Durbar
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Durbar (from the Persian darbar) is a term in India and Nepal for a ruler's court or feudal levee. A durbar may be either a feudal state council for administering the affairs of a princely state, or a purely ceremonial gathering, as in the time of the British Empire in India.
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[edit] State Council
In the former sense, the native rulers of Mughal and colonial India and some neighbouring Hindu or Muslim monarchies, like the amir of Afghanistan, received visitors in audience, conferred honours and conducted business in durbar.
A durbar could also be the executive council of a native state. Its membership was dual: at the ceremonies shine the court's grandees (dynasty, wasir, various dignitaries, major jagirdars (vassals)...), but the real political and administrative affairs of state rather rested with an inner circle around the prince, partially overlapping, often known as diwan (originally another word for audience room and council, but in India rather a privy council and chancery).
[edit] British Empire
In the latter sense, the word has come to be applied to great ceremonial gatherings in Delhi and elsewhere during the period of the British Raj, held as demonstrations of the loyalty to the crown which also proved vital in various wars in which Britain engaged.
The practice was started with Lord Lytton's Proclamation Durbar of 1877 celebrating the proclamation of Queen Victoria as the first Empress of India. Durbars continued to be held in later years, with increased ceremony and grandeur than their predecessors. In 1903, for instance, the Coronation Durbar was held in Delhi to celebrate the accession of Edward VII to the British throne and title of Emperor of India. This ceremony was presided over by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon.
The practice of the durbar culminated in the magnificent spectacle that was the Delhi Durbar, which was held in December of 1911 to officially crown the newly-enthroned George V and his wife, Queen Mary as Emperor and Empress of India. The King and Queen attended the Durbar in person and wore their Coronation robes, an unprecedented event in both Indian and Imperial history held with unprecedented pomp and glamour, and to this day remain the only British monarchs to visit India during the period of British rule. Practically every ruling prince, nobleman and person of note, attended the ceremonies to pay obeisance to their sovereign, in person.
These were perhaps the greatest official shows on earth, parading with great pomp, including elephants, as a dazzling demonstration of the successful British colonial formula of indirect rule: the raj could largely depend on the loyalty of most princely state rulers because of their feudal allegiance to the paramount ruler, a position the British crown (especially since it formally took over from the HEIC) occupied in stead of the toppled Mughal dynasty, as the first durbar consecrated symbolically expressed in the new style of Kaiser of Hind (Emperor of India). Several monuments in India serve as memorials of the King and Queen's visit, most notably the Gateway of India in Mumbai.
[edit] Malaysia
In Malaysian history, Durbar is the Conference of Rulers that begun in 1897. It was a platform for Federated Malay States rulers under British protectorate to discuss issues pertaining state policies. The membership of Durbar increased after the Federation of Malaya was formed in 1948 to encompass other states of Malaya.
It was further enlarged after modern federal Malaysia was formed in 1963, and became the electoral college for the federal paramount ruler.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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