The Indian government announced that it would strive to retrieve the valuable Koh-i-Noor diamond from Britain amicably.
The Indian government, while responding to a section of the media reports, reiterated its decision to tap all possible ways retrieve the artefact. Koh-i-Noor—which means the ‘Mountain of Light’ in the Persian language—is now displayed alongside the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.
India’s solicitor general Ranjit Kumar informed the supreme court on Monday that the 105.6 carat diamond was ‘neither stolen nor forcibly taken’. The former ruler of Punjab Maharaj Ranjit Singh had ‘gifted’ the Koh-i-Noor diamond to the East India Company in 1849 as a compensation for the Company’s help during the Sikh wars.
The government said that it is yet to convey its views on ‘reclamation’ of the Koh-i-Noor to the supreme court. It said that the solicitor general of India had merely informed the court about the history of the diamond and had given an oral statement on the basis of the existing references available with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The apex court granted six weeks’ time to the government to submit its stand on the matter.
In a statement, the government revealed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to retrieve India’s valuable artefacts from abroad—some of which were stolen.
“Shri Narendra Modi’s efforts led to three significant pieces of India’s history coming back home. In October 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel returned a 10th century Indian statue of Goddess Durga that was stolen in 1990 and found in 2012 at a museum in Germany. In April 2015, then Canadian PM Stephen Harper returned a sculpture known as the ‘Parrot Lady’, which dates back to almost 900 years. Then Australian PM Tony Abbott, on his India visit in 2014 had returned antique statues of Hindu deities that were in Australian art galleries. None of these gestures affected India’s relations with either Canada, Germany or Australia,” the government said in a statement.
The Modi-led government is optimistic about retrieving the diamond from Britain. The diamond was first found in the Golconda mines—now in Telangana—and weighed 186 carats when measured.
