The Military Police subahdar
A Rajput, very fat and moustachioed, found in the middle of the riot with his pagri gone and the sweat rolling off his bald crown, throttling a rioter. Asked why his men have not fired, he answers that he has had no order, then blows piercing blasts on his whistle and tells John Flory that the sahib will give the order. Flory does, and disperses the crowd without a shot.
The book
At a glance
- Senior Indian officer of the Military Police detachment at Kyauktada
- A Rajput
- Lieutenant Verrall, who holds his own men in contempt
- Never given
- Chapters 18 and 22
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeA subahdar was the most senior Indian officer in a company of the Indian Army or, as here, the Military Police. This one commands the detachment stationed at Kyauktada. He is a Rajput, he is very fat, and he is not named.
He first appears as a detail in a paragraph about somebody else. Lieutenant Verrall, the young English cavalry officer temporarily in charge of the detachment, despises his own Military Policemen and says so out loud while inspecting them, and the old subahdar walks behind him carrying his sword while he does it.
His real scene is the riot in chapter 22. About two thousand people have surrounded the European Club demanding that Ellis be handed over for blinding a schoolboy. Every policeman in the town, roughly a hundred and fifty men, has charged the crowd from behind armed only with sticks, and has been swallowed whole. John Flory, who has swum the river to reach the police lines, pushes into the crowd and finds the subahdar by accident, when the subahdar's boot comes down on his big toe.
The officer has lost his turban, the sweat is running off his bald head, and he has one rioter by the throat and is trying to punch his face in. Flory gets an arm round his neck, drags him off the man and shouts in his ear, asking why the police have not opened fire. The answer, when Flory finally hears it, is four words: I have had no order. Flory calls him an idiot.
A hundred and fifty policemen are being trampled because no Englishman has told them what to do. When the subahdar finally gets his men out of the crush and back to the lines with their rifles loaded, he turns to Flory, who is a timber merchant with no authority over anybody, and pants that the sahib will give the order. Flory gives it, and gives a sensible one: fire high, over the people's heads, and fire all together. Two volleys clear the crowd and nobody is killed.
How the book draws them
- How the book draws himA Rajput, very fat and moustachioed. In the middle of the riot his turban is gone and the sweat is rolling off his bare bald head.
- Behind VerrallLieutenant Verrall walks down the ranks inspecting, muttering about the men under his command, and the old subahdar follows him carrying his sword.
- How Flory finds himBy the pain. Jammed in the crowd, Flory feels somebody in boots stand on his right big toe, and the boots turn out to belong to the subahdar, who has a rioter by the throat.
- "I have had no order"His answer, in Urdu, when Flory bellows at him to ask why his men have not fired. The whole police force of the town is being crushed in a crowd while it waits for an instruction from an Englishman.
- The whistlePinned motionless with Flory beside him, he works a whistle out of his pocket and blows piercing blasts on it, although nobody can rally until they are out of the crush.
- "The sahib will give the order!"Said panting, at the gate of the police lines, with the men back and their rifles loaded. Flory is a civilian who sells teak. The reason he is asked is that he is the only white man present.