{"id":13420,"date":"2025-10-21T05:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T05:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/?p=13420"},"modified":"2025-10-21T05:34:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T05:34:16","slug":"after-proposal-for-knighthood-rejected-by-indian-committee-the-viceroy-of-india-lord-freeman-thomas-willingdon-approved-title-khan-bahadur-for-muhammed-abdur-rahman-chughtai-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/?p=13420","title":{"rendered":"AFTER PROPOSAL FOR KNIGHTHOOD REJECTED BY INDIAN COMMITTEE; THE VICEROY OF INDIA LORD FREEMAN-THOMAS WILLINGDON APPROVED; TITLE KHAN BAHADUR FOR MUHAMMED ABDUR RAHMAN CHUGHTAI ARTIST."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AFTER PROPOSAL FOR KNIGHTHOOD REJECTED BY INDIAN COMMITTEE,<\/strong>
THE VICEROY OF INDIA LORD FREEMAN-THOMAS WILLINGDON APPROVED,<\/strong>
TITLE KHAN BAHADUR FOR MUHAMMED ABDUR RAHMAN CHUGHTAI ARTIST.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In undivided India the story of national recognition for M.A. Rahman Chughtai artist started much before 1934. People saw the titled file in the Civil Secretariat Lahore. A proposal for knighthood had been given, and it was rejected by the Hindu Member of nominating committee. with the remark that the title should not go to an artist who lives inside the walled city of Lahore, and is in poor circumstances. The man with great reputation of bigotry was none other than Sir Shadi Lal, the Chief Justice of Lahore High  Court. He was a member of the committee to approve these things.Three previous awards had gone to nominated Hindus for knighthood, like the Tagores, and the Administration desperately needed a Muslim artist to balance their decision.  Much debate took place, but the idea could not be rejected. The journalist Beverley Nichols mention of Chughtai as the greatest artist of India is recalled by all. British artists had already endorsed an award for the artist. A compromise was made with the highest national award substitute for knighthood. The result was that the Viceroy of India approved the award of Khan Bahadur, and it was only the FOURTH TITLE<\/strong> given to any artist in India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Official note of Title by Clancy Secy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Investiture 1934 Chughtai Artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Title Khan Bahadur<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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LORD THOMAS WILLINGDON VICEROY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sir Shadi Lal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Khan Bahadur 1934 Chughtai Award<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Reverse Khan Bahadur 1934<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sir Herbert (William) Emerson by Bassano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lord Linlithgow 1937 Lahore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Royal-Invitation-1937<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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MARC 30s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The ceremony at the Governor’s House Lahore was conducted by Sir Sikander Hyat Khan, then Governor of Punjab. He had also gone through the same process of Khan Bahadur and then knighthood. From then on the artist was considered an elite of Lahore and was invited to all major functions in the city. For example when the Viceroy of India came to Lahore, Lord Emerson invited M.A. Rahman Chughtai to the reception in Lahore. The artist was introduced to the Viceroy of India, Lord  Linlithgow. The VIP status of the artist was ensured for In all times.  Ahead was recognition in India at all levels. Even today the status of M.A. Rahman Chughtai is felt in Indian Art circles. The story of Pakistan is for another narration later on. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFTER PROPOSAL FOR KNIGHTHOOD REJECTED BY INDIAN COMMITTEE,THE VICEROY OF INDIA LORD FREEMAN-THOMAS WILLINGDON APPROVED,TITLE KHAN BAHADUR FOR MUHAMMED ABDUR RAHMAN CHUGHTAI ARTIST.\u00a0 In undivided India the story of national recognition for M.A. Rahman Chughtai artist started much before 1934. People saw the titled file in the Civil Secretariat Lahore. A proposal for knighthood had … Continue reading AFTER PROPOSAL FOR KNIGHTHOOD REJECTED BY INDIAN COMMITTEE; THE VICEROY OF INDIA LORD FREEMAN-THOMAS WILLINGDON APPROVED; TITLE KHAN BAHADUR FOR MUHAMMED ABDUR RAHMAN CHUGHTAI ARTIST.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13420"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13432,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13420\/revisions\/13432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chughtaimuseum.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}