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 (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 of the state. In the Ottoman Empire, it consisted of the usually (except in the Sultan's presence) presiding Grand Vizier and other , 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 Malay language (including Indonesian) and related languages (such as Javanese, Minangkabau, etc.), the borrowed word "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 (Dewan Rakyat), and Dewan Negara (Senate of Malaysia).
Indian subcontinent
Mughal Empire
During the effective rule of
Mughal Empire, 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 (especially Muslim, but also many Hindu, including Baroda, Hyderabad state, 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:
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 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", which applied Hindu law.[Campbell, Lawrence Dundas (ed), Asiatic Annual Register for 1802, or A View of the History of Hindustan and of the Politics, Commerce and Literature of Asia, London, J. Debrett, 1803, footnote pp.97-100, Miscellaneous Tracts [1]][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, Glossary [2])]
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.
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, near the Bilaspur and Janjgir-Champa regions. This is a
Brahmin-Rajput community descendant from Deo Brahmin-Rajputs who migrated from
Purvanchal 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). 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, 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 over parts of India during the early British Raj.
Diwani in French India
In
French India, one of its constituent colonies, Yanaon, had
Zamindar and
Diwan Bahadur. 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.
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 had carried the title of Dewan (equivalent to Prime Minister) of the Kingdom of Nepal.
Books
