The Journey Of Kohinoor From India To The British Museum

Kohinoor, you must have heard about this diamond that originally originated in India? From the Sultan Era to the Mughal era, this diamond has seen various administration changes in the country; not only that but there are lots of myths also regarding this diamond as many people say that once upon a time, this was carried by none other than the God of Love of Hindu religion Krishna himself.

This diamond Kohinoor which once being on the land of India; however, unfortunately, in the present era doesn’t exist there. As of October 2024, the diamond is under the ownership of England. Now the question arises: how did this diamond that originated from the land of India suddenly land onto the land of English? Well, it all started when an Afghan refugee fled to Punjab.

Kohinoor, the gift that an Afghan refugee  brought to Punjab

It was 1813 when Shah Shuja Durrani, one of the members of the Durrani Empire, escaped from Kabul, where the Durrani Empire was seeing having civil war among themselves. However, before escaping Kabul, he took Kohinoor diamond , which had earlier been on their generation for two decades, which they got from Nadir Shah, a Persian general who ransacked Delhi and took it as one of the various valuable items to show his dominance.

He escaped towards Punjab, which was then ruled by Maharaja Ranjit Singh; in exchange for getting asylum there he traded this diamond to the ruler. The diamond then sees its place on the crown in the Jewel of the Sikh Empire. However, it lasted for only two decades as the Sikh Empire was about to face its worst crisis.

The crisis of the Sikh Empire, which led to the exile of Kohinoor diamond

In 1839, Maharaja Ranjit Singh died, and a five-year-old Duleep Singh became the successor. However, this also led a chaos in the Sikh Empire as not only the current king was a boy, but without the presence of a strong leader like Ranjht Singh, various administration flaws started to emerge.

Meanwhile, the East India Company at that time no longer aimed to do trade in India but to make sure they ruled in this country; in this process, they started to acquire various parts of the country by either capturing it forcefully or making the royal family into their puppet. In this process, they set an eye on capturing Punjab as this would have directly given them control of a huge land; however, during the time of Ranjit Singh, they didn’t try to show any single move to invade Punjab.

However, his death, a weak administration and chaos for getting the throne among themselves in the Sikh Empire made the British Empire one of the easiest ways to capture Punjab. This escalated to two wars between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company, which is known as the Anglo-Sikh Wars. However, the East India Company, due to their administrative skills and usage of modern equipment, outsmarted the Sikh Troops, and after losing their resource and army, the 10-year-old king had no choice but to surrender but little he know that the British administration, beside annexing Punjab will about to annex something that will alter the historical landscape of India.

The annexation of Punjab and how India lost Kohinoor diamond

After the second Anglo-Sikh war of 1849, the destruction of the Sikh Empire was complete, and Duleep, as mentioned, had no choice but to surrender. In this process, a peace treaty was signed between East India Company and the Sikh Empire that is known as the Treaty of Lahore; by this treaty, not only did the British get the rights to annex the entire Punjab under British rule, but in this process there are a lot of demands also that has been stated by British as a compensation to them by the Sikh Empire for causing two back to back wars.

One of them was the Kohinoor Diamond. The Sikh Empire had no choice in this process but to surrender it to the East India Company however, the East India Company in this process had another plan with it.

The royal plans for the diamond

The British East India Company, immediately after handing their hands to Kohinoor diamond provided it as a gift to Queen Victoria. It was also showcased at the 1851 Great Exposition in London. The reactions of the citizens were also being written in the Times newspaper in that very same year, where it was stated that the citizens of the UK couldn’t’ believe what they saw from its appearance as it was just a simple huge piece of common glass. Since this diamond made its arrival in the UK it has only been used by the female members of the royal family. This is how the diamond has passed off.

 However, you might also love an interesting fact: it is that Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, had a hand in the design of this diamond as he thought that Kohinoor diamond  required little changes after the exhibition due to he felt like the appearance was dull and irregular. He ordered the changes quickly.

 It took nearly 38 days to conduct changes in it where not only was the weight of the diamond reduced by 42 percent, but also the carats, which was 186, got reduced to 105.6 carats, and this is the current version of this diamond which people see in the present day. Speaking about the present day, you must be feeling curious about where the diamond is now as of the present day; well, in the next portion, this is the thing which will be exclusively discussed.

The present status of Kohinoor diamond

Currently the diamond has been kept on a public display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London that is managed by the British Royal Family and is a part of British Crown Jewels. The diamond made its last public appearance in 2002. Now, obviously, you guys will question if India has ever made any attempt to bring their precious treasure back into the country or not.

Did India ever attempt to bring Kohinoor Diamond to India or Not?

Since granting independence, India has been trying there best to reclaim what is theirs; however, it has been rejected multiple times by the British Government, stating that the diamond was being provided to them in a legal way by the treaty and they didn’t steal it forcedly. However, a piece of recent news indicates that the Government of India is attempting to bring back this diamond on India from the British government along with Taimur’s Ruby, Amravati Marbles and other valuable possessions that have been taken by the British Empire. However, British media denied this and said the information was incorrect.

FAQ

Follow us on