearing immediately after the Kaisar-i-Hind 24 3d. Rao Sahib to Hindus in “south India” Medal. This granted the title badges a comparatively high position in the order of wearing, ahead of all but Buddhists and Jains would be treated as “honorary the most senior gallantry awards. They were, however, Hindus.” never listed in the order of wearing lists published in the London Gazette, as they were awards for Indians only, An example of the first title badge (Figure though they were published in the Gazette of India. 3) is a Khan Sahib awarded to Inayatulla Khan, Thana, Peshawar, North-West Frontier Province. While the title was awarded before the badges existed in 1910 this badge was one of the undated retrospective 1911 awards. He was a locally prominent landlord and an influential man, believed to be loyal to British interests.

From 1913 the date of the award of the title (usually, but not always, either New Year’s or Birthday Honors) was added to the naming engraved on the reverse. (Those unnamed badges that are sometimes seen on the market are mint or museum “escapees” and of no phaleristic interest.)

On March 5, 1923 it was ordered that title badges, instead of being worn around the neck from a length of ribbon that was proving difficult to procure (it came from China and China was then deep in civil war), could be worn on a straight suspension from the left breast. Recipients were to acquire silver brooches from the mint, at their Figure 4: A second-type George V Diwan Bahadur title badge 22 own expense. In 1924 permission was extended to the awarded to Rao Sahib Keshavrao Bapuji Tillou.

Vol. 64, No. 5 (September-October 2013) 9 On June 1, 1933, the awareness seems to have dawned that the image of the king-emperor on the title badges was facing in the “wrong” direction, and the king’s image was reversed to face, more properly, to the left. An example of the second George V type (Figure 4) is the Diwan Bahadur awarded to Rao Sahib Keshavrao Bapuji Tillou, Revenue Minister, Indore State, Central India in 1937 as one of the last of the George V badges. (The ribbon, by the way, is not completely correct. As ribbons for the first class badges are so hard to obtain, the ribbon for the British Conspicuous Gallantry Medal [Flying] is often employed now, as it was “back then.”)

On January 20, 1936, a shock-wave passed through the empire with the death of King George V, . In addition to the trauma that accompanied his death, the near-accession of his eldest son as Edward VIII, and the eventual coronation of his second son as George VI, a range of phaleristic issues were raised. All awards in India and elsewhere in the empire had to be redesigned and title badges were no exception. Work began, but Figure 5: A George VI Rai Bahadur awarded to then was stopped, on the new Edward VIII awards. Title Rao Sahib Lala Sant Ram. badges held an additional level of complexity. Initially, the decision was reached to require the exchange of all George V badges for badges bearing the effigy of the new rejected and returned to government, they were shipped ruler. Simple cost estimates highlighted the impracticality to the mint and melted. While a range of honors, ranging of that action. If, as was expected, a new issue of titles was from knighthoods to campaign and durbar medals were to be awarded in the coronation honors list, it would be rejected, the title badges became a special focus of public reasonable to expect new badges to be available for those scorn, as they had come to be viewed as awards for the awards. Yet, with the wide range of pressures on the mint closest Indian collaborators with British rule, including relating to the new reign, was it entirely rational to expect the police and civil bureaucracy. The “Rai Bahadur a new design of badges to be designed and manufactured attitude” became a synonym for a sniveling anti-national for the May 11, 1937 awards (earlier awards, like the lapdog. It was not an accident that these attitudes spilled one shown above, were from the late king’s reign)? The over into the constitution of independent India, where all demands of this task were almost insurmountable and titles (whether old or new) were abolished and banned. an interim solution was devised: old George V badges Yet the award of title badges continued until the final were used, usually with the center removed and a new British honors list with awards to Indians, June 13, 1946. George VI center fitted (the sources suggest it was simply glued) over the late emperor’s effigy.25 Even honor could All title badges were accompanied by an elaborate and become flexible andad hoc when demands of schedules large (much too large to be easily scanned so the image and costs demanded. After a few months, regular badges is “cropped” to the central area) certificate (made of were struck and distributed, but badges with pasted-on real vellum until the demands of World War II forced images are occasionally encountered and were used until the substitution of heavy paper.) Figure 6 illustrates the their stocks were depleted. certificate for the June 3, 1935 Rai Bahadur award to Mr. Shishir Kumar Sanyal, Superintendent of Police, The normal George VI badge (Figure 5) is represented by Bihar and Orissa. the Rai Bahadur awarded by Not. No. 17-H of January 1, 1944 to Rai Sahib Lala Sant Ram, Deputy Superintendent Numbers Awarded of Police, Criminal Investigation Department, Punjab. No central register of these awards was maintained and From the 1920s onward, Indian opposition to British it is necessary to go through the individual notifications rule in India had mounted. Central to this rejection of to extract data on the numbers of each title awarded, foreign authority was the rejection of alien honors, reign, and type. Most awards were made biannually, in and this included the title badges. As title badges were the New Year’s and Birthday honors lists, though a few awards were made on special occasions (for example,

10 JOMSA