These sleuths, with the help of a small, anonymous global team of volunteers from various fields – who communicate mostly online – have brought back to India several millions worth of antiquities from countries like Australia, Singapore, Germany, UK and the US. This citizen movement for the restitution of stolen and smuggled antiques (particularly statues) from public museums and private collectors across the world was started in 2013 by shipping executive S Vijay Kumar and public policy expert Anuraag Saxena from Singapore, although Kumar had already spent a decade helping to recover artefacts. "Wear the diamond, give back the rest," suggests this op-ed piece in The Indian Express.Īmong the "rest" are priceless cultural artefacts – and this is what the India Pride Project concerns itself with. The renewed uproar about the Koh-i-Noor has also led to intensifying questioning of all the other resources – not just the sparkly stones – taken away from the Global South by western powers over centuries of trading and ruling. As this piece in India's Mint newspaper explains bluntly, "The main controversy around the diamond is that the British give an impression to its younger generation that the Koh-i-Noor was a gift from India and make no official mention of the violent history behind acquiring it." The Koh-i-Noor, first found in written records in 1628, has long been the subject of acrimony between India and its former coloniser, with a persistent demand by the Indian government and its citizens for its return. It could also been seen as an appeasement gesture directed towards those who believe the diamond belongs to India – given that it originated there, before making its way into British hands (and heads), when it was surrendered to Queen Victoria following the East India Company's seizure of the Punjab province in 1849. While the palace has not made any official statement about the reason, there were worries about it causing diplomatic issues with India, if it had been used, given the country's claims to be its rightful owner. Well, if anyone is still wondering, it has been confirmed by Buckingham Palace that she won't. Was she going to wear the contentious Koh-i-Noor diamond, set on the Queen Mary Crown that is part of the royal collection at the Tower of London? With the date for the coronation of King Charles III approaching, for a long while Indian eyes were directed at the Queen Consort.
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