Order of the Star of India

:The article is about the order of chivalry known as "Star of India". For other items of the same name, please see disambiguation at Star of India.

Composition

The British Sovereign was, and still is, Sovereign of the Order. The next-most senior member was the Grand Master; the position was held, ex officio, by the Viceroy of India. When the Order was established in 1861, there was only one class of Knights Companions. In 1866, however, it was expanded to three classes. Members of the first class were known as "Knights Grand Commanders," rather than "Knights Grand Cross," so as not to offend the non-Christian Indians appointed to the Order.

Related Topics:
British Sovereign - Viceroy of India - 1866

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Former Viceroys and other high officials, as well as those who served in the Department of the Secretary of State for India for at least thirty years were eligible for appointment. Rulers of Indian Princely States were also eligible for appointment to the Order. Some states were of such importance that their rulers were almost always appointed Knights Grand Commanders; such rulers included the Nizams of Hyderabad, the Maharajas of Mysore, the Maharajas of Jammu and Kashmir, the Maharajas of Baroda, the Maharajas of Gwalior, the Nawabs of Bhopal, the Maharajas of Indore, the Maharajas of Udaipur, the Maharajas of Travancore, the Maharajas of Jodhpur and the Maharaos of Cutch.

Related Topics:
Secretary of State for India - Hyderabad - Mysore - Jammu and Kashmir - Baroda - Gwalior - Bhopal - Indore - Udaipur - Travancore - Jodhpur - Cutch

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Women, save the princely rulers, were ineligible for appointment to the Order. They were, oddly, admitted as "Knights," rather than as "Dames" or "Ladies." The first woman to be admitted to the Order was HH Nawab Sikandar Begum Sahiba, Nawab Begum of Bhopal; she was created a Knight Grand Commander at the Order's foundation in 1861. The Order's statutes were specially amended to permit the admission of Queen Mary as a Knight Grand Commander in 1911.

Related Topics:
Queen Mary - 1911

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