Sir Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar ?

shashank.aggarwal

I read in newspaper today that Mr.Gordon Brown, British premier, said that he would like to see some great modern era sportsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, recommended for the honorary award.

I have very limited knowledge on Knighthood, however is it really an honor to have one, or like most of the political things people see it with some negative aspects.

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Nick-H

Some people think it is a great honour; some people think it was probably paid for in political donations; some people won't accept it as they do not approve of the establishment which is offering it.

Why an Indian sportsman would be interested in a British title, I don't know.

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shashank.aggarwal

hmmm...even I had my doubts about the establishment part..

Its not about his interest, he has not expressed anything, its the British Prime Minister who made the statement. By the way non English sportsmen has accepted it in past, couple of examples being Sir Don Bradman and Sir Gary Sobers.

Nick-H

I gathered that.

Perhaps I should have asked why the Brit PM would think that, etc...

I'd say that most Brits are still pretty chuffed at getting any sort of medal or title. They will be delighted to have been recognised, and to get their few seconds with royalty.

A knighthood is certainly a prestigious thing.

vireya

For starters the Queen can only knight someone for whom she is the head of state. So therefore she can't make an Indian citizen a knight. He could be given an "honorary knighthood", but that wouldn't allow him to call himself "Sir".

shashank.aggarwal

Then what about Sir Don Bradman ?

The Queen is Head of State for Australia so she she can rightly knight Don Bradman.

Oh..Oh...This is something that I do not have wildest Idea about. can someone throw more light on this ?

And what about Sir Gary Sobers ?

vireya

The Queen is also head of state of Barbados, where Sir Garfield Sobers is from.

There are still quite a few countries that haven't managed to achieve what India will be celebrating on Saturday! Becoming a Republic.

Nattusbs

Same goes for Sir Vivian Richards - the Queen of England is the hed of state of Antigua and earlier on Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Everton Weeks. Isn't Ian Botham also Sir Ian (more for his charity work though than cricket). If I recall, we also have Sir Richard Hadlee of NZ?

Cheers

Nattusbs

shashank.aggarwal

Mod please check post #6, one of the mods has merged wrong posts..

Dilliwala

Basically true, with a twist - Sunil Gavaskar got a knighthood long ago, but is banned from using the title 'Sir' by virtue of citizenship, i.e. the Indian govt bans it.

And Brown is just doing good politics.

Nick-H

You mean one of the merged posts belongs to someone else?

Unfortunately the system is not sufficiently sophisticated to back out a merge.

Mistakes happen, we can only apologise if someone's name got lost from their post. They are welcome to post again, and we'll edit post 6.

Sorry.

Dilliwala

Since it's your own, u can edit it yourself within 24 hours (or is it 36?). The other poster will have to repost I guess.

Qosmos

The Indian constitution does not officially recognise titles - be it royalty/noblety. A few member countries of the Commonwealth still recognise the Queen as their head of state.

Now the question..do we actually need it? We have our own Arjuna, Bharat Ratna awards dont we? PM Brown is a good friend of India. Kind gesture, acknowledged but politely refused.

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Dilliwala

Well, the same can be asked when India honours foreign nationals. Do they need it?

Nothing basically wrong in accepting another country's honours if it's well-meant. Of course I fully support the ban on Indians being allowed to use honorifics that go with such honours.