Rites et protocole du British Raj en Inde. La mise en scène de traditions inventées et importées

Abstract

Ritual and protocol of the British Raj in India : The staging of invented and imported traditions The essential meaning of the British Raj's protocol policy can be understood in the dual context of Indian and British realities and their interaction. By casting themselves in the mould of the Mughal empire's protocol and rituals, the British sought to legitimize their new rule over India. They modified the meaning of the local rituals by inventing new protocol traditions. These were in turn imported into England to satisfy the domestic needs of the British monarchy and later those of the Empire. The British created from scratch, on the basis of their reading of Indian reality and their own national experience, an Indian «feudalism ». This invented feudal order then served to legitimate new functions that the British monarchy acquired in England in the second half of the 19th century. True, the honors bestowed upon the Indian princes contributed to the prestige of the Empire, but they also concealed from the English the rise of new Indian national elites. In the end, one may ask if the English were not the true victims of their protocol staging, considering that in the unequal relationship between the authority which confers honors and that which receives them, the former is probably that which needs most to believe in its own game.