A chief officer or commander in some South Asian contexts, particularly in medieval Indian or Islamic administrative systems.
From Persian kotwal or Urdu kotwal, derived from Sanskrit elements. The term reflects the Persian-Indian administrative vocabulary that developed during the Mughal period and became part of South Asian English.
Cotwal shows how English borrowed administrative terms from the Mughal Empire—words like this remind us that modern English is a historical record of colonialism and cultural contact, with job titles from other languages embedded in our vocabulary.
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