Exalted, Eminent & Imperial. Honours of the British Raj - Tapa dura

The now distant world of the British Raj in India has fascinated and enthralled a succession of historians and writers, though this great �jewel in the crown� of the British Empire lasted for less than ninety years, from 1858 to 1947. During that period a raft of honours were instituted to recognise rank and service almost entirely in the subcontinent. The principal honours - the Order of the Star of India, the Order of the Indian Empire and the Order of the Crown of India � last appeared in the New Year Honours List 1948. For some years they remained a memory, gradually fading to be no more than historical relics of a departed empire. By the beginning of the twenty-first century they had disappeared from the public mind, and almost all the recipients were dead. This book is the first comprehensive history of these long-forgotten honours, which adorned the uniforms of the Indian Civil Service and the sumptuous costumes of the Indian princely elite. It opens a window into a previously unexplored aspect of the British Empire in India.