HERITAGE
Khushwant Singh on British Loot from India
All victorious armies plunder, rape and kill. Some go on the rampage without the slightest concern with public opinion, but the British did it with finesse and more thoroughness. There is of course the diamond Koh-i- Noor taken from the boy Maharajah Dalip Singh, the youngest son of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. It was cut into three; one piece each in the crowns of the King and Queen of England, one piece in the Tower of London Museum. There was Ranjit Singh's gold-leaf covered throne in the Victoria's Albert Museum. There are innumerable weapons: cannons, muskets, swords, spears, shields and chain-coat shirts in the War Museum. Manuscripts, documents, miniature paintings, scriptural texts, ceremonial robes you name them, they had them, looted from all parts of Ladia ia the process of expanding their empire from the Arakan to the Indus. More than what could be seen in museums were priceless artifacts taken by Governor-General, army commanders, Residents and senior civil servants. These were in private collections in castles and country mansions now divided between descendants of the predators... The biggest haul was made by Lord Dalhousie who annexed the Punjab after Sikh Darbar's troops were finally defeated in the battle of Gujarat on February 21, 1849. On March 29, 1949, the Koh-I-Noor which British envoys had seen earlier was handed over to the English.
Then followed systematic loot of everything worthwhile in the Punjab. Queen Victoria desired certain objects for Windsor Castle; Directors of the East India Company wanted their share, Dalhousie wanted to keep a lot for himself, other English officers took whatever was left. Some of these items were recorded in the correspondence which passed between Calcutta and London. But most of what was pocketed by English officers, both military and civilians, there is no record.
In the correspondence on record is a letter dated 19th December 1850 from Dalhousie to Directors of the East India Company stating that he was forwarded to them two swords-one given by Holkar to Ranjit Singh and another known as "Rustum" which had the genealogy of its wielders written on the blade in letters of gold. He added "with these also, I have sent some singular documents worthy of preservation in England". Among them a copy of the Dasam Granth handwritten by Guru Gobind Singh. In the same letter he asks whether they would be interested in having "the golden chair in which the Burra Maharajah held his state", spear and sword which "according to the Sikh traditions belonged to Gooroo Gobind" and "a silver bungalow". If the Directors were not keen to have them, could Dalhousie keep them for himself?
These are only some relics of the Sikh Raj. Much more was taken from Madras, Karnataka, Bengal, Avadh and the Marathas both by the East India Company and thugs like Clive and Warren Hastings. Even after the winding up of the East India Company, Viceroys and Governors received valuable gifts from Indian princes when they visited their states. Some of them went to the treasury, some to line pockets of the recipients. All the loot taken from India is now in England. Is there anything we can do to get some of it back to our country? Our best bet is to persuade the United Nations or one of its organizations like UNESCO to pass a resolution that items of historical or artistic value taken as war booty should be returned to the countries of their origin.
(Source: The Hindustan Times, 19 August, 1995)
Ratnottama Sengupta on Shahjahan's Badshahnama
On the 50th year of independence the Badshahnama (Chronicle of the Emperor) at the National Museum the only surviving volume of this 17th century work commissioned by Shahjahan will be on public view for the first time, (in Delhi in January, 1997).
"The 44 paintings and two illustrations from what is known to be the only surviving volume of this imperial manuscript will be shown to public for the first time in an exhibition opening at the National Museum, Delhi in January 1997", according to Oliver Everett, Librarian, Royal Library. The exquisite miniature paintings illustrate not only the Ascension to throne and the wedding of Shahjahan's son Dara Shikoh, but also other aspects of life of the builder of Taj Mahal, including war, architecture, carpets, costumes and jewels. The Nawab of Oudh purchased the Badshahnama along with other objects from the Mughal court - then in decline for a royal sum of Rs.12,000. And in 1797, then the governor general of India, visited Oudh, he was offered the volume. as a gift from the Nawab.
(He) declined to take it, observing that "it was fit for a royal library". That observation suggested the next move, and the Badshahnama was presented to the King George III in 1798. It has, ever since, been in the possession of the British royalty. Two years ago it came close to destruction when a devastating fire at Windsor Castle stopped the room adjacent to the one housing the Chronicle. A recent conservation programme led to the opening of the bound volume. Now, with each painting and folio being conserved, people in the country of its origin will get to see what is one of the finest surviving manuscripts of the Mughal era. The exhibition in India has been organized by the British Council along with the Royal Library, Windsor Castle.
(Source: The Indian Express, 14 August, 1996)
