The Kohinoor heritage

It must have taken huge courage for the government to take a technically correct stand in the Supreme Court on the Kohinoor, because the submission was incorrect not only politically but also factually. For India to give up its claim on the diamond — last held in the state of Punjab by the heirs of Maharaja Ranjit Singh — would be considered a loss of face by the nationalistically-inclined. In Punjab, particularly with the Sikhs, the government's submission that India had lost its right over the ‘mountain of light’ is asking for damnation.

By no stretch of imagination can it be interpreted that the ‘gifting’ of the diamond by the young Duleep Singh to the Queen of England was an act of cheerful volition. It was a surrender under duress. True courage on the part of the government would lie not in stating the technically correct position, but accepting the fact that the diamond was taken away by force, and that there is little India can do. The acceptance would be just as well, because we have also not been able to do anything about the untold plunder of India, its peoples, jewels, and mineral wealth under colonial rule for centuries. It would not even be possible to calculate the deaths and human misery that may be directly ascribed to the policies of the British. That being the inescapable reality, why do we want just a few specific jewels back? If it were simply a matter of original owners, we would have to trace it back to the mine it came from, which some believe was in the Andhra region.

The Kohinoor story is yet another reminder that all wealth creation in feudal India, even before British rule, was at the cost of exploitation of the poorest. As late as early 20th century, the major chunk of government revenue came from farmers, not traders or income tax. The irony cannot be missed that the sword of Tipu Sultan returned to India on the strength of the tainted money of Vijay Mallya. False pride cannot undo history. And pursuit of false pride does not add to our national greatness.