“Indians paid for the privilege of being conquered by the British”
Shashi Tharoor
I look up to Mr. Tharoor. I wish I had his flair for calling a spade a spade in such a convoluted and grandiose way that even Shakespeare would be put to shame after he figured out what Mr. Tharoor had set put to say (and trust me, good old Will must have had a lot to ponder on). And what I admire the most is that he does it not in his mother tongue, Malayalam, but in English, the very language of the conquerors whom he has set out to conquer in his book, “An Era of Darkness”. My rather dubious claim to fame is that I share this much with the illustrious Mr. Tharoor, I write in English too, not in my ‘Mai Boli,’ Marathi.
With the passing of Queen Elizabeth, the Second, Great Britain has been in the news for quite some time now. Whether the ascension of King Charles the third or the funeral for the late queen, the media has left no stone unturned in covering several aspects of the monarchy. And one picture which has been front and center is that of the coffin of the late monarch, flaunting some of the best jewels in the world, all studded into a stunning crown. The sight of the jewels has sent the Twitterati into a frenzy, voicing a demand which the government of India has already put forth twice, a return of the most famous jewel of them all, the 105 carat Kohinoor.
One of the largest diamonds in the world, it was mined in the Kollur mines of India. As with all precious objects, it has changed hands several times, its bloody trail well woven into the pages of history as it made its way from India to Persia and back via Afghanistan, thanks to the exploits of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab. The Indians had been unable to hang onto to it during the Persian and Afghan Invasions, but these were tales of conquest.
When the British chose to ‘acquire’ it from the ten- year- old Duleep Singh, the only remaining heir to Ranjit Singh was when chicanery first entered the picture. And thus, it made its way over the seas to Queen Victoria to become part of the Crown Jewels, where it has remained since 1850. Of course, India made two demands for its return, first in 1947 after gaining independence and again in 1953 during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the Second. Of course, the possession of the diamond was termed non-negotiable and the demand was summarily rejected.
But why the Kohinoor? Because it is not just a diamond for a large section of the populace. It is a symbol of all that was wrong with our part of the world for the better part of the last century, the vestiges of which we are still trying to fight off. It symbolizes the yoke of colonialism, during which we lost the better part of our identity and heritage, to have it replaced by an apologetic attitude to our beliefs and culture. It is a symbol of oppression by a race who for reasons unknown placed so much belief in their infallibility that they still refuse to acknowledge the horrendous effects and loss of lives they wrought on those whom they believed to be ‘leading towards the light of Western Emancipation’.
It is stained by the blood of the victims of several man-made famines, the most infamous being The Bengal Famine of 1943, thanks to the policies of an unapologetic racist and imperialist like Winston Churchill, who is lauded as one of the saviors of the free world, thanks to winning the Second World War. Its sparkle hides An Era of Darkness, for the thousands of Indian soldiers, forced to fight a war which was not of their choosing. Its facets reflect the tears of the hapless loom workers who lost their thumbs and livelihood so that the colonists could usher in a new ‘Industrial Era’ in their country.
It is rare that a single object captures the imagination of millions for so long, but the Kohinoor has achieved the feat. It inspires not just awe, but also revulsion when one thinks of the innumerable lives lost for the realization of the dream of a free India. What we now want is for the world to acknowledge what was done to us. That while the thought of the ‘Commonwealth’ is all nice and fuzzy, there is nothing common about the wealth which was looted by charlatans who now dare to preach about ‘human rights’ and want bygones to remain bygones.
History is funny because it still remains an imperfect record of what actually came to pass throughout our long tryst with British rule and its excesses. Often written by or at the behest of winners, it hardly ever gives us the real picture of what was so that we can reforge what will be. It is up to us therefore to from a collective consciousness as a nation and decide that we will no longer tolerate that which denigrates us, which tries to prove us inferior, whether the color of our skin or the veracity of our beliefs.
Whether the British develop their own much touted sense of ‘fair-play’ or not and choose to acknowledge their excesses matters little. In all fairness, we know that the Kohinoor will never be returned. Until then however, we have the satisfaction of knowing that an Indian who not until so long ago was discriminated against for the color of her skin was an honored invitee to the funeral of the late Queen. We have chosen to shake off the yolk of slavery in the real sense because we are a Republic, where any Indian irrespective of caste or creed can be our head of state, unlike our ex-rulers who still maintain a hide-bound tradition of heredity, exemplified in our current president, Shrimati Draupadi Murmu. And thus, perhaps the Kohinoor has served its purpose without returning to the land of its birth. A constant reminder about the slaves who chose to make better lives for themselves, giving a whole new meaning to ‘Uneasy lies the head which wears a crown.’.