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THE HANDSTAND |
DECEMBER 2003 |
| . The Kohinoor Diamond... Known For Centuries As The Mountain Of Light Who should get the Kohinoor? by Hafizur Rahman http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2003-daily/08-11-2003/oped/o6.htm A rather childish retort to economic sanctions by Britain  when the military government took over in
October 1999 was suggested by a wag. He said Pakistan
should demand the return of the Kohinoor diamond from the
mother of the Commonwealth. That is if our former rulers
have the gumption to abide by the sanctions and cause
loss to themselves. Don't forget they've been called a
nation of shopkeepers. And it is not we who gave them
this title.By the way, why this sudden activity two years ago on the part of some people in India and Pakistan to ask for the Kohinoor which adorns the royal crown of Britain? Is it the only priceless valuable that was appropriated by the British in their 200-year stay in the subcontinent? And if the Kohinoor does come back who should get it? India or Pakistan? Do we have another Indo-Pak dispute in the making? Cultural treasures once stolen are seldom returned. They are supposed to be part and parcel of political and military conquest. Though there have been cases in modern enlightened times where the thieving country admitted the crime and made restitution. But such cases are rare. Germany and Russia are still locked in a quarrel about cultural pillage. Germany wants the art treasures that the Russian army carted away to Leningrad (now Petersburg) and Moscow during the last days of World War II. Experts allege that many of these treasures were themselves looted by Hitler from European countries over-run by his armies. Remember Melina Mercouri, star of the famous movie "Never on a Sunday?" She went into politics and became Greece's minister for culture. She had a special gallery built in Athens to house the Elgin Marbles, which were pieces from the fabulous Parthenon that Lord Elgin, Britain's ambassador to Greece quietly pilfered some 200 years ago. She was unable to get the Marbles back, but, as a gesture of defiance, kept the gallery vacant for a possible change of heart by Britain. Fruitless official efforts to retrieve the Kohinoor have a history. Some time in 1994, when Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the firebrand "Son of Rawalpindi" (he is considerably watered down now) was culture minister in Mian Nawaz Sharif's first government, he grandiloquently announced his decision to get the British to return the Kohinoor to Pakistan. Whatever the result of his sabre-rattling the Sheikh did make a memorable faux pas. He betrayed his scholarship by saying that since the diamond had been taken by the British conquerors from the Muslim Mughals, therefore it must be returned to their heirs, the people of Pakistan. Are we heirs to the Mughals? What had happened was that the Kohinoor was held by Shah Shuja, the exiled ruler of Afghanistan living in Ludhiana as a state guest. Maharaja Ranjit Singh coveted it and was anxious to secure it for himself, as were most rulers and kingdom-grabbers of that time. So, using all his guile, he offered Shah Shuja a number of concessions and also materials help to secure the throne of Kabul in exchange for the Kohinoor. Shah Shuja being averse to the deal, the Maharaja invited him to his palace in Lahore Fort, showered praise and expressions of affection on him, and declared that henceforth they were brothers. Then, in a masterstroke of native cunning, he told the Afghan prince that it was now incumbent on the two brothers to exchange turbans in true Punjabi fashion. It is said, that waiting for a reaction, he got up, took Shah Shuja 's turban, placed it on his new "brother's" head and became the owner of the Kohinoor. The wily maharaja had intelligence that Shah Shuja kept the diamond hidden in his headgear. So, in fact, Afghanistan's right to the Kohinoor precedes that of Pakistan. Some one should tell this to President Hamid Karzai; then we'll have another contender to the bauble.  When the Sikh dynasty was finally overthrown
and Punjab was formally annexed to the British in 1849,
his minor grandson Duleep Singh was whisked away to
England to be educated there. After some time he embraced
Christianity and married an English wife and was
"prevailed upon" to make a gift of the Kohinoor
to Queen Victoria. It was thus that the "Mountain of
Light" landed as the star piece in the British
crown. If you want to take a look at it you can buy a
ticket to view the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.
Out of sheer politeness one may not call it thievery but
that is what it really was.The only time the Kohinoor was displayed in the subcontinent was when King George V held a magnificent darbar in Delhi in 1911 where the shifting of the capital from Calcutta to the old seat of the Mughals was announced. He wore the full regalia on that occasion. When he was culture minister in 1994 Sheikh Rashid did not bother to consult the Foreign Office which could have told him that PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had made a diplomatic effort in 1976 to get the diamond from the British government but the request had been politely turned down. He would also have come to know that when Mr Bhutto asked Britain for the Kohinoor it was not because he thought he was successor to the last Mughal emperor but because the diamond had gone from Lahore, and it was on the basis of its ownership by the last Sikh ruler of Punjab that Pakistan claimed it. Significantly India also intended once to obtain the Kohinoor by using the Sikh card. I know for a certainty that ZABhutto was not content to give up the issue after the negative response from Whitehall. At that time, because of the breaking away of East Pakistan, he had decided to leave the Commonwealth and was not anxious to placate the British. What further steps he had in mind is something we'll never know. And now, as a comic finale to the matter, we have a penniless Sikh in Amritsar writing to Prime Minister Tony Blair asking him to send the Kohinoor to him post haste. Beant Singh avers that since his great-grandfather was adopted by Duleep Singh's daughter Princess Alexandra, he is the only rightful claimant to the diamond. Confessing that he is "hand to mouth" he has vowed all the same to donate the Kohinoor to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. This may not be the end of story. Diamonds are forever and more claimants may come up as time passes. For one, since Nadir Shah took away the Kohinoor from the Mughals, Iran may stake its claim too. If that happens India can always ask Iran, "Yes, friends, but what about the Peacock Throne that Nadir Shah also stole from Delhi?" The writer is a freelance columnist Sarhad Conservation Network®©2003 http://www.geocities.com/scn_pk ************************************************ ADDITIONAL HISTORY : When Nadir Shah of Persia first saw this spectacular gem in 1739, he is reported to have exclaimed "Kkoh-i-nor!" meaning "mountain of light" and that name has stuck ever since. This famous Indian diamond was first mentioned in 1304 when it was in the possession of the Rajah of Malwah. In 1526 it became the property of the Sultan Babur, founder of the Mogul empire, who passed it down to each of the great Moguls, including Shah Jehan who built the Taj Mahal. In 1739, Nadir Shah of Persia invaded India and pillaged the city of Delhi, but failed to find this magnificent gem which was hidden in the turban of the conquered Mogul emperor. When Nadir Shah learn this he invited the emperor to dinner and suggested they exchange turbans.(As described in the text above.)He later unrolled the turban and found the gem. He then took the diamond back to Persia where he was assassinated in 1747. His successors fought bitterly over the diamond until it was acquired by Ranjit Singh, the Lion of Punjab in 1833. When Punjab was annexed to British India in 1849, the Kohinoor was acquired by the East India Company as partial payment for the Sikh wars. A year later, it was presented to Queen Victoria to mark the 250th anniversary of the company's founding by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600. Valued at over
$700,000, the Kohinoor was displayed at the Crystal
Palace Exposition in London in 1851. Since many people
were disappointed that the famous diamond didn't display
more fire, Victoria had it recut from its original Indian
style to a modern brilliant cut. In the process, the
Kohinoor was reduced from 186 carats to 109 carats, but
it is still one of the most magnificent diamonds in the
world.
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