Colonized Indian Etiquette History

A salaam is a gesture of greeting or respect. It can be done with, or without, a spoken salutation, typically consisting of a low bow of the head and body, with the hand or fingers touching the forehead. – “We mostly copy European etiquette while with Europeans. Even a Bengali shakes hands with a Bengali, speaks in English for a few minutes, and then breaks forth into the vernacular. We shake hands with a European on parting, but by mistake again touch the hand to the brow in a salaam; so we both shake hands, salaam and do the like; and no sober-minded European ever cared for the anomaly.”

Of Honors, Umbrellas and Shoes...

Their Importance In the Eyes of the Indian Native

India is so vast that different etiquettes prevail in different districts. We have no standard etiquette, no standard dress. We mostly copy European etiquette while with Europeans. Even a Bengali shakes hands with a Bengali, speaks in English for a few minutes, and then breaks forth into the vernacular. We shake hands with a European on parting, but by mistake again touch the hand to the brow in a salaam; so we both shake hands, salaam and do the like; and no sober-minded European ever cared for the anomaly.

The umbrella is the emblem of royalty, the sign of a Rajah. So natives generally fold their umbrellas before a Rajah, and not before anybody else, however great, it is not a part of the dress, but a protection from the rain or sun, a necessary appendage, just like the watch and chain. You might as well ask a European to take off his water-proof coat. A coolie is not bound to fold his umbrella when a brigadier general rides past. But a menial generally closes down the umbrella on seeing his master, whom he considers his “King.” But no Indian, however humble, ought to fold up the umbrella, even before a magistrate, because he is neither the master of the humble passer-by, nor his superior officer, nor is he bound to salaam him. But if he does, no harm. In a word, natives generally fold the umbrella before a master or a superior officer, and not any other citizen, however great and this is no insult.

While going to see a native chief in his palace, the native visitor or official takes off his shoes, if the reception room has a farash and the Rajah is sitting on his musnud. But if he is received in the drawing-room, furnished after the European style, the shoes are allowed. In some states, no natives can go to a Rajah without a pugree. In others, the pugree is taken off and tossed at the feet of a Rajah.—Civil and Military Gazette, 1907

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Anglo-Indian "At Home" Etiquette

The strictly fashionable calling time is between 12:00 and 2:00 every day except Sunday—a relic, it is said, of the past when our grandmothers and grandfathers considered four o’clock the State dinner hour.

Society in Muree is like Indian society in general, in all save the three principal cities. The military element very largely predominates, and in custom much of the etiquette of the first Anglo-Indian communities is retained. Still, English people in India have not yet introduced weekly "at home" days, as in the plains, the strictly fashionable calling time is between 12:00 and 2:00 every day except Sunday—a relic, it is said, of the past when our grandmothers and grandfathers considered four o’clock the State dinner hour. 

At 12:00 punctually therefore, each day the firing of the gun which sets the true time for the station reminds people that they must either be to pay calls or preparing to receive them. Duly at that time, ladies sally forth on their formal duties, regardless of the power of a full tropical sun and the probable chances, even in the hills, of an attack of sunstroke. Those who are of homely dispositions will ask their friends to come and see them in the afternoon, but that has its drawbacks, as tennis parties and other gayeties cause almost the whole station to be “not at home" after 4:30 or 6 o’clock.

The calling hours are, however, not the only alteration in home customs which a new-comer has to observe if she would escape social ostracism, for English etiquette is in some respects, entirely reversed. The last arrival, for instance, has to call upon all the other visitors in the station, unless she happens to be a bride, and in that case she calls nowhere until others have honored her. Other customs, again, of very recent introduction, such as the practice of every lady coming to a hotel making a formal call upon every other lady in the same hotel, are noteworthy, not only for their local peculiarity, but as typifying the extreme of Anglo-Indian society. —London Queen, 1888

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Moderator and Editor for the Etiquipedia©Etiquette Encyclopedia