Emperor of India

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This article is about the official title "Emperor of India" which was used by British monarchs. For the list of native Indian emperors, see List of Indian monarchs. For the British battleship, see HMS Emperor of India.
"Empress of India" redirects here. For other uses, see Empress of India (disambiguation).

Emperor of India
Kaisar-i-Hind
Imperial
Star of India   Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom
The Star of India and the Royal Arms
King George VI of England, formal photo portrait, circa 1940-1946.jpg
Last to reign
George VI
11 December 1936 – 22 June 1948
Details
Style
  • Her Imperial Majesty
    (1 May 1876 – 22 January 1901)
  • His Imperial Majesty
    (22 January 1901 – 22 June 1948)
  • styled H.I.M.
First monarchVictoria
Last monarchGeorge VI
Formation1 May 1876
Abolition22 June 1948
AppointerHereditary

Emperor or Empress of India was a title used by British monarchs from 1 May 1876 (with the Royal Titles Act 1876) to 22 June 1948, that was used to signify their rule over British India, as its imperial head of state.[1][2][3] The image of the emperor or empress was used to signify British authority—his or her profile, for instance, appearing on currency, in government buildings, railway stations, courts, on statues etc. "God Save the King" (or, alternatively, "God Save the Queen") was the former national anthem of British India. Oaths of allegiance were made to the emperor or empress and the lawful successors by the governors-general, princes, governors, commissioners in India in events such as imperial durbars.

The title was dropped on 22 June 1948, when, under the Indian Independence Act 1947, George VI became king of the new dominions of India and Pakistan. The monarchies were abolished upon the establishment of the Republic of India in 1950 and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956.

Role[]

The emperor or empress took little direct part in government. The exercise of sovereign powers was delegated from the emperor or empress, either by statute or by convention, to the viceroy and governor-general of India who were appointed by the emperor or empress, or to offices such as the secretary of state for India. The appointed Viceroy and Governor-General was also the ex-officio head of the Imperial Legislative Council, and its two houses, the Central Legislative Assembly and the Council of State as the delegation on behalf of the emperor or empress, along with the governors of provinces. They performed these duties with the advice and consent of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Government of India.

Executive power was exercised by His/Her Imperial Majesty's Government in the presidencies and provinces (via the viceroy and governor-general) and the princely states via suzerainty. They had the support of the Armed Forces in India, such as the British Indian Army and Royal Indian Navy, the Indian Civil Service and other Crown Servants Secret Services (as the emperor or empress received certain foreign intelligence reports before the viceroy did).

Judicial power was vested in the various Crown Courts in India, which by statute had judicial independence from the Government.

Powers independent of government were legally granted to other public bodies by statute or Statutory Instrument such as an Order in Council or a Royal Commission.

History[]

See also: Style of the British sovereign
New Crowns for Old, the cartoon's caption references a scene in Aladdin where lamps are exchanged. The prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, is offering Queen Victoria an imperial crown in exchange for an earl's coronet. She made him Earl of Beaconsfield at this time.[4]

After the nominal Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was deposed at the conclusion of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (10 May 1857 – 1 November 1858), the government of the United Kingdom decided to transfer control of British India and its princely states from the mercantile East India Company (EIC) to the Crown, thus marking the beginning of the British Raj. The EIC was officially dissolved on 1 June 1874, and the British prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, decided to offer Queen Victoria the title "empress of India" shortly afterwards. Victoria accepted this style on 1 May 1876. The first Delhi Durbar (which served as an imperial coronation) was held in her honour eight months later on 1 January 1877.[5]

The idea of having Queen Victoria proclaimed empress of India was not particularly new, as Lord Ellenborough had already suggested it in 1843 upon becoming the governor-general of India. By 1874, Major-General Sir Henry Ponsonby, the Queen's private secretary, had ordered English charters to be scrutinised for imperial titles, with Edgar and Stephen mentioned as sound precedents. The Queen, possibly irritated by the sallies of the republicans, the tendency to democracy, and the realisation that her influence was manifestly on the decline, was urging the move.[6] Another factor may have been that the Queen's first child, Victoria, was married to Frederick, the heir apparent to the German Empire. Upon becoming empress, she would outrank her mother.[7] By January 1876, the Queen's insistence was so great that Benjamin Disraeli felt that he could procrastinate no longer.[6] Initially, Victoria had considered the style "Empress of Great Britain, Ireland, and India", but Disraeli had persuaded the Queen to limit the title to India in order to avoid controversy.[8] Hence, the title Kaisar-i-Hind was coined in 1876 by the orientalist G.W. Leitner as the official imperial title for the British monarch in India.[9] The term Kaisar-i-Hind means emperor of India in the vernacular of the Hindi and Urdu languages. The word kaisar, meaning 'emperor', is a derivative of the Roman imperial title caesar (via Persian, Turkish – see Kaiser-i-Rum), and is cognate with the German title Kaiser, which was borrowed from the Latin at an earlier date.[10]

Many in the United Kingdom, however, regarded the assumption of the title as an obvious development from the 1858 Government of India Act, which resulted in the founding of the British Raj. The public were of the opinion that the title of "queen" was no longer adequate for the ceremonial ruler of what was often referred to informally as the Indian Empire. The new styling underlined the fact that the native states were no longer a mere agglomeration but a collective entity.[11]

When Edward VII ascended to the throne on 22 January 1901, he continued the imperial tradition laid down by his mother, Queen Victoria, by adopting the title emperor of India. Three subsequent British monarchs followed in his footsteps, and it continued to be used after India had become independent on 15 August 1947. It was not until 22 June 1948 that the style was officially abolished during the reign of George VI.[2]

The Imperial Crown of India

The first emperor to visit India was George V. For his imperial coronation ceremony at the Delhi Durbar, the Imperial Crown of India was created. The Crown weighs 920 g (2.03 lb) and is set with 6,170 diamonds, 9 emeralds, 4 rubies, and 4 sapphires. At the front is a very fine emerald weighing 32 carats (6.4 g).[12] The king wrote in his diary that it was heavy and uncomfortable to wear: "Rather tired after wearing my crown for 3+1⁄2 hours; it hurt my head, as it is pretty heavy."[13]

George V's signature with the initials R I (Rex Imperator)

When signing off Indian business, the British king-emperors or queen-empress used the initials R I (Rex/Regina Imperator/Imperatrix) or the abbreviation Ind. Imp. (Indiae Imperator/Imperatrix) after their name (while Victoria used the initials R I, empresses consort simply used R[citation needed]). When a male monarch held the title, his wife used the style queen-empress, despite the fact that she was not a reigning monarch in her own right.

A Canadian 1-cent coin with the inscription Ind. Imp. (Indiae Imperator)

British coins, as well as those of the Empire and the Commonwealth, routinely included the abbreviated title Ind. Imp.. Coins in India, on the other hand, were stamped with the word "empress", and later "king-emperor". When India became independent in 1947, all coining dies had to be changed, which took up to a year and created some problems. Canadian coins, for example, were minted well into 1948 but stamped "1947", the new year's issue indicated by a small maple leaf in one corner. The title appeared on coinage in the United Kingdom throughout 1948.

List of emperors and empresses[]

Portrait Name Birth Reign Death Consort Imperial Durbar Royal House
Nice,musée Masséna096b,Victoria,détail.jpg Victoria 24 May 1819 1 May 1876 – 22 January 1901 22 January 1901 None[a] 1 January 1877
(represented by Lord Lytton) 		Hanover
Edward vii england.jpg Edward VII 9 November 1841 22 January 1901 – 6 May 1910 6 May 1910 Queen Alexandra (1844-1925) (cropped).png

Alexandra of Denmark

1 January 1903
(represented by Lord Curzon of Kedleston) 		Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Arthur Stockdale Cope - King George V 1927.jpg George V 3 June 1865 6 May 1910 – 20 January 1936 20 January 1936 Queen Mary Wellcome L0069844 (cropped) (cropped).jpg

Mary of Teck

12 December 1911 Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
(1910–1917)
Windsor
(1917–1936)
Prince Edward (1920 portrait).jpg Edward VIII 23 June 1894 20 January 1936 – 11 December 1936 28 May 1972 None None[b] Windsor
Prince Albert (1924 portrait).jpg George VI 14 December 1895 11 December 1936 – 15 August 1947 6 February 1952 Queen Elizabeth in Canada, 1939.jpg

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

None[c] Windsor
George VI
(as King of India)[d] 		15 August 1947 – 26 January 1950

Notes[]

  1. ^ Victoria's husband Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861.
  2. ^ Edward VIII abdicated after less than one year of reign.
  3. ^ A durbar was deemed expensive and impractical due to poverty and demands for independence.[14]
  4. ^ The title "Emperor of India" did not disappear when India became the Dominion of India (1947–1950) after independence in 1947. George VI retained the title until 22 June 1948. Thereafter he remained monarch of India until it became the Republic of India in 1950.[15]

Citations[]

  1. ^ "No. 38330". The London Gazette. 22 June 1948. p. 3647. Royal Proclamation of 22 June 1948, made in accordance with the Indian Independence Act 1947, 10 & 11 GEO. 6. CH. 30.('Section 7: ...(2)The assent of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is hereby given to the omission from the Royal Style and Titles of the words " Indiae Imperator " and the words " Emperor of India " and to the issue by His Majesty for that purpose of His Royal Proclamation under the Great Seal of the Realm.'). According to this Royal Proclamation, the King retained the Style and Titles 'George VI by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith'
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Indian Independence Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 30)
  3. ^ Titles such as "King of Canada" had been rejected in 1901. David Kenneth Fieldhouse (1985). Select Documents on the Constitutional History of the British Empire and Commonwealth: Settler self-government, 1840–1900. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-313-27326-1.
  4. ^ Harold E. Raugh (2004). The Victorians at War, 1815–1914: An Encyclopedia of British Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 122. ISBN 9781576079256.
  5. ^ L. A. Knight, "The Royal Titles Act and India", The Historical Journal, Cambridge University Press, Vol. 11, No. 3 (1968), pp. 488–489.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b L. A. Knight, p. 489.
  7. ^ "Remembering Vicky, the Queen Britain never had". www.newstatesman.com.
  8. ^ L. A. Knight, p. 488.
  9. ^ B.S. Cohn, "Representing Authority in Victorian India", in E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (1983), 165–209, esp. 201-2.
  10. ^ See Witzel, Michael, "Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts", p. 29, 12.1 PDF Archived 23 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ L. A. Knight, pp. 491, 496
  12. ^ Edward Francis Twining (1960). A History of the Crown Jewels of Europe. B. T. Batsford. p. 169. ASIN B00283LZA6.
  13. ^ Brooman, Josh (1989). The World Since 1900 (3rd ed.). Longman. p. 96. ISBN 0-5820-0989-8.
  14. ^ Vickers, Hugo (2006), Elizabeth: The Queen Mother, Arrow Books/Random House, p. 175, ISBN 978-0-09-947662-7
  15. ^ "No. 38330". The London Gazette. 22 June 1948. p. 3647. Royal Proclamation of 22 June 1948, made in accordance with the Indian Independence Act 1947, 10 & 11 GEO. 6. CH. 30.('Section 7: ...(2)The assent of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is hereby given to the omission from the Royal Style and Titles of the words "Indiae Imperator " and the words "Emperor of India" and to the issue by His Majesty for that purpose of His Royal Proclamation under the Great Seal of the Realm.').
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