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''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the elite families in the history of Mughal and post-Mughal India and held high posts within the government.


Etymology

The word is Persian in origin and was loaned into Arabic. The original meaning was "bundle (of written sheets)", hence "book", especially "book of accounts," and hence "office of accounts," "custom house," "council chamber". The meaning of the word, '' divan'' "long, cushioned seat" is due to such seats having been found along the walls in Middle Eastern council chambers. It is a common surname among Sikhs in Punjab.


Council

The word first appears under the Caliphate of
Omar I ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate ...
(A.D. 634–644). As the Caliphate state became more complicated, the term was extended over all the government bureaus. The ''divan of the Sublime Porte'' was the council or
Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...
of the state. In the Ottoman Empire, it consisted of the usually (except in the
Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
's presence) presiding
Grand Vizier Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...
and other viziers, and occasionally the Janissary Ağa. In 19th-century Romania, the Ad hoc Divan was a body which played a role in the country's development towards independence from Ottoman rule. In Javanese and related languages (such as
Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...
and
Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...
), the
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
"dewan" is the standard word for council, as in the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (or Indonesia's Council of People's Representatives) and Dewan Undangan Negeri ( State Legislative Assembly of Malaysia), Dewan Rakyat ( House of Representatives of Malaysia), and
Dewan Negara The Dewan Negara (English language, English: Senate; Literal translation, lit. "State Council") is the upper house of the Parliament of Malaysia, consisting of 70 senators of whom 26 are elected by the State legislative assemblies of Malaysia, ...
(
Senate of Malaysia The Dewan Negara (English: Senate; lit. "State Council") is the upper house of the Parliament of Malaysia, consisting of 70 senators of whom 26 are elected by the state legislative assemblies, with two senators for each state, while the othe ...
).


Indian subcontinent


Mughal Empire

During the effective rule of
Mughal India The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
, the ''Dewan'' served as the chief revenue officer of a province. Later, when most vassal states gained various degrees of self-determination, the finance — and/or chief minister and leader of many
princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj, British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, ...
s (especially
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
, but also many
Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
, including Baroda, Hyderabad, Mysore, Kochi, Travancore — referred to as ''Dalawa'' until 1811) became known as a ''dewan''. Exceptionally, a ruler was himself titled Dewan or a loftier variation, notably: * in Beri-Bundelkhand * in
Dhurwai Dhurwai was a Princely states of India, princely state in India during the British Raj. It was one of the Hasht-Bhaiya Jagirs, under the Bundelkhand Agency of British India. Its capital was the town of Dhurwai, with a population of 777 in 1901. T ...
* in Jaso (Jassu) and in Bandhora (which was split from the former c. 1750) * in
Khilchipur Khilchipur is a town and a nagar panchayat in Rajgarh district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. In 2022 Janpad Panchayat election held in which BJP emerged as a winner and make their candidate Janpad Adhyaksh and up-adhyaksh under the lea ...
until 1873, then Rai Bahadur * in Junagadh, where Shah Nawaz Bhutto was the prime minister of the former princely state. * ''Diwan Sahib'' or ''Diwan Bahadur'' in
Garrauli State ''Garrouli''; Hindi Name गर्रौली) is a fort and former princely state in present Madhya Pradesh, central India. History Garrauli became a princely state in 1812, when a sanad (feudal deed) from the British Government was granted ...


Maratha period

As a title used in various Early Modern Indian states, ''Diwan'' denoted the highest officials in the court after the king; the suffix
-ji -ji (, ) is a gender-neutral honorific used as a suffix in many languages of the Indian subcontinent, such as Hindi and Punjabi languages and their dialects prevalent in northern India, north-west and central India. ''Ji'' is gender-neutral and c ...
is added as a mark of respect in India. In the major Maratha states of Baroda (ruled by the Gaekwad), Gwalior (ruled by Scindias or Shinde), Indore (ruled by Holkar), and Nagpur ( ruled by Bhonsle, but not from the Chhatrapati Shivaji family), the highest officer after the king was called the Diwan. One of the examples – Shrimant Diwan/Rao Bahadur Atmaram Kulkarni, was the Diwan (Prime Minister) of Maratha Jamkhandi State. In the 19th century, the British Parliament established in British India a supreme court for revenue matters (non-criminal matters) named the "
Sudder Dewanny Adawlut The Ṣadr Dīwānī ʿAdālat ( ur, , bn, সদর দেওয়ানি আদালত ) (English: Sudder Dewanny Adawlut) was the Supreme Court of Revenue in British India established at Calcutta by Warren Hastings in 1772. It was reforme ...
", which applied Hindu law.Definition per James Mill (1826): "Dewan, Duan: place of assembly. Native minister of the revenue department; and chief justice, in civil causes, within his jurisdiction; receiver-general of a province. The term is also used, to designate the principal revenue servant under a European collector, and even of a Zemindar. By this title, the East India Company are receivers-general of the revenues of Bengal, under a grant from the Great Mogul"..."Dewanny, Duannee: the office, or jurisdiction of a Dewan" (Mill, James, The History of British India, Vol. 1 (of 6), 3rd Edition, London, 1826, Glossar


Among Hindus and Sikhs of Punjab and Bengal

Dewan, Diwan, Divan, or Deo was the hereditary title borne by the Chief Minister of the Hindu Cooch State in the
Bengal region Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
. Diwan also became a surname of high-caste Hindus or Sikhs in the Punjab region.


Chhattisgarhi Rajput-Brahmins

There is also a community with the surname ''Diwan'' found in
Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh (, ) is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Prade ...
, near the Bilaspur and Janjgir-Champa regions. This is a Brahmin-Rajput community descendant from Deo Brahmin-Rajputs who migrated from
Purvanchal Purvanchal () is a subregion of the Bhojpuri region of India which comprises eastern Uttar Pradesh. Purvanchal region gained independence from the Avadh and Mughal rule under Zamindar Balwant Singh, a Bhumihar zamindar from Benaras State. I ...
in Uttar Pradesh. The males in this community take the title Dhar (e.g., Mohan Dhar Diwan, a high-ranked member of
Vishwa Hindu Parishad The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "to ...
). They had a fight with the royal family of Ratanpur, defeated the king, and started ruling the Ratanpur estate.


Diwani in British India

After the
Battle of Buxar The Battle of Buxar was fought between 22 and 23 October 1764, between the forces under the command of the British East India Company, led by Hector Munro, and the combined armies of Mir Qasim, Nawab of Bengal till 1764; the Nawab of Awadh, Sh ...
, when Bengal was annexed by the East India Company in 1764, the Mughal Emperor granted the Company the ''Diwani'' (the right to collect revenue) in Bengal and Bihar in 1765. "Chapter 5: Early Modern India II: Company Raj", "Chapter 3: The East India Company Raj, 1772-1850," "Chapter 7: Company Raj and Indian Society 1757 to 1857, Reinvention and Reform of Tradition." The term ''Diwani'' thus referred to British (fiscal)
suzerainty Suzerainty () is the rights and obligations of a person, state or other polity who controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to have internal autonomy. While the subordinate party is cal ...
over parts of India during the early British Raj.


Diwani in French India

In
French India French India, formally the ( en, French Settlements in India), was a French colony comprising five geographically separated enclaves on the Indian Subcontinent that had initially been factories of the French East India Company. They were ''de ...
, one of its constituent colonies,
Yanaon Yanaon or Yanam was one of the five principal settlements of French India between 1731 and 1954. Early years Reason for European interests The French in their earlier records do mention of their interest in establishing trade in the Northern ...
, had Zamindar and Diwan. They were active in its local and municipal administration during French rule. The Zamindar of Yanam was given a 4-gun salute by French counterparts. * ZamindarManion Canacaya * Diwan
Bouloussou Soubramaniam Sastroulou Bouloussou Soubramaniom Sastroulou (''Bulusu Subrahmaṇya Śāstrulu''; 1866 – 13 September 1941) was Diwan, Conseiller local and Judge Advocate during French colonial rule in Yanam in the early 20th century. Birth Soubramaniom Sastroulou wa ...
* Sovereignty
French Colonial Empire The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French Colonial Empire", that exist ...


Nepal

The document dated Bikram Samvat 1833 Bhadra Vadi 3 Roj 6 (i.e. Friday 2 August 1776), shows that Vamsharaj Pande and
Swaroop Singh Karki Swarup Singh Karki ( ne, स्वरूप सिंह कार्की) or Swaroop Singh Karki, was a Nepali politician, courtier, military commander and minister. He was popular for his singing prowess and court conspiracies. He was selecte ...
had carried the title of Dewan (equivalent to Prime Minister) of the Kingdom of Nepal.


References


Books

* {{Citation, last=Regmi , first=D.R. , title= Modern Nepal, volume= 1, publisher=Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay , year=1975 , isbn= 0883864916, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idJBAAAAYAAJ Titles in India Executive ministers Indian dewans Titles in Pakistan Titles of national or ethnic leadership Bengali words and phrases Titles in Bangladesh