THE OF INDIA.

Evening Star, Issue 4069, 11 March 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE OF INDIA.

The.Order of the Star of India has not hitherto been greatly appreciated by the toative Princes for whose benefit it was mainly instituted. Probably this has been owing to its not having been understood. Orders-of chivalry are a novelty in India, .Where the cheap defence of nations” was Unknown, prior to their introduction by the Imperial Government. Titles of rank, varying in degree, wire conferred by the Maharajahs on their attendants and nobles for meritorious services, but these were always accompanied by munificent gifts of land or treasure, or by pensions. When, therefore, the barren honor of the Star of -India was conferred upon them they treated It with alight respect, and it is told of one ... Chief that he refused to wear the Order, but tout; the insignia contemptuously on one side. Even the pomp of the First Grand Chapiter, held some years ago at Calcutta by .the Duke of Edinburgh, failecrto impress the .native mind with any very exalted ideas of the Order, ; and it remains ~ -to be seen whether the Grand Chapter held . on the last day of the year by the Heir to the Throne, at the command of the Qneeti, . for the -purpose of bestowing grades and decorations, will materially enhance the reputation in which the Star is now held. , The scone of the ceremony was on an open . plain about a.mile from Government House, Where “a Vast enclosure of canvas ” —in form a': parallelogram—was erected for the occasion., At the extremity of this enclosure Waf a dais whereon pillars of silver upheld a. .. canopy of blue silk and satin. Before the dais . Was Stretched a scarlet carpet, and upon it "two chairs of silver and blue for the use of like Prince and the Viceroy. That of the Viceroy. was decorated with a golden crown, and -"by the. side were golden lions, and the r chair of the Prince was surmounted by the ’.. - traditional plumes, and his arms wrought in . silver. Behind the dais and on each side tjvn of seats" were arranged for members of :. the Order, for Native chiefs pud European . ladies and' gentlemen. On the scarlet carpet: in front was erected ,the Durbar ; tent. of■ cloth of gold, wherein the in-, tended recipients of the Royal favor congre/gited, ahd tents for the Rajahs to robe r- and:. prepare themselves in were ranged ' along eitner side of the enclosure. The ceremony commenced at an early v hoilr. r At nine o’clock the artillery thundered ,■ forth- salute, followed by a, flourish I of trumpets, and the procession passed up ' the. avenue of tents to the dais, at . the end. ' Thirty Companions of the order -—half of them Natives—were preceded by servitors, gorgeously arrayed in scarlet and gold, bearing punkahs of silver, maces, shears, and wands of office. Many Princes of high degree, and numerous European notables were conspicuous amongst the thiong. There was Scindia, the celebrated Obief of Gwalior, a fugitive during the Sepoy mutiny, but now again restored to rank and • fortune; Holkar, the wealthy Maharajah of; Indore—said to resemble an Indian Henry VIII. in his robes—attended by pages -in-;Vandyck brown and gold ; Rewan, crowned, with a headpiece of solid gold, exquisitely wrought and blazing with gems, and followed by eight Sirdars described as being “ animated nuggets, ambulating mines of jewels.” One of these nobles wore a suit of chain armor, with arabcsqUed breast and back- pieces, jewelled CMquo .ahd plume of gold, and enamelled Tganntlets. There, too, was the Maharajah Puttiala, whose father rendered great ser ;,vices during the mutiny. On his white tnr > ban he wore LIOO,OOO worth of jewels that once belonged to Eugenie, Empressof France, and the great Sanci diamond of almost fabulous value he wore as a pendent, the whole being supplemented by an astonishing number of pearls,' rubies, and emeralds on his neck and breast. In # studied contrast to this display of wealth apSeared the lfclahomedan celebrity Sir Salar ung, Minister of the Nizam, whose small •white turban was worn quite plain. His attendant nobles, howevey-, made np in richness of color for lack of ornament, and ' his train was borne by two pretty, brighteyed pages* dressed in green and gold. The ’Begum of Bhopal was also present—“a email figure, almost swathed in stuffs of )aaaay colors, oyer which was an ample light ,blue satin robe, with white shoulder-knots of Hie order.” A notable" woman this, for whilst yet a young woman of little more than twenty years of age, she r boldly harangued the troops that she was sending fb the aid of the British, though unlike the ferocious Ranee of Jhansi, she did not accompany them into the field. During the ceremony she remained veiled, seeing, however, all that transpired. / Of ' the Europeans present, the most notable Was Lord Napier, of Magdala, whose thoughts as he took his seat in that gorgeous assemblage must have reverted to the time when, as a simple Colonel of Engineers, he was summoned to Lucknow by Sir Colin Campbell. Eighteen years have passed since then, and : in other, lands he has sustained the.honor of England and the reputation of his raevand earned alike the gratitude of his Sovereign and the’esteem and admiration of the nation. Sir Bartle Frere was also in attendance,' preceded by naval officers bearing his banner adorned by many an ancient quartering; and there were many others of more or less fame, to whom we have not now space to refer. For a description of the ceremony of investiture (as indeed for all the outlines of this brief sketch) we are indebted to the 4 Times’ correspondent, whose graphic pen depicts the. scene in glowing colors. One account will answer for all, The first to be invested was the Maharah of Jodhpore, a Rajpoot of high degree yielding precedence to none': — Ho wa» conducted from the tent to the presence ol the Prince by,. General Aitchison, who held him firmly by-the hapd, and indicated when he was to bpiir, kneel* walk backwards, and sit down. He was met at the entrance of the tent by two junior knights, the Undersecretary bearing the insignia on a,-blue satin and- velvet cushion, two junior knigl its, the Maharajah, and an attendant. The guard presented. arms. After the Queen’s grant was read by-.General Aitchisou, the Maharajah was led aside, and, having been decorated*, a knight’s riband, badge and star, and robes, returned stood before the dais. He made two obeisances, and knelt while the Prince ■was placing the. collar .of the Order round bis neck, arid admonished him in tho prescribed form. Seventeen guns were fired. The Maharajah of Jodhpore then rose, instructed by General Aitchisou, who led him backwards, bowing with his face to the dais, towards the seat. There his banner was unfurled to a flourish of trumpets. The Secretory proclaimed the titles of the newly-made Kuight Graud Commander, and all resumed their seats.

The procession after the investiture was • the most picturesque part of the pageant. It was led.by the Prince and his suite, followed by tne Vice regal Guard and the Knight Commanders and Companions, "From the Dubrar tent,” writes, the 'Times 1 correspondent, “seemed to flow an array of banners, and dazzling colors, the like of which was not seen even in-the best days of the Covent Garden Prophdte, or at the Coronation of the King of Hungary.” The most curious item in the report.of this grand spectacle is that it excited' but little interest amongst the populace at large. In, any other ,of jbhe. Empire, or even of India, vast crowds would have.assembled to witness it and to gaze upon such a lavish and,, jewelled magnificence., AIT xaslporiable Calcutta was there, we are ipld, •, But beyond ‘‘ a few hundreds” whq gathered together at Government IJonsd and?*(Wpaethousands of spectators” at the , tody of people . ptii Meed,

they appear to haVe been altogether apathetic, manifesting far less interest in the Royal visit than the people of Madras, and Very much less than those of Bombay and Ceylon. Wherefore this was so, or whether there is any cause for it save and except the constitutional indolence of the native race, we are not informed. But some light seems to be thrown npon the question by a letter which appears in the Overland sun mary of the ‘ Indian Daily News.’ The writer—a native—says that when the Royal visit was first announced—

The rumor ran wildly throughout every part of India, making known in a few weeks the Eoyal intention to the humblest peasant in the most secluded and obscure hamlet of the country, every string of their heart vibrated with joy and with full of bright hopes of some substantial good, for they thought that their most revered Queen, feeling deeply for her humble Indian subjects, who are yearly being a piey to pestilence and scarcity, which, according to the Hindoo notion, is the result of misrule and sins of the king, is sending out her eldest son, the future king, to inquire into the conditions and requirements of the people, and to devise some means to save them from tbe disastrous evils, were eagerly watching the auspicious hour when his Eoyal Highness would land on the shores of their mother country. At last, after a long and tormeuting suspense, the much-wished-for time is come, and the august Prince lands on tbe Indian shores.' But, oh I with it their dear and fondly cherished hopes are blighted away, their realisation of future good is turned into dreams, and wild visions of frowning fortunes sat heavily on their hearts. "When they saw and heard his Eoyal Highness coolly pass away afornight amidst various merriments and shorts without ever minding even to look at their sickly and famished conditions, the last ray of their bright hopes, the greatest portion of which was long eclipsed when they read in the 4 Soolava Somochar ’ and other pice papers Ihe resorption of ■ MrJ Disraeli and his Eoyal Highness to hfye nothing to do with the State business, blighted away. When they saw and' heard again his Eoyal Highness presenting their chiefs and nobles with whips, pictures, albums, qnd other playthings, and receive in return lacs and lacs worth of valuab’e properties, their fond hopes of his meeting with then* requirements were turned into dreams; for they saw with their own eyes the insolvency of the Heir-Apparent to the British Empire, about which they had read ere loutf in the same papers, but could not even for atnoment believe. They read and saw also their chiefs and nobles contracting heavy debts on high interest, and smoking them away in fireworks and illuminations. . . The thought accompanied with the one that thethen Heir-Apparent, who is only seeing the bright side of poor India, will turn oit to be a hard monarch, sat heavily on their hearts.

It will he nothing less than a national misfortune if the sentiments expressed by the writer of this letter should be generally entertained by the people of India; and the beneficial results anticipated from thePrince’s visit will be outweighed by the dissatisfaction contingent on such a view of his proceedings as is here given. But on glancing over our tiles of Indian newspapers we nowhere find-occasion for such gloomy anticipations, and we are therefore forced to the conclusion that the correspondent of the Indian 1 Daily News ’ is just one of those grumblers who infest every country under the sun, and the first and chief of whom vented his spleen and impotent wrath to his own peat detriment and downfall in a region popularly supposed to be above the sun.