The Empire Question

Around the end of the First World War, the British Empire reached its peak size and became the world's largest empire, though not as a continuous geographic entity (as that honour lay with the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan). Be it from British Guiana in South America to Australia in Oceania or from Basutoland in present-day Lesotho to the Emirates in the Middle East, "The sun never sets on the British Empire," a statement which rightly described the geographical diversity of this entity around this period became a common description of the empire with its presence across the different continents of the world. But one question remained unanswered. Why do we call it the British Empire when the highest title of the monarch was the Emperor of India?

Around the end of the Indian Rebellion in 1858, which is rightly called India's First War of Independence, the administration of the Indian Presidencies and Territories passed directly to the British Crown. But it was not until May 1876 that Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli led the process of Queen Victoria officially becoming the Empress of India, an honour which she longed for long as she craved a higher title than that of a queen. Though Queen Victoria was more willing towards a title which included Great Britain and Ireland, the cautious Prime Minister convinced her otherwise. The decided title was Kaisar-i-Hind, inspired by the Roman imperial title of Caesar and translated to Emperor or Empress of India. The point which should be noted is that the title did not translate to Emperor or Empress of Great Britain or England in any way. While traditional historians have often laid the origins of the empire to the much earlier period of British colonial exploits, the author of this article firmly believes that the empire was born with the creation of the title of Emperor in the first place which did not materialize till 1876 and the title referred to India. The British Empire has become synonymous with diversity and grandness of extent, but the question remains that why it should be called just British and not British Indian Empire, if not Indian Empire. It could have been a result of colonial ego that the word 'India' or 'Indian' never got included in the day-to-day literature when referring to the Empire as a whole. It should be noted that the Indian Empire and its Presidencies during different phases of history played a very important role in the direct administration of various overseas territories of the Empire. To give an example the country of Singapore and the territories of Penang and Malacca in Malaysia were under the direct administration of the Bengal Presidency between 1858 to 1867.The Indian Civil Service framework alongside its administrative, and military workforce and the infrastructure which was developed over time also played an important role in the maintenance of British supremacy in parts of central and South Asia. This along with the workforce sourced from India being sent to far corners of the globe to territories otherwise not visited or frequented by Indians led to the Indian people, language and culture being spread across the Commonwealth. This further strengthened the Indian roots of the Empire.  The British Monarch even to this day is the sovereign of different chivalric orders. Among this pool of orders there exist two chivalric orders which are now dormant. One is the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India, a very senior order preceded by the Order of the Bath and the other is the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire. Talking about the Empire, there also exists a separate chivalric order called the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. The point is, even in the order of precedence of Chivalric Orders of the United Kingdom, the Order of the Indian Empire always preceded the Order of the British Empire.