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Nawab[a][b] is aroyal title indicating a ruler, often of a South Asian state, in many ways comparable to the Western title ofPrince. The relationship of a Nawab to the Emperor of India has been compared to that of theKings of Saxony to theGerman Emperor.[1] In earlier times the title was ratified and bestowed by the reigningMughal emperor to semi-autonomousMuslim rulers of subdivisions orprincely states in theIndian subcontinent loyal to theMughal Empire, for example theNawabs of Bengal.
"Nawab" usually refers to males and literally meansViceroy; the female equivalent is "Begum" or "Nawab Begum". The primary duty of a Nawab was to uphold the sovereignty of the Mughal emperor along with the administration of a certain province.
The title of "nawabi" was also awarded as a personal distinction by the paramount power, similar to aBritish peerage, to persons and families who ruled a princely state for various services to the Government ofIndia. In some cases, the titles were also accompanied byjagir grants, either in cash revenues and allowances or land-holdings. During theBritish Raj, some of the chiefs, orsardars, of large or important tribes were also given the title, in addition to traditional titles already held by virtue of chieftainship.
The term"Zamindari" was originally used for thesubahdar (provincial governor) or viceroy of asubah (province) or regions of the Mughal Empire.
Nawab was aHindustani term, used inUrdu,Hindi,Bengali,Pashto and many other North-Indian languages, borrowed viaPersian from theArabic honorific plural ofnaib, or "deputy." In some areas, especiallyBengal, the term is pronouncednobab. This later variation has also entered English and other foreign languages asnabob.
TheSubahdar was the head of the Mughal provincial administration. He was assisted by the provincialDiwan,Bakhshi,Faujdar,Kotwal,Qazi,Sadr,Waqa-i-Navis,Qanungo andPatwari. As theMughal empire began to dissolve in the early 18th century, manysubahs became effectively independent.[2] The termnawaab is often used to refer to any Muslim ruler in north orsouth India while the termnizam is preferred for a senior official; it literally means "governor of region". TheNizam of Hyderabad had several nawabs under him: Nawabs of Cuddapah, Sira, Rajahmundry, Kurnool, Chicacole, et al.Nizam was his personal title, awarded by the Mughal Government and based on the termnazim as meaning "senior officer".Nazim is still used for a district collector in many parts of India. The termnawab is still technically imprecise, as the title was also awarded to Hindus andSikhs, as well, and largezamindars and not necessarily to all Muslim rulers. With the decline of that empire, the title, and the powers that went with it, became hereditary in the ruling families in the various provinces.
Under later British rule, nawabs continued to rule variousprincely states ofAmb,Bahawalpur,Balasinor,Baoni,Banganapalle,Bhopal,Cambay,Jaora,Junagadh,Kurnool (the main city of Deccan),Kurwai, Mamdot,Multan,Palanpur,Pataudi,Radhanpur,Rampur,Malerkotla,Sachin, andTonk. Other former rulers bearing the title, such as the nawabs of Bengal andAwadh, had been deprived by the British or others by the time the Mughal dynasty finally ended in 1857.
Some princes became nawab by promotion. For example, the ruler ofPalanpur was "diwan" until 1910, then "nawab sahib". Other nawabs were promoted are restyled to another princely style, or to and back, such as inRajgarh a single rawat (rajah) went by nawab.
The style for a nawab's wife isbegum. Most of the nawab dynasties were maleprimogenitures, although several rulingBegums of Bhopal were a notable exception.
Before the incorporation of theSubcontinent into theBritish Empire, nawabs ruled the kingdoms of Awadh (or Oudh, encouraged by the British to shed the Mughal suzerainty and assume the imperial style of Badshah), Bengal,Arcot and Bhopal.
All of these states were at some point under the authority of the Nawab of Rohilkhand, later made the Nawab of Rampur. Most of these states were annexed at the close of theFirst Rohilla War.[3]
The titlenawab was also awarded as a personal distinction by the paramount power, similarly to aBritish peerage, to persons and families who never ruled a princely state. For the Muslim elite various Mughal-type titles were introduced, including nawab. Among the noted British creations of this type were NawabHashim Ali Khan (1858–1940), NawabKhwaja Abdul Ghani (1813–1896),Nawab Abdul Latif (1828–1893), NawabFaizunnesa Choudhurani (1834–1904), NawabAli Chowdhury (1863–1929),Nawaab Syed Shamsul Huda (1862–1922),Nawab Sirajul Islam (1848–1923),Nawab Alam yar jung Bahadur, M.A, Madras, B.A., B.C.L., Barr-At-Law (1890–1974). There also were the Nawabs of Dhanbari, Nawabs of Ratanpur, Nawabs ofBaroda and such others.
Nawab was also the rank title—again not an office—of a much lower class ofMuslim nobles—in fact retainers—at the court of theNizam of Hyderabad andBerar State, ranking only aboveKhan Bahadur and Khan, but under (in ascending order)Jang,Daula,Mulk,Umara andJah; the equivalent for Hindu courtiers wasRaja Bahadur.
This style, adding the Persian suffix-zada which means son (or other male descendants; see other cases in prince), etymologically fits a nawab’s sons, but in actual practice various dynasties established other customs.
For example, inBahawalpur only the nawbab'sheir apparent usednawabzada before his personal name, thenKhan Abassi, finallyWali Ahad Bahadur (an enhancement of Wali Ehed), while the other sons of the ruling nawab used the stylesahibzada before the personal name and only Khan Abassi behind. "Nawabzadi" implies daughters of the reigning nawbab.
Elsewhere, there were rulers who were not styled nawbab yet awarded a title nawabzada to others.
The wordnaib (Arabic:نائب) has been historically used to refer to anysuzerain leader,feudatory, orregent in some parts of theOttoman Empire, successive early modernPersianate kingdoms (Safavids, etc.), and in the easternCaucasus (e.g. duringCaucasian Imamate). In theSultanate of Morocco, the Naib was the Sultan'semissary to the foreign legations inTangier between 1848 and 1923, when the creation of theTangier International Zone led to its replacement by the office of theMendoub.
Today, the word is used to refer to directly elected legislators in lower houses of parliament in many Arabic-speaking areas to contrast them against officers of upper houses (orShura). The termMajlis al-Nuwwab (Arabic:مجلس النواب, literallycouncil of deputies) has been adopted as the name of several legislative lower houses and unicameral legislatures.
"Naib" has also been used in theMalay language (especially of theMalaysian variant) to translate the component of "deputy" or "vice" in certain titles (e.g "Vice President" -Naib Presiden)[4] aside fromtimbalan andwakil (latter predominant in theIndonesian variant).
In colloquial usage in English (since 1612),[5] adopted in other Western languages, thetransliteration "nabob" refers to commoners: a merchant-leader of high social status and wealth. "Nabob" derives from theBengali pronunciation of "nawab":Bengali:নবাবnôbab.
During the 18th century in particular, it was widely used as a disparaging term for British merchants or administrators who, having made a fortune in India, returned to Britain and aspired to be recognised as having the higher social status that their new wealth would enable them to maintain.Jos Sedley inThackeray'sVanity Fair is probably the best known example in fiction.
From this specific usage it came to be sometimes used for ostentatiously rich businesspeople in general.
"Nabob" can also be used metaphorically for people who have a grandiose sense of their own importance, as in the famous alliterative dismissal of the news media as "nattering nabobs of negativism" in a speech that was delivered byNixon's vice presidentSpiro Agnew and written byWilliam Safire.[6]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Nawab".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 317.