Kohinoor

07/14/08 ; 07/21/08

Source:  India West  weekly of California,  April  2001.
 Todays message is perhaps on an unexpected topic !  It is on Kohinoor Diamond !  The pride of India. The origin of the diamond Kohinoor (meaning 'Mountain of Light' )  is still a mystery. But it is believed to have been mentioned in the Maha Bharata, the great Hindu epic, as a gift from Sun God to his son Karna.  The diamond passed thru the hands of Indian Kings, Chandra Gupta Mourya, Ashoka, Vikramaditya, Humayun and Aurangazeb. Its original weight may have been as high as 756 carats. But successive Rulers had the stone trimmed and divided.  The diamond was last reduced in size from 186 to 106 carats  by Dutch experts in 1850. Some believe that the diamond was unearthed from a mine in South India.

     According to the British, the stone was presented to Queen Victoria by the ten year old Maharaja Duleep Singh following the annexation of Punjab in 1849. On the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the diamond became part of the Crown Jewels where it now rests near Cullinan I and II diamonds. Although not quite as large as the Cullinans, the Kohinoor is the world's most fabled diamond, and is said to bring bad luck to any male wearer.  The kohinoor has been set into the Crown of every Queen since Alexandra, and is today set in the front of the crown of  Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

The Kohinoor is currently housed at the Tower of London as part of a sumptuous display of Britain's Crown jewels.  Around 2.5 million visitors a year visit the display, which includes a dramatically lit row of Crowns and Scepters.  To prevent crowding, the Tower organizers have installed electric walkways to whisk visitors past the displays.

      An Indo-British organization called " Association for the Restitution of the Cultural Heritage of India" is putting together a legal case to demand the House of Commons return the 106 carat Jewel to India. Efforts have been made by eminent persons, including Parliamentarians to campaign for the return of the famous Diamond. To begin with a London-based barrister by name Bhaskar Ghorpade, took up the said cause.  He outlined several legal bases for the return of the Diamond. 


      First, a claim for restitution of cultural property, is implicitly included in the claim for territorial sovereignty. Secondly, at the time of the Jewel's removal from India by Lord Dalhousie, there was no law governing removal of protection. Thirdly, the Diamond was unearthed from a mine in South India. Lastly, the Maharaja Duleep Singh acted under duress, as a boy (of ten years) in  British captivity, and surrendered the Jewel as a minor.  It is crude and uncharitable to suggest  that the Kohinoor was a 'gift' to the British. (However, I am not aware of the latest position in this connection).