Khaderbhai’s gold protection medal

Khaderbhai’s gold protection medal is both a practical signal of Abdel Khader Khan’s protection and a visible reminder of the bond that keeps Lin in Bombay. Given to Lin after his release from Arthur Road Prison, it offers a degree of security in a life marked by exile and danger, while binding that security to his continued service to Abdel Khader Khan.

Design and Inscription

The medal is made of gold and features a Hindu aum symbol joined to a Muslim crescent and star. Abdel Khader Khan’s name is inscribed on its back in Urdu, Hindi, and English. The design and multilingual inscription make the object’s protective meaning legible across religious and linguistic boundaries: it identifies the person whose name carries authority, as well as the protection Lin may call upon.

Lin wears the medal on a silver chain around his neck. Its placement keeps the token on his person rather than stored away; it is available to be shown when danger arises and remains a visible part of his everyday life.

Protection and Use

Abdel Khader Khan gives Lin the medal after Lin comes out of prison in a pitiful condition. He promises that, as long as Lin remains in Bombay, Lin will be under his personal protection and that nothing like what happened at Arthur Road Prison will happen to him again. The medal gives that assurance a concrete form: if trouble occurs, Lin is to show it and ask for Abdel Khader Khan to be contacted at once.

The protection is explicitly imperfect, but Lin regards it as better than anything he has known since his exile began. Later, Abdel Khader Khan reiterates that Lin is safe in Bombay while he wears the medal and works for him, reinforcing that the token’s promise is connected to both the place and the relationship.

The Medal and Lin’s Decision to Stay

The medal figures in Lin’s decision not to flee Bombay after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. As a wanted man working for the mafia and living in India with an expired visa, Lin understands that the coming unrest will bring additional danger. Yet the personal protection represented by the medal is one reason he remains: his financial debt to Abdel Khader Khan has been repaid through wages earned in service with Khaled Ansari, but Lin still feels a harder-to-repay moral debt because he believes Abdel Khader Khan saved his life.

The medal is therefore more than a promise of immediate safety. It ties Lin’s continued presence in the city to his obligations and service, and gives material shape to a protection that is limited rather than absolute. Alongside Lin’s hope that Karla will return and his growing attachment to Bombay, it helps hold him in the city despite his fear of what may follow.