Sahib (65 page)

Most of these terms are English renditions of words originally in Persian, Sanskrit or Hindustani. I have generally adhered to the spellings in Henry Yule and A. C. Burnell’s work,
Hobson-Jobson,
but the usual caveats apply:
bheestie,
for example, sometimes appears as
bhisti, beastie,
and much else besides. Kipling preferred
bhisti
for his hero Gunga Din, and favoured
dooli
rather than
dhoolie
or
doolie
for the Indian stretcher.

Akalis
– Sikh regiments of religious enthusiasts

anna –
one-sixteenth of a rupee

ayah
– nurse, lady’s maid

babu –
properly a term of respect attached to a man’s name, but by extension an Indian clerk who wrote English or sometimes, with a note of disparagement, an ‘educated Indian’

bat
– language, especially soldier’s slang

batta
– extra financial allowance

bazaar
– market or street of shops; market-place

bhail –
bullock

bheestie/bhisti
– water-carrier

bibi –
lady, but in the British context, Indian mistress

brinjarry –
itinerant dealer, especially in grain or salt

budmash –
knave, villain

bundook
– gun; the common term for a matchlock, but might be used colloquially for rifle or shotgun

chapatty –
flat circular cake of unleavened bread, patted flat with the hand and baked on a griddle

charpoy
– bed

chatty –
spherical earthenware water pot

congee-house –
prison, especially a regiment’s lock-up, where the regime was more liberal than in its guard-room

crore
– one hundred
lakhs

dâk
– post or transport by relay of men or horse, thus
dâk-ghari
for post-cart and
dâk-bungalow
for travellers’ accommodation at each stage of a journey

dal
– Indian dish of lentils

dhobi –
washing, and so
dhobi-wallah
for washerman

dirzi –
tailor

doolie –
curtained stretcher, covered litter, light palanquin; thus doolie-bearers

doray –
south Indian equivalent of
sahib,
and so
doresani
for
memsahib

dubash –
literally ‘man of two languages’, and so strictly interpreter, but by extension servant, especially in Madras

duck –
slang term for inhabitants of the Bombay presidency

firman –
Mogul emperor’s edict

gingall
or
jingall
– heavy musket or wall-piece

golandaz –
literally ball-throwers, and thus gunners

gorchurra –
Sikh irregular cavalry

iqbal –
notion of luck or good fortune

jagir
– landholding assignment

jemadar-
Indian infantry officer, roughly equivalent to lieutenant

Khalsa –
the Sikh army

khansamah –
housekeeper, or head waiter

khitmagar –
waiter

kotwal –
tribal policeman, magistrate

lakh –
100,000 rupees

lal
bazaar – literally red bazaar; British regimental brothel

lascar –
originally an inferior class of artilleryman, or a tent-pitcher in camp, but soon widely used to mean sailor

log –
people, as in Kipling’s
bandar-log,
monkey-people

looty
– plunderer

lota –
spherical brass pot used for the carriage of water

mansabari
system – system of ranks in the Mogul empire, related (at least in theory) to the obligation to provide a specified number of soldiers

mansabdaryaboo,
or
yaboo –
Afghan pony

maranacha poshak –
literally ‘clothes of the dead’, long saffrondyed
gowns worn by Rajput men going out to fight to the death

massaul –
torch

mate, matey-boy –
assistant servant, especially in Madras

mehtar –
sweeper or scavenger

memsahib –
European woman, by implication European lady

Misls –
Sikh confederacies

mofussil
– country stations and districts, as opposed to the
sudder,
the chief station of the area

mohur –
gold coin pre-dating British arrival in India but widely used after it

mull –
contraction of
mulligatawny
(a spicy soup) applied as a distinctive term for members of the Madras presidency

munshi –
interpreter, language teacher, and secretary or writer more generally

nawab –
Mogul title for governor/nobleman

nullah –
ravine or gully

palankeen –
a box-litter for travelling in, with a pole projecting fore and aft, carried on the shoulder of four or six men

palkee-gharry
– coach shaped rather like a
palankeen
on wheels

panchaychats
– Sikh army all-ranks committees

pandy –
colloquial name for sepoy mutineers, from Mangal Pandy,

pani –
water, and thus
brandy-pawnee,
brandy and water

pettah
– the suburb of a fortress, often with its own defensive wall

pice/pie –
small copper coin worth one quarter of an anna or one sixty-fourth of a rupee

pucka
–ripe, mature, cooked; often used of solid building materials like local bricks and mortar, and by implication permanent or reliable

puckrerow –
the imperative of the Hindustani verb ‘cause to be seized’: British army slang for to lay hold of or steal

puggaree –
turban, but generally used for cloth/scarf wrapped around hat

pultan –
Indian for regiment (probably derived from the French
peloton
for platoon)

punkah –
swinging fan hung from the ceiling; operated by a
punkah-wallah

qui-hi
– literally ‘Is any one there?’ used when summoning a servant. Nickname for a member of the Bengal presidency

rissaldar/ressaldar –
Indian cavalry officer, roughly equivalent to captain

rissaldar-major –
senior Indian officer in a cavalry regiment

rupee
– standard coin of the Anglo-Indian monetary system, existing in several local versions until standardised in 1836: of 180 grs weight and 165 grs pure silver

ryot
– peasant farmer

sepoy –
Indian regular soldier

silladar-
cavalryman who furnished (at least in theory) his own horse and equipment

sleetah
– large saddlebag usually slung from a camel

sowar –
Indian trooper

subadar –
Indian officer, roughly equivalent to captain

subadar-major –
senior Indian officer in an infantry regiment

sudder—
the central station of a district (see
mofussil
)

suttee
– the rite of widow-burning

syce –
groom

taluqdars
– large landowner, especially in Oudh

tattie –
grass mat used to cover windows

tattoo
– Indian-bred pony

thermantidote –
enclosed fan used to propel air into a room, usually through a wetted
tattie

thuggee
– murderous practice carried out by thugs, an organisation of assassins largely suppressed in the 1820s

tulwar
– sabre, typically with a curved blade, cruciform guard and disc-shaped pommel

wallah
– person employed or concerned with something, as in
dhobi-wallah
for laundryman. Developed to make words like
box-wallah,
initially a native itinerant pedlar but then (somewhat derisively) a British businessman; and
competition-wallah
for member of the Indian Civil Service appointed by competitive examination. Like so much of
bat
it slipped comfortably into army use outside India to produce words like
machine-gun-wallah
for machine-gun officer

woordie-major –
Indian adjutant of a cavalry regiment
yahoo –
Afghan pony

zamindar-
landholder, in theory holding land for which he paid rent to the government, not to any intermediary

zenana –
apartments of the house in which women were secluded

zumbooruk
– light swivel gun, usually fired from a camel’s saddle

BRITISH LIBRARY

Gen. Sir Charles Napier, ‘Report on the Restoration of Corporal Punishment in the Indian Army 1844’, Add 57561

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Record of offences 1878, WO 88/1

NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM

Papers of:

Sgt William Henry Braithwaite, 7605-75

Capt Willoughby Brassey, 6807-459

Col Thomas Cadell, 6702-90-1

Lt Kendall Coghill, 7207-4-1

Sgt Thomas Duckworth, 1990-06-391-1

Sir William Gomme, 1987-11-116-143

Lt Montague Hall, 5705-11-1

Lawrence Halloran, 199-9075-101

Capt John Lyons, 8311-76

Lt Col William Patterson, 7410-195

Cpl William Pattison, 6702-66-2,3

Pte Richard Perkes, 7505-57

Capt George Rybot, 7907-99

Lt Charles Scott, 8405-22

Sir John Shore, 6404-74-2

Capt Henry Davis van Homrigh, 6305-55

Pte Samuel West, 1996-04-220-4

James Williams, 6404-74-17

ORIENTAL AND INDIA OFFICE COLLECTIONS OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY

Papers of:

Spr Thomas Burford, Photo Mss Eur 283

Cpl John Butterworth, Mss Eur D900

Sgt Maj George Carter, Mss Eur E262

Pte Charles Dearlove, Webb Mss Eur C278

Gnr William Hurd Eggleston, Photo Mss Eur 257

Sgt Richard Hardcastle, Photo Mss Eur 332

Cpl Francis Newnham, Photo Mss Eur 361

Conductor William Porter, Mss Eur G128

Pte George Smith, Mss Eur C548

Pte Joseph Turner, Mss Eur D1220

Pte Robert Waterfield, Mss Eur 097

Gnr Alfred Wilson, Photo Mss Eur 333

Schoolmaster William Wonnacott, Mss Eur C376/2

‘Courts Martial of British Officers in India 1861-75’, L/Mil/5/674

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

Col F. E. Cox, Royal Engineers

Brig. John Pennycuick

C. G. C. Stapylton, ‘The First Afghan War: An Ensign’s Account’.

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