Why do all of the sepoys and local children long to own the solar topee?

To the sepoys, the hat is a "symbol of Sahibhood," and they dream of owning it so that they can carry it to their home villages and show it off (87). The local children, too, are interested in the symbolical value of the hat. To them, it represents modernity and Western ways, and since most are too poor to buy Western-style clothing, the hat would be a way to at least have something representative of the West.