A group of prominent Indians want the return of the Koh-i-Noor diamond,
which remains in the hands of the British monarchy.
One of
India’s biggest lingering gripes about the British Raj is the fact that one of
the world’s most famous diamonds, the Koh-i-Noor (Persian for “Mountain of
Light”), is still held by the British government in the Tower of London as part
of the monarchy’s crown jewels. The Koh-i-Noor was mined in what is
today Andhra Pradesh, an Indian state, in the 13th century. Thereafter, it was
allegedly “gifted” to Queen
Victoria by Duleep Singh, the last ruler of the Sikh Empire in the Punjab
region of northwestern South Asia. The British annexed the Sikh Empire in 1849,
when Duleep Singh was 10 years old.
However,
a group of Indian businessmen, actors, and luminaries named Mountain of Light,
after the diamond, is attempting to have the 105-carat stone
returned to India through legal means. The group has instructed lawyers to
begin proceedings in London’s High Court demanding that the Koh-i-Noor be
returned to India.
This move
comes just before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the United
Kingdom. The Indian government is not behind the current lawsuit, though there
is a broad multiparty consensus in India that the diamond must be returned.
Modi’s visit to Britain will focus on attracting investment to India, rather
than other issues. If Modi does raise the issue of the Koh-i-Noor at all, it
could be seen as a symbolic move to shore up domestic support in the aftermath
of his party’s defeat in Bihar.
While the
voluntary return of the Koh-i-Noor diamond would be well received in India and
would improve bilateral relations, relations between the two countries are
driven by trade and investment and are unlikely to change regardless of where
of the diamond stays. In a previous article, I questioned whether
there was necessarily a rational case for returning the diamond, as it had
exchanged hands several times, always through conquest.
Also of
interest here is the question of whether or not the Mountain of Light group has
a strong legal case for regaining the jewel for India.
It seems
as though the legal case was not well thought through and is designed to garner
publicity rather than to have a strong chance of succeeding. The Mountain of
Light group seeks to base its case on the Holocaust (Return of Cultural
Objects) Act of 2009, which allows the return of stolen art and objects to
their rightful owners. However, the premise of using the Return of Cultural
Objects Act of 2009 for the Koh-i-Noor is shaky because the act itself declares
that it only considers claims from the Nazi era, defined as the period from January 1, 1933
to December 31, 1945.
Furthermore,
the Koh-i-Noor situation resembles the Greek government’s attempt to regain the
Elgin Marbles, housed at the British Museum. The marbles were removed from the
Parthenon in 1801 with the permission of the Ottoman Empire, which then ruled
Greece. Legal experts who examined that case agree that Greece has a weak legal case because the whole exchange
took place legally under the governments then in power. Finally, the statute of
limitations for such claims (no more than a few dozen years by any definition) has expired
and returning the marbles would set a bad precedent by opening up an endless
Pandora’s Box of historical claims and counterclaims.
Similarly,
in the case of the Koh-i-Noor, even if it seems fairly obvious that Duleep
Singh was not a free agent and was coerced to give the jewel to Queen Victoria,
given the circumstances of his empire’s conquest and his youth, this is almost
impossible to prove. An additional legal provision was in force then: the right
of conquest. This allowed a country to annex another one by the principle of
“might makes right.” This essentially gave Britain the legal right to dispose
of the wealth of its new territory as it wished. Additionally, there is the
problem of the statute of limitations, as with the Greek case. What’s more, the
Sikh Empire no longer exists and it is unclear whether the modern Republic of
India is its legal successor state, with all the rights and privileges of
representing the Sikh Empire in court. The Sikh Empire also included territory
in present-day Pakistan, including its erstwhile capital, Lahore.
This,
unfortunately for those who wish to see the jewel returned, is how
international law works. Emotion alone cannot win a lawsuit in court. The case
for the return of the diamond is not very strong and it is unlikely to succeed.
The best way for India to acquire the Koh-i-Noor would be for its government to
one day convince the British government to return the jewel as a goodwill
gesture in order to promote an economic and security relationship that would
far outweigh the logic of keeping the diamond. By Akhilesh Pillalamarri
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