Coronation Darbar of 1903, Delhi

The death of Queen-Empress Victoria in January 1901 provided Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905, with marvelous opportunity to preserve what he believed to be Victoria's mystique, her "overpowering effect on the imagination of the Asiatic." No viceroy before or since had a greater sense of India's worth to Britain than Curzon, who decided that the new sovereign, King Edward VII, should help the binding process by coming out to India for a special coronation. Edward VII did not share his mother's enthusiasm for India and declined to do so. Instead, it was decided that a coronation Darbar should be staged in India attended by a minor royal, the duke of Cannaught, with the King's representative in India, the Viceroy, as the central figure.

This was to become the "Curzonization" of India, the Coronation Durbar of January 1903. He was determined that it should be "the biggest thing ever seen in India" and spent almost two years in meticulous planning to ensure that this was so. The planning and organization of the durbar was spearheaded by Sir James Robert (JR) Dunlop Smith. The site selected was the same upon which the 1877 Durbar had been staged.

The proceedings opened on December 29, 1902, and the viceroy and his royal guests were received at the train station within the city, and then conducted a parade of elephants through the city streets and then out through a gate. The guests included royals from almost all of the princely states of India, including Maharajas, Rajas, Nawabs, and other minor chiefs.

The Darbar itself was held on January 1, 1903, in a large amphitheater on the plain beyond the Ridge at Delhi; the site of the Imperial Assemblage of 1877. The 1903 Durbar was one of the finest spectacles India had ever seen during the Colonial rule - the parade of the Native Retainers at the Coronation Durbar. Dunlop Smith turned what many Englishmen expected to be shambles into a magnificent spectacle. The Native Princes were delighted that he had shown their pageantry to such good effect. Attending the Durbar were the Rajput nobles, Sir Rahim Bakhsh, who accompanied the Nawab of Bahawalpur, and Khan Bahadar Sardar Bakhshi Wali Mohammed Khan, who accompanied the Raja of Nabha.