Is the Kohinoor diamond truly cursed? Or is this simply played up to justify the colonial appropriation of the diamond? Listen to the episode here.
Sumit Kumar
Please wear your headphones to hear this in 3D. An d if you haven’t listened to “Jewels of the Maharajahs“, you may want to listen to that first
Gayathri
This is Lahore Fort in Pakistan. Our producer Iman went there in January.
Tour guide
The present fort 455 years old. It with a built by Akbar the Great, the third Mughal King in 1566. Three big player — Mughal, Sikh, British
iman
My favorite was the woman’s quarters.
Tour guide
It was all harem … Queen’s palace… washroom, makeup room. This was a terrace for the dancing girls. This is a waterfall for the fountain, they use hydraulic system with it. And that is ‘now lakh ka bungalow’, cost ‘now lakh’…0.9 million in 1632. Look at this one. all inlaid with the stones– lapis, agate, jade, emerald, petra dura it is Italian art and the marble inlaid of the stones.
Gayathri
Priceless gems! How rich Lahore was just centuries ago. Let’s go back 220 years to 1799 a young warrior is waiting outside the Lahore fort to attack.
Sumit Kumar
The skies will unleash the monsoons at any moment. This isn’t the right time for a military invasion. Still, the Sikh warrior Ranjit Singh waits outside Lahore with his men in the smothering heat. He must attack before these plains turn to mud. Ranjit is just 19. He is short and blind in one eye from smallpox. His face is pockmarked. Some say he is the ugliest man in all of Punjab. Lahore is unusually quiet. It’s the last day in the Muslim holy month of Muharram. By the time religious ceremonies are over, the people are tired. Rajit’s men blow up the Lahore gates and Ranjit rides in. He issues a proclamation to the people: “I come in peace. I will not loot and if my men loot, I will punish them with death.”
Gayathri
This is the beginning of the Sikh Empire in Punjab, the land of five rivers. At the height of his power, Maharaja Ranjit will command a vast empire, from the Khyber Pass near the border of Afghanistan to the third desert in Northwest India. He will be the doorstop to the East India Company, a British military corporation that is slowly expanding like a tumor across India, purpose built to loot the riches of South Asia. But to really cement his rule, to show his no passing king but a ruler who can set up a dynasty to rival the Mughals, he needs the Kohinoor… which is with the Afghans. And it can only be gotten by sword or bestowed by the grace of King.
The Curse of the Kohinoor Intro
You’re listening to Scrolls & Leaves, a podcast featuring stories from the margins. I’m Gayathri Vaidyanathan
Mary-Rose
And I’m Mary Rose Abraham. We’re in season 1, Trade Winds, set in the Indian Ocean world. In the last episode — “Jewels of the Maharajahs“, we left you after the demise of the emperor of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Durrani. In this episode, we will continue 30 years after his death. His grandsons are fighting for the throne, and they have the Kohinoor… for now. The sources for this episode are listed on our website scrollsandleaves.com. It’s based on research by Anita Aanand, William Dalrymple, Mohamed Sheikh and others. And one note about the events and dates in this and the previous episode. They were hard. Did Ranjit Singh attack Lahore when he was 18 or 19, for example. Is the Kohinoor 105 carats or 102? And was it 191 or 186 carats before that? Sources give multiple answers, so we had to make some educated choices.
Gayathri
Also, would you be interested in supporting this podcast? There aren’t many like us in India with good reason. It’s quite expensive to put out a sound rich production. We operate on a shoestring and your support would help ensure we can pay ourselves a decent wage and supporters can get bonus content and perks. If you go to scrollsandleaves.com, and on the top bar, there is a donate tab, you can click on it to find out more.
Mary-Rose
It is said the Kohinoor will harm the men who wear it. The diamond’s current owners, the British Royals, certainly seem to believe in this curse as only women wear the diamond. But is there really a deadly curse? Or is this a rumor that’s meant to justify the British appropriation of the diamond?
Gayathri
Well, here’s an even more basic question. Should Britain give the diamond back? And to whom? A lot of people have owned it… the Persians, the Afghans, the Pakistanis, and of course, the Indians. Not that the Brits are offering mind you! Here is the comedian John Oliver
John Oliver
The British government is refusing to give that diamond up for reasons that former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg explained last year,
Nick Clegg
there is no doubt in our mind that the diamond was relocated to this country under legal conditions, which are not in any doubt. But there is, I think, clarity in the sincerity with which the Queen holds the crown jewels, all of them, in trust on behalf of the nation, has done for many generations, and future monarchs will continue to do so.
John Oliver
Okay, okay. That’s that that’s an intricate legal argument. So let me see if I can break it down for you. What he’s basically saying is, I understand that you want the diamond, but the thing is, we have the diamond. You don’t. And we’re going to keep having it forever. So in summary, finders keepers go …. yourself, cheerio!
So it sure looks like Britain will keep it. And in case you’re thinking, okay, at least they’re upfront about the moral conundrum,
Gayathri
the ethical quandary,
Mary-Rose
the post colonial hangover headache of you know, keeping this diamond, let us set the record straight. I’m going on the website of the Historic Royal Palaces, which displays the diamond in the Tower of London. Here’s what it says about the exhibit. And I’m just going to read this: The history of the Kohinoor is steeped in myth and anecdote. It was discovered in 15th century India. It was passed from ill fated male hand to hand until it earned a reputation of bringing bad luck to men. It was presented to Queen Victoria in 1849. And it now adorns the front of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother’s crown.
Gurinder Singh Mann
There’s very little about the conquest and very little about colonization in terms of what the diamond represents.
Mary-Rose
This is Gurinder Singh Mann, a Sikh historian and head of the Sikh Museum Initiative in Leicester, England. He works with museums in the UK to restore historical context to colonial artifacts. And he says stories behind jewels and artifacts matter. They can help that little Indian kid in Southall learn her roots.
Gurinder Singh Mann
These objects are not just for them, but also what they mean to us, not just Sikhs, but just a wider Indian diaspora here in the UK.
Gayathri
In this episode, you’ll hear what the Kohinoor’s label should say. Who the British took the diamond from, and how. And once they had it, how they used the rhetoric of scientific progress to reshape the gem
Mary-Rose
And you can decide if it has a powerful and ancient curse. This is Episode Three, the curse of the Kohinoor.
Chapter One, a Fair King.
Gurinder Singh Mann
When I was growing up, the stories of the Sikhs was told to me by my father, when we used to go to the gurudwara, the granthis or individual priests used to talk about these stories about this great ruler called Maharaja Ranjit Singh. There was like portraits of Marahaja Ranjit Singh as wel,l him sitting in a durbar or Great Court. And everyone from around many parts of India used to go and visit him. Prior to that growing up, I didn’t realize that the Sikhs actually had an Empire, didn’t realize that we actually had kings as well.
Gayathri
Gurinder read up all he could about this great king
Gurinder Singh Mann
Maharaja Ranjit Singh was actually labeled as the Lion of Punjab and this cuts into the heart of Sikh history in the 18th century.
Gayathri
Imagine we’re at Lahore Fort. About five years after Ranjit Singh occupied the city. He has been crowned Maharaja of this magnificent kingdom. He wakes up early and exercises outdoors. Then he dresses in plain white muslin kurta pajamas, prays, and then speaks to his advisors and intelligence officers. And then he heads to the Lahor durbar, the court, where he sits –usually on the floor or a low chair! Though he does have a golden throne for special occasions. Gurinder has seen it at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London
Gurinder Singh Mann
It was labeled as the chair of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. It was a fabulous chair with gold inlay and it was something which did kind of transport you back to the time of a golden period of the Lahore Durbar or court and just made me feel that our community was something special. It was part of something really big. Which prior to that was probably not exposed to us in such a rich way.
Gayathri
A few advisors sit around Ranjit at the durbar. And anyone can approach the king, even common folk… Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs. And they bring gifts of jewels, cash, horses, weapons, shawls. Suffice it to say the people love this King who’s fearless, direct, full of life and kind. They make up fables praising his wisdom that are still told in India today. To hear one fable about the Maharajah please visit www.patreon.com/scrollsandleaves
Mary-Rose
A decade after Ranjit occupies Lahore, around 1899 he hears his nemesisis in Kabul — Emperor Shah Shuja ul’Mulk of the Durranis. He has lost his throne, and he’s roaming around with the precious Kohinoor looking for refuge.
Gurinder Singh Mann
The Kohinoor diamond was a prized possession of any ruler. Ranjit Singh wanted it for himself. It was a symbolic conquest of the Durrani empire, a group of people that the Sikhs had been fighting from the time of Ahmed Shah Abdali, who had wrecked havoc on Hindustan.
Mary-Rose
So Ranjit proposes a trade — refuge in exchange for the diamond. Shah Shuja finally accepts and settles in Lahore in 1813. But he doesn’t hand over the diamond. Then one day in June, Ranjit arrives at Shah Shuja’s palace called Mubarak Havelli. It’s in the walled city of Lahore. And he sits down. No one speaks for nearly an hour. Finally, Ranjit whispers to his attendant to ask for the diamond. Then Shah Shuja nods at his attendant to bring the Kohinoor to Ranjit. The attendant brings it wrapped in a scarlet velvet roll and sets it equidistant between the two kings. Ranjit’s man unwraps it. The Kohinoor is there, set in gold. Ranjit looks at it quietly, takes it and leaves without a word.
Gurinder Singh Mann
He kept the diamond under lock and key at the fort and most of his retinue never knew exactly where it was. It’s kept under the treasury keeper’s strict instructions. I think so, there had to be some kind of sense that he felt that this diamond could be taken away from the Sikhs, it could be taken away from the Sikh Empire,
Mary-Rose
The Kohinoor becomes a symbol of sovereignty of the Punjab. The Maharaja loves showing it off, especially to visitors from the East India Company, which has already annexed lands right up to the borders of the Sikh Empire. The boundary is the ancient river Sutlej.
Gurinder Singh Mann
Even when the East India Company and the British came to see him, he would show off the diamond in all its glory, just to state that the Sikh Empire is not just a benevolent empire which embraces all communities and cultures, but also is a rich empire as designated by the Kohinoor diamond.
Chapter 2 — the Funeral of a King
Gayathri – It’s been 40 years since Ranjit was crowned Maharajah. It’s 1839. He is lying on his bed in his opulent bedroom in the fort. He’s surrounded by family and advisors. He is dying. So he’s giving away money and jewels to various causes. He points and makes a noise. He seems to be saying that he wants the Kohinoor diamond donated to the Temple of Jagannath in East India. His advisors are flummoxd!
Sumit Kumar
Is the king in his right mind? Give the most precious the jewel to a Hindu temple? One minister points at another minister — you do it! The other minister points at the Crown Prince Kharak Singh. Kharak says the treasurer has the diamond. The treasurer says he doesn’t. It’s in another far-away fort
Gayathri
Ranjit overhears the squabble and frowns. Is this confusion a premonition? His advisors don’t donate the Kohinoor. And days later, Ranjit passes away. His body is surrounded by oil lamps. Attendants bathe him in perfumes, dress him in jewelry. He’s placed on a magnificent gilded wooden platform decorated and cloth of golden silver. A Prussian court official named Henry Steinbeck describes the funeral.
Sumit Kumar
The musicians go first playing their wild dirge. Followed by their beloved Maharaja. Next, attendants carry four large mirrors, each reflect four of Ranjit’s queens, who have decided to join him on the funeral pyre. The Queens are dressed in magnificent clothes, and are carried on chairs strapped to the shoulders of attendants. They seem to be in a state of high excitement and climb the funeral pyre apparently eagerly. Behind the Queens walk the female slaves of the Maharaja. They to plan to self-immolate, but they seem less enthusiastic. Once the humans are assembled, the fire is covered by a canopy of Kashmiri shawls. Then Ranjit’s son Kharak Singh approaches with a lit torch. He says a short prayer and touches the fire to the pile. No one can hear the screams.
Chapter Three, A Boy King.
Mary-Rose: After Ranjit’s death, the Lahore durbar goes to the dogs. Kharak Singh is murdered by poison within months. And the day after his funeral, his son’s head is crushed. Two other sons of Ranjit are also murdered. All told, three Maharajahs and one Maharani, and a number of top court officials are killed over four years.
So there’s only one legitimate heir of Maharaja Ranjit left — 5-year-old Duleep Singh, born to Ranjit and Maharani Jindan Kaur a year before Ranjit died. Jindan is one of Ranjit’s many wives who didn’t self-immolate on the pyre.
Let’s get to know Duleep through the jewels he owned. Here’s Friederike Voigt, curator of South Asia at the National Museum of Scotland. She first saw Duleep’s jewelry in 2008, when she joined the museum. Among the treasures was a breathtaking gold bracelet shaped into a “Makara”, a legendary sea creature from Hinduism.
Friederike Voigt
So I took the bracelets out of the store, one after the other, I could feel how heavy they actually were. These two bracelets, they have Makara heads. And they are very intricately, very finely shaped. These heads they have very sharp teeth because their mouths are open. And you can see the tongue which is formed by a red stone, maybe a ruby, and other bits. So the more closely you look, the more details you can see. They’re different enamels, they show you flowers, there are little birds at some end. I also discovered a little screw where you can actually unscrew one part of the bracelet so that you can put it on your arm. And the screws are set with emeralds, while the eyes are also precious stones. And then I went further to research these items a bit more. So I wanted to know were they made particularly for him? And I’ve found one painting that shows Maharaja Ranjit Singh wearing Makara-headed bracelets. It’s not clear if these are the same, but it helped me to make this link between the son and the father. He was very young when he had to live with decisions that were beyond his influence basically.
Mary-Rose
It’s five years since Ranjit died –September 1843. Duleep has been crowned king, the Kohinoor is strapped to his chubby little arm. As he’s just five, his mother, Rani Jindan Kaur rules on his behalf as reagent. So not a great situation overall. But one person at least is thrilled with the way things are going. The Governor General of the East India Company. Punjab is one of the last autonomous Indian kingdoms resisting them. He writes to London:
Sumit Kumar
“Everything is going on there as we should desire if you looked forward to the ultimate possession of the Punjab.”
Mary-Rose
What a crock of BS! The company has a treaty of friendship with the Sikh Empire.
Gayathri
Okay, so?
Mary-Rose
So they can’t go to war without reason! It’s like the US suddenly going to war with Canada. But what if they could somehow get the Sikhs to flout the treaty? Wouldn’t that be a good reason for war?
Chapter Four– Plunder.
Gayathri – About two years later, in December 1845, the British Army amasses on the banks of the Sutlej River at the border of the Sikh Empire. Rani Jindan, the Regent, sees this as aggression, in the same way that a nation amassing troops at a national border today would be seen as aggression. She dispatches a cavalry. But what Jindan does not know is that the British have whispered into the ears of some of the most powerful and jealous men in her court and military…and turned them!
The Punjab troops cross the river. Immediately, the British declare the treaty has been violated. This is war!
The Sikh soldiers fight bravely. They are repeatedly betrayed by their own men in command. Within months, British troops marched into Lahore. There are still pockets of fighting, but the capital has fallen. Duleep is made to sign away control of Lahore to the East India Company. And a year later, in 1847, the company’s representative decides the King should be separated from his mother. Duleep is just 9. Soldiers drag Jindan out of the fort, kicking and screaming. She’ll spend most of the rest of her life virtually imprisoned.
In 1849, 4 years and 2 Anglo-Sikh wars later, the fierce warriors of Punjab fall quiet. The kingdom now belongs to the East India Company.
Mary-Rose
Here’s the East India Company’s Governor General, the Earl of Dalhousie, in his military tent. He’s busy writing letters to London. He needs to convince his superiors that this war was a profitable enterprise. He must seize the wealth of the Punjab and he must ensure that the Sikhs never again rebel against their masters.
Friederike Voigt
There is a relation between Ranjit Singh, the Sikh Empire, the stone, as symbols of Sikh power. And this had to be removed so that it couldn’t threaten the East India Company’s power in the region any longer.
Mary-Rose
What could be the best way to do this? Of course! Get a piece of paper signed by the child! On March 29, 1849, British officials convene the Lahore Durbar for the last time. 10-year-old Duleep is sitting on his father’s chair, the one that will be taken and displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Brits give him a new legal document to sign.
Friederike Voigt
It was the last time that Duleep Singh was probably sitting on his throne. And he signed the contract and agreed to it surrounded by his court and a lot of British people who were watching and witnessing this scene. I would think that he understood what was happening.
Mary-Rose
And the document says… the territory and all its property now belong to the Company as reparation for war. And it reads:
Gurinder Singh Mann
The gem called Kohinoor, which was taken from Shah Shuja ul’Mulk by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, shall be surrendered by the Maharaja of Lahore to the Queen of England.
Mary-Rose
Dalhousie wants all the property of Lahore as booty, from kitchen utensils to the elephants to the jewels. He asks a trusted adviser named John Login to inventory all of Lahore’s wealth. Login is a kind man, he feels conflicted by the task and he knows the extraction will destroy the socio-economic fabric of Punjab. Here’s the stuff that got sold over 9 auctions in Lahore, each with hundreds of objects. It’s a tremendous list, long as the plunder bear with us.
Gayathri
Livestock, dresses, pictures, gold, silver, brass and copper vessels, stores with a maharaja’s camping equipment, such as cashmere tents, carpets, curtains, magazines with guns and ammo. Elephants and camels, carriages, golden silver trappings, horses, mules, breeding mares, embroidered elephant jhuls, which are large carpet-like coverings for the animals’ back. The grain stored in the fort, distilled water, dried fruits, medicines and all the jewels in the Lahore Treasury or toshakhana as seen by a friend of Lady Login.
Alexa Stanger
I wish you could walk through that same toshakhana and see its wonders, the vast quantities of gold and silver, the jewels not to be valued, so many and so rich! The Kohinoor far beyond what I had imagined. And perhaps above all, the immense collection of magnificent cashmere shawls, rooms full of them, laid out on shelves and heaped up in bales. Fabrics and clothes, cashmere shawls, crystal and Jasper cups and vases, plain and enameled silver drinking vessels and rose water sprinklers. Perfume holders, a gold jewelry set with imitation diamonds, and real emerald drops and valuable pearl necklaces, silver gilt and enameled bangles, anklets, nose and toe rings. Forehead ornaments and earrings, gold armlets set with diamonds and rubies, a holder for plumes worn in the turban, a gold elephant and horse trappings, silver tent poles and large tents, firearms and swords and miscellaneous items such as a jeweled looking glass, miniatures of Ranjit Singh and a small assortment of elegant English jewelry.
Gayathri
Even the swords and the kalgi or plume of Guru Gobind Singh, the last guru of the Sikhs, a priceless religious artifact that holds deep meaning for the Sikhs that has since vanished from sight.
Mary-Rose
All told the auctions at the Treasury net 1.7 million rupees for the East India Company. That’s 17 million pounds in today’s terms. And that’s not counting the Kohinoor, which was valued back then at 2 million pounds. Or the other property of Lahore.
Gayathri
As for the Kohinoor
Friederike Voigt
Dalhousie was adamant that it was given to the queen as her spoil of war because he considered it an ultimate symbol of Sikh power.
Gayathri
The British press is thrilled the Kohinoor is coming to London, and they print breathless stories about this exotic Eastern diamond and one rumor — they say the Kohinoor is cursed.
Gurinder Singh Mann
So the curse actually refers to the fact that the diamond should always be in the hands of a woman. This is due to this idea that empires would fall and that it will bring ill fortune to male individuals who actually held the diamond.
Gayathri
Dalhousie is livid about this rumor. His gift to the Queen is being mocked. But then the tabloids do him one better. They say the curse only affects oriental male despots. It won’t affect the queen.
Gurinder Singh Mann
The British probably thought, okay, to actually talk about a curse being put on the Kohinoor, that it gives impetus to the fact that… now that the British have taken the diamond, it’s in the hands of a woman… it’s in the hands of Queen Victoria. So the British used that sentiments to state that it needs to be in a in a ruler which is a woman.
Gayathri
In December 1849, Dalhousie goes to the treasury. Login’s at the toshakhana. Dalhousie asks him for the Kohinoor. He takes it and gets a signed receipt. He puts it in a pouch, which his wife then stitches into his clothes. Then he leaves Punjab in great haste and secrecy. No one knows what he’s carrying with him. It’s a two month long, very tense journey to Bombay. And there in April, the Kohinoor boards the HMS Medea leaves for London.
Mary-Rose
As for that other symbol of the Sikh Empire, young Maharaja Duleep Singh, weeks after the final Lahore Durbar, Dalhousie assigns him a new guardian, John Login, the same Login who is cleaning out the Lahore treasury. Login feels for this boy who has had so much taken from him at such a young age.
Friederike Voigt
According to his own letters Login wrote to his wife, he was very fond of Duleep Singh. He went on little horse riding trips with him, Duleep Singh on his pony and Login on his horse. He also wanted to celebrate his 11th birthday and had a little party where guests were invited and Duleep Singh’s cousins came. So this was the private life he had with him. And the other hand, he was also aware that this was a difficult task because Duleep Singh was not his son. So he was still the Maharaja. And he was a servant of the British government in India. So he always lived between these two sides in his mind, and probably in his heart.
Mary-Rose
Duleep is exiled with the Logins to Fatehgarh Hill Fort in present-day Utter Pradesh. That’s far away from Punjab. He’s educated in the Western system, and the Logins effectively become his parents. And when he’s 14, he asks to be baptized. Soon after, Duleep and his guardians move to England. Wile the Sikhs mourn the loss of their boy king a second time, Dalhousie is pleased and writes to a friend: “Politically, we could desire nothing better, for it destroys his possible influence forever.”
Chapter 5: Reshaped
Mary-Rose – Welcome one and all to the 1851 Great Exhibition of the Works of iIdustry of All Nations! The greatest show on earth. It’ll showcase the best of industry, culture and beauty from across the Empire. And the main attraction is the Kohinoor. Excitement is at fever pitch as people throng to see this cursed, controversial jewel. Just this morning, the Times had an op-ed questioning how Victoria had acquired the diamond. Was it legal? Was it given to her as a tribute? But as the day goes on, it becomes clear the Kohinoor is not living up to its reputation.
Sumit Kumar
It’s the size of a walnut! …to ordinary eyes, it is nothing more than an egg-shaped lump of glass! … disappointed the public in no ordinary degree.
Gayathri
Victoria’s partner Prince Albert, who organized the Great Exhibition is disappointed. You see, tastes differ. People in the West prefer their diamonds brilliant — cut into a cone that refracts a lot of light. But a lot of the raw material is also lost in the cutting. This is called the brilliant cut. It’s how most diamonds are shaped today.
But in Asia back then, people prefer their diamonds almost raw and large. The Kohinoor is a Mughal cut, a shaping that retains the size of the gem while enhancing its brilliance. The Kohinoor is domed like a mountain and has a flat base. It has 169 facets and weighs 191 carats. But this Mughal cut means the diamond isn’t as brilliant as it could be.
Mary-Rose
Albert consult British scientists. Sir David Brewster, a well known physicist, pronounces the Kohinoor in its present form useless. It has to be recut, made symmetrical. Other scientists — Neville Story Maskelyne, a geologist at the British Museum, and crystallographers James Tennant and Walter Mitchell also weigh in. They form at Kohinoor scientific committee of sorts, charged with transforming the Oriental diamond into a rational and modern ornament.
Friederike Voigt
The stone didn’t come as just the stone. It was set into a bazuband — an armlet that you would wear around your upper arm. Partly as… not talisman, but it had a kind of talismanic value to it. However, it’s taken out of this setting and then it’s transformed into something that is acceptable to Western taste.
Mary-Rose
Despite all the talk of British science, Albert eventually hires diamond cutters from Amsterdam to work on the jewel.
Gayathri
In 1852, for 38 days, 12 hours a day, they shape it painstakingly. The whole affair is a spectacle as the Kohinoor transforms into a symbol of British superiority overseen by scientists. At the end, the diamond emerges more sparkling, certainly but a mountain no more. It’s not the monster diamond of the Vijayanagara Empire, of the Mughals, Nader Shah, the Durranis, the Sikh Empire. Those men who took by sword and not by stealth. The Kohinoor is now a middling 102 carats. Still a jewel of inferior water — not very clear. Its size has reduced by 43%.
Mary-Rose
Queen Victoria is still dogged by questions about how she acquired the diamond. We are in 1854. Duleep Singh is a 15 year old boy and like the diamond he too has been recut.
Friederike Voigt
Duleep gets educated so he is shaped and he’s supposed to become the British gentleman and aristocrat, so his pension should allow him to live like that.
Mary-Rose
He’s a great favorite of the court, and one day a little drama involving him plays out at Buckingham Palace. This account is based on a journal maintained by Lady Login, as written up by a couple of historians.
Sumit Kumar
Victoria has commissioned a painting of Duleep. He is posing wearing silk pajamas, a heavy gold embroidered shirt and jewelry. He has on embroidered slippers curled at the toes, on his head, a turban of emeralds. At his throat, a miniature of Victoria.
Victoria watches and beckons to Lady Login to ask her if Duleep ever mentions the Kohinoor. Does he seem to regret it? And would he like to see it again? she asks.
Lady Login is apprehensive. There are few things that rankle him as much as the Kohinoor. But she takes Duleep aside and asks him. “Yes, indeed I would,” he says. “I was but a child, an infant when forced to surrender it by treaty. But now that I’m a man, I should like to have it in my power to place it myself in her hand.”
Before the next sitting, a group of beefeaters from the Tower of London appear with a box holding the diamond. Duleep takes the gem in his hand. Victoria asks him — has it improved? Does he recognize it again.
He walks over to the window to examine it. He turns it to watch the light reflect off the facets. His face filled with suppressed emotion. This diamond doesn’t look like the stone that he wore when he was king — the one that was taken from him. There is great tension in the room as Victoria and others watch him. Finally, Duleep tears his eyes off the jewel. He slowly turns back, hands it to Victoria and says: “It is to me, ma’am, the greatest pleasure thus to have the opportunity as a loyal subject of myself tendering to my sovereign, the Kohinoor.”
Gayathri
So Duleep gives it to her?
Mary-Rose
Well, of a sort. I mean, what else could Duleep do? Run away with it? But more than 25 years later, in the 1880s, Duleep does demand it back. He realizes the injustices in his life. Everything was taken from him when he was a child. He reconverts to Sikhism and tries to return to India to raise an army and get back his throne.
Gayathri
Oh, that sounds promising.
Mary-Rose
Nope. He’s arrested and he eventually dies alone and bankrupt in a Paris hotel room.
Gayathri
Britain maintains today that the Kohinoor was a gift from the Maharajah to the Queen. They often cite that scene at the Buckingham Palace or the 1849 treaty. And most histories of the diamond in Western media are whitewashed, and they play up the curse. For example, here’s the March issue of the fashion magazine Vogue, the French edition. An article on the crown jewels says about the Kohinoor.
Alexa Stanger
The stone has the reputation of being cursed after the assassination of four kings who possessed it. Gifted to Queen Victoria by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire in 1856, it is cut…
Mary-Rose
Wait, what?! The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire?!
Gayathri
Yeah! Not only are they reducing these historical jewels to exotic Eastern baubles, they’re getting the little bit of history they have blatantly wrong!
Mary-Rose
For Britain, the Kohinoor remains an uncomfortable possession, a symbol of imperialism and colonization, a thorn in its civilized behind. Every year, someone or the other keeps suing them to get the jewel.
Gayathri
Doesn’t this seem like the effect of a black curse?
Mary-Rose
But as we’ve already alluded, the curse of the Kohinoor is probably nothing but hogwash played up to justify the colonial transfer of the jewel.
Gayathri
Sure, the men who owned it seem to have experienced terrible misfortune. Duleep, Ranjit Singh’s dreams of a Sikh dynasty, all the Durrani rulers, Nader Shah, the Mughals, the Vijayanagara Empire too ended. But then all empires end, don’t they? And even kings must die, often at the swardpoint as they lived.
Thanks for listening. I’m Gayathri Vaidyanathan.
Mary-Rose
and I’m Mary-Rose Abraham.
Gayathri
Next time on Scrolls & Leaves
Mary-Rose
We’ll tell you about a 19th century pandemic that changed the world and redefined how we travel forever.
Gayathri
Our sound designer is Nikhil Nagraj. The storytellers are Sumit Kumar and Alexa Stanger. The songs in this episode are by Deepthi Basker.
Mary-Rose
This episode was produced by Gayatri and Mary Rose, with assistance from
Unknown Speaker
Iman Ifthikar, Sasha Semina, Alexa Stanger.
Gayathri
You were listening to Scrolls & Leaves in collaboration with the Archives at the National Center for Biological Sciences.
Mary-Rose
Our thanks to Gurinder Singh Mann and Friederike Voigt. Thanks to our episodes supporter, the Yale Mellon Sawyer seminar, the Order of Multitudes: Atlas, Encyclopedia and Museum, and Anjana Badrinarayanan of NCBS
Gayathri
For more information and past episodes, visit scrollsandleaves.com or you can follow us on Twitter @ScrollsLeaves, or on Instagram @scrollsandleaves or like us on Facebook and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you next time!
