The Durbar Incident

In: Modern Asian studies, Band 24, Heft 3, S. 529-559

Abstract

Here I apply a theory of 'political displacement' to the study of an incident that took place at King George V's investiture as 'King-Emperor' of India at the 'Delhi Durbar' on December 12, 1911. By 'political displacement' I mean the shifting of political attention from one domain to another, or from one idiom to another, where problems emergent but unresolvable in the first are dealt with by conversion into the second. My purposes are these: First, to describe the problem created by the incident when the Maharaja Gaekwar of Baroda, second in rank among the Indian Princes, 'insulted' the King-Emperor; second, to trace reactions, both British and Indian, to the series of events that followed; and third, to examine how the incident's conversion from one political idiom to another rendered it interpretable, thereby reducing confusion and permitting action.