Sahib or Saheb ( / ˈ s ɑː h ɪ b / ; Arabic : صاحب ) is an Arabic title meaning 'companion'. It was historically used for the first caliph Abu Bakr in the Quran .
41-512: The Ravi Lancers (1972) is a novel by British soldier and writer John Masters . It is part of his series of novels portraying the British Raj through the experiences of members of the Savage family. Many of the incidents portrayed are based on the reminiscences of family-members and veterans in his Gurkha regiment. The story concerns an Indian cavalry regiment which is sent to France at
82-530: A Frenchman . The term is used in a similar manner in George Orwell 's essay " Shooting an Elephant ", which is used to accentuate his isolation in Colonial Burma . (now Myanmar ). The term is used throughout the children's novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett . In Herman Cyril McNeile 's 1920 novel Bulldog Drummond , an Indian magician was performing tricks in front of
123-679: A lieutenant-colonel whose family had a long tradition of service in the British Indian Army . He was educated at Wellington and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst . On graduating from Sandhurst in 1933, he was seconded to the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI) for a year before applying to serve with the 4th Prince of Wales's Own Gurkha Rifles . He saw service on the North-West Frontier with
164-497: A pukka sahib mean?" "It means," said Poirot, "that Miss Debenham's father and brothers were at the same kind of school as Colonel Arbuthnot." In Bruce Marshall 's The World, the Flesh and Father Smith , the protagonist serves as a military chaplain in the trenches of WWI and gives absolution to soldiers and officers about to go into battle. A major tells him: "God's a bit hard on a chap at times. Still, I am sure God's too much of
205-657: A young prince . This derivation using the Persian suffix -zada(h) , literally 'born from' (or further male/female descendant; compare Shahzada ) a Sahib , was also (part of) the formal style for some princes of the blood of Hindu and Muslim dynasties in the Indian sub-continent, e.g.: This could be further combined, e.g.: Sahib means "owner" in Arabic and was commonly used in the Indian Sub-continent as
246-534: A 1989 strip after Jon asks Garfield to go outside and see if it is still raining. The term is frequently used throughout the short stories of Robert E. Howard , mostly by Indian or Arabic characters—e.g. a Sikh manservant addresses the guests of his employer as "sahib" in The Noseless Horror . This title (pl. musāhibān ), etymologically the active part. of to associate, or consort (with), means originally companion, associate, friend (the abstract term
287-480: A Sahib to run a fellow in for ever and ever just because he got messed up with a bit of fluff" (i.e. had casual affairs with women). Later, the same major is mortally wounded. As the priest is about to administer last rites, the major says: "It's all right, Father; I still think God is a Sahib". Jim Davis uses the term in a 1983 Garfield comic strip in which Garfield refers to Jon Arbuckle as "sahib" after Jon asks Garfield to retrieve his newspaper, and again in
328-648: A Tiger , details Masters's time at Sandhurst and service on India's northwest frontier on the eve of the Second World War. Road Past Mandalay deals mostly with the Burma campaign in the War, while Pilgrim Son chronicles his career as a writer. Apart from the autobiographical works mentioned above, Masters is also known for his historical novels set in India. Seven of these portray members of successive generations of
369-577: A courteous term in the way that "Mister" (also derived from the word "master") and "Mrs." (derived from the word "mistress") is used in the English language. It is still used today in the sub-continent just as "Mister" and "Mrs." and continues to be used today by English-language speakers as a polite form of address. "Sahib" is also appended to the names of holy places associated with the Sikh gurus such as Nankana Sahib , Patna Sahib , Anandpur Sahib . In
410-475: A crowd and drew attention to a mysterious box. 'You don't mean the fourth dimension, do you?' demanded a man incredulously. 'I know not what you call it, sahib,' said the Indian quietly. 'But it is the power which renders visible or invisible at will.' E.M. Forster also employed the term in his 1924 novel A Passage to India . His Anglo-Indian characters refer to the Collector as Burra Sahib, implying
451-584: A shattering head-on clash in the midst of an assault on the German trenches. The climax involves what is effectively a mutiny when the regiment fighting as infantry is trapped by a German counter-attack. Led by Krishna Ram the surviving Indian soldiers are able to escape back to the British lines. The broken Bateman subsequently commits suicide at his estate in England, leaving Krishna Ram with a sense of guilt. At
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#1732773284428492-722: A spell as a staff officer in GHQ India in Delhi , he then served as an instructor at the British Army Staff College, Camberley . He left the army in 1948 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and moved to the United States, where he set up a business promoting walking tours in the Himalayas , one of his hobbies. The business was not a success and, to make ends meet, he decided to write of his experiences in
533-554: Is noteworthy that the character referred to had never been in India and had no connection with India. It is used in Agatha Christie 's 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express in a similar way. "About Miss Debenham," [Colonel Arbuthnot] said rather awkwardly. "You can take it from me that she's all right. She's a pukka sahib ." Flushing a little, he withdrew. "What," asked Dr. Constantine with interest, "does
574-591: Is probably Bhowani Junction (1956), which concerns the Partition of India and the Anglo-Indian community. It starred Ava Gardner . Four of the novels (the 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 6th in the series) were adapted for an 18-part serial in BBC Radio 4 's Classic Serial slot, being broadcast from October 1984 to January 1985. The Venus of Konpara had also been dramatised for BBC Radio in 1973. The Deceivers
615-597: The 111th Indian Infantry Brigade , a Chindit formation. From March 1944, the brigade served behind the Japanese lines in Burma . On the death of General Orde Wingate on 24 April, Lentaigne became the Chindit commander and Masters commanded the main body of the 111th Indian Infantry Brigade. In May 1944, the brigade was ordered to hold a position code-named 'Blackpool' near Mogaung in northern Burma. The isolated position
656-496: The British Empire , increasingly discovers its shortcomings and develops his own awareness of being Indian. The British commanding officer Colonel Bateman, originally liberal minded, becomes a harsh and demanding martinet under the stress of trench warfare. The situation is further complicated by Krishna Ram's secret affair with Bateman's sister. Finally the two divergent characters and their respective sets of values come to
697-498: The British Indian Army , a British officer would address a viceroy's commissioned officer (i.e., a native Indian officer) as "<rank> sahib" or "<name> sahib". In turn Indian soldiers would address British or Indian superiors with this term as a substitute for "sir". This form of address is still retained in the present-day army of independent India. The term sahib was applied indiscriminately to any person whether Indian or non-Indian. This included Europeans who arrived in
738-506: The Chindits behind enemy lines in Burma, and became the GSO1 (chief staff officer) of the 19th Indian Infantry Division . Masters is principally known for his historical novels set in India, notably Bhowani Junction , which was turned into a successful film . He also wrote three volumes of autobiography, which were positively received by critics. Masters was the son of a regular soldier,
779-469: The 2nd battalion of the regiment, and was rapidly given a variety of appointments within the battalion and the regimental depot. In 1938, he organised a hunt for a leopard reported to be roaming the depot at Bakloh , only to find himself facing a full-grown tiger (which killed one of the Gurkhas acting as beaters). He later commented that whatever rank and decorations he was awarded, he was always known to
820-405: The British regiment commander are Indians, which would not have been the case in a regular regiment at the time. The book centers on the relationship between the regiment's British commander (a member of the Savage family, though with a different family name) and his Indian second-in-command Krishna Ram - heir to the throne of the state of Ravi. The young Indian prince, originally a naive admirer of
861-667: The Gurkhas as "The Sahib who shot the Bakloh tiger". In early 1939, he was appointed the Adjutant of the 2nd battalion of the 4th Gurkhas. During the Second World War his battalion was sent to Basra in Iraq, during the brief Anglo-Iraqi War . Masters subsequently served in Iraq, Syria , and Persia with the battalion, before being briefly seconded as a staff officer in a Line of Communications HQ. In early 1942, he attended
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#1732773284428902-530: The Indian Army's Staff College at Quetta . Here he met the wife of a fellow officer and they began an affair. Even though they later married, there was something of a scandal at the time. After passing the Staff College, Masters next served as brigade major in the 114th Indian Infantry Brigade before being "poached" by Joe Lentaigne , another officer from the 4th Gurkhas, to be brigade major in
943-410: The Savage family serving in the British and Indian Armies in India, in an attempt to trace the history of the British in India through the life of one family. In chronological order of events (but not in order of publication) these novels are: One of Masters's last Indian novels, The Venus of Konpara , is notable for the fact that its principal characters are Indians. The Savage family play no role in
984-509: The army. When his novels proved popular, he became a full-time writer. In later life, Masters and his wife Barbara moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico . He died in 1983 from complications following heart surgery. His family and friends scattered his ashes from an aeroplane over a mountain trail he frequently hiked in. General Sir Michael Rose , the former UN commander in Bosnia, is a stepson of Masters. John Masters: A Regimented Life by John Clay
1025-464: The author died before any other connected books were published. The 1959 Fandango Rock , written in between the Indian books, is an exception – its plot being set in the fascist Spain ruled by General Franco and focusing on the relationship between the American and Spanish governments . In the 1950s and 1960s the books of Masters sold in large numbers, particularly Bhowani Junction , which
1066-601: The conflicts inherent in British India in a manner comparable to E. M. Forster 's A Passage to India . The descendant of the hero of the former novel (who is in practice manifestly the same character) experiences the partition of India with a resigned detachment and later undergoes a deep personal crisis which ends with his staying on in independent India rather than returning to Britain. One Indian novelist ( Khushwant Singh ) remarked that while Kipling understood India, Masters understood Indians. The best-known film
1107-562: The end Krishna Ram decides that he and his men will remain on active service in France, rather than returning to Ravi, because "we gave our word to serve" and out of a form of loyalty to the dead Bateman. John Masters Royal Military College, Sandhurst Lieutenant Colonel John Masters , DSO , OBE (26 October 1914 – 7 May 1983) was a British novelist and regular officer of the Indian Army . In World War II, he served with
1148-490: The outbreak of the First World War . The Ravi Lancers is unusual in that it is part of the army of a semi-independent Hindu state (a Princely state ) attached to British India. It accordingly follows different traditions than the regular regiments of the British Indian Army . These include a semi-feudal relationship between the Indian ' sowars ' (cavalrymen) and their ruler. It also means that all officers except for
1189-547: The respect felt for him. The following dialogue in Dorothy Sayers 's 1926 novel Clouds of Witness shows what the term implied in British society at the time. Coroner: "What kind of a man was Captain Cathcart?" Duke of Denver: "Well – he was a Sahib and all that. I don't know what he did before joining up in 1914. I think he lived on his income; his father was well off. Crack shot, good at games, and so on." It
1230-405: The senior deck and engine officers for many years, even when no Indian or Pakistani crew featured in the ship's company. The term is used exclusively to refer to any white European on the Indian subcontinent, throughout Rudyard Kipling 's 1901 novel Kim . Kim is ethnically a 'sahib', but was raised as a low-caste native boy. Most sahibs in the novel are British, but there is also a Russian and
1271-591: The storyline, though it is hinted that a minor unidentified character is a family member. It is set in the nineteenth century during the British Raj , but explores the history of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian identities in the country. Master's works have come under criticism for their depiction of Indian characters. However, both Nightrunners of Bengal and The Ravi Lancers contain sympathetic portrayals of Indian nationalists and portray irreconcilable tensions between British and Indian characters that mirror
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1312-518: The sub-continent as traders in the 16th century and hence the first mention of the word in European records is in 1673. Pukka sahib was also a term used to signify genuine and legitimate authority, with pukka meaning "absolutely genuine". Sahiba is the authentic form of address to be used for a female. Under the British Raj, however, the word used for female members of the establishment
1353-474: Was adapted to memsahib , a variation of the English word "ma'am" having been added to the word sahib . The same word is also appended to the names of Sikh gurus. The term sahib (normally pronounced saab ) was used on P&O vessels which had Indian or Pakistani crew to refer to officers, and in particular senior officers. On P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises vessels the term continued to be used by non-Indian/non-Pakistani junior officers to refer to
1394-405: Was also translated into various other languages. Some of his works are now out of print. Sahib As a loanword , Sahib has passed into several languages, including Persian , Kurdish , Turkish , Azerbaijani , Kazakh , Uzbek , Turkmen , Tajik , Crimean Tatar , Urdu , Hindi , Punjabi , Pashto , Bengali , Gujarati , Marathi , Rohingya and Somali . During medieval times, it
1435-413: Was attacked with great intensity for seventeen days and eventually the brigade was forced to withdraw. Masters felt obliged to order the medical orderlies to shoot 19 of his own men, casualties who had no hope of recovery or rescue. Masters later wrote about these events in the second volume of his autobiography, The Road Past Mandalay . In recognition of his "gallant and distinguished services in Burma", he
1476-471: Was filmed in 1988 and starred Pierce Brosnan . Masters's trilogy of Now God Be Thanked , Heart of War , and In The Green of the Spring has some claim to be considered his magnum opus, covering the changes to various segments of British society wrought by the upheavals of the First World War . Masters's book Man of War appears to have been the first of a planned trilogy on the Second World War; however,
1517-492: Was impatient with the literary establishment, which faulted his Indian novels as unsympathetic to Indians, and he was impatient with editors who wanted to remove the rough edges from his characters. Masters strove for accuracy and realism, resenting it when people mistook his characters' views as his own. He was extremely hard-working and meticulously well-organised, both as a soldier and a novelist. Clay speculates that Masters may have been driven to achieve by rumours that his family
1558-774: Was in October awarded the DSO. After briefly commanding the 3rd battalion of his regiment, Masters subsequently became GSO1 (the Chief of Staff ) of the Indian 19th Infantry Division , which was involved in the later stages of the Burma Campaign . Near the end of the war he was offered command of an Indian airborne brigade but the Japanese surrender intervened. On 17 January 1946 he was awarded an OBE for his service in Burma. After
1599-418: Was not "pure" English, but Anglo-Indian or Eurasian . In 1962 Masters learned what he had apparently long suspected, that he did indeed have a distant Indian ancestor. Clay's biography provides details that Masters omitted from the three volumes of autobiography he wrote: Bugles and a Tiger (1956); Road Past Mandalay (1961); and Pilgrim Son (1971). They are nevertheless extremely revealing. Bugles and
1640-409: Was published by Michael Joseph in 1992. Now out of print, it is a sympathetic but not uncritical biography. According to Clay, Masters possessed a strong and sometimes domineering personality, and could be impatient with weakness or incompetence. He could also be extremely warmhearted and generous. His outgoing and boisterous personality flourished during his long residence in the United States. Masters
1681-538: Was used as a term of address , either as an official title or an honorific . Now, in South and Central Asia, it is almost exclusively used to give respect to someone higher or lower. For example, drivers are commonly addressed as sahib in South Asia and so on. The honorific has largely been replaced with sir . Some shorten sahib to saab . Sahibzada is a princely style or title equivalent to, or referring to