Medals and Decorations of Independent India

Book excerpt: With India's independence in 1947 and emergence as a fully self-governing republic in 1950, new awards were created to reward Indian citizens for bravery and national service. While these new national awards grew out of the historical heritage of the period of British rule, they also represented the unique values of the new republic. This book presents a systematic overview of the official military, police, and civilian awards of the Republic of India from 1947 though to the present day. In addition to presenting a detailed catalogue of official awards, this work also surveys the development of policy on such awards, considers their changing legal status, and provides a critique of the policies that governed their creation and bestowal. While focusing on official national awards, the book also provides information on Indian provincial awards, on foreign awards given to Indians, and on awards of the pre-1947 Provisional Government of Free India. While much space is necessarily devoted to military awards, attention is also given to civilian awards, to the awards of the police and fire services and to the other official awards of the Indian Republic. This is the first book to focus on this important topic and should be of special interest to those in the defence and other uniformed services, to national policy makers, to students and collectors of decorations and medals, and to those with an interest in the social and political history of India. Members of the general public with an interest in how such national honours are awarded or with a curiosity over the meaning of all those bits of coloured silk that are worn on uniforms, will find this a useful and handy work of reference.