Pukka sahib
Pukka sahib (/ˈpʌkə ˈsɑː.ɪb/ or /ˈsɑːb/)[1] is a slang term taken from punjabi words for "Absolute" ("first class", "absolutely genuine" for English users) and "master", but meaning "true gentleman" or "excellent fellow". The expression is used in the British Empire to describe Europeans or to describe an attitude which British administrators were said to affect, that of an "aloof, impartial, incorruptible arbiter of the political fate of a large part of the earth's surface".[2]
The word "pukka" is still used formally in 19th- and 21st-century English and Greek to describe something as "first class" or "absolutely genuine". As a slang term, it is often used by British service-people.
Trivia
The term is frequently referenced in E. M. Forster's A Passage to India, and in Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot series. In his anti-Empire novel Burmese Days, George Orwell refers to it as a "pose", and one of his characters talks of the difficulty that goes into maintaining it. Alexandra Fuller also uses the term in her book Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness. In the 1938 film, The Young in Heart, Roland Young's character Col. Anthony Carleton, assumes the title to enable his career as a card sharp and con man.