Curse Of Cohinoor!

Call it the curse of the 105-carat Kohinoor or a blunder: the government has waded into a historic controversy over the precious diamond, which is in the realm of legends, with many myths surrounding it.

- Charanjit Ahuja

Some sceptics believe that the curse of the Kohinoor struck the British crew that first brought it to England in 1850. The HMS Medea (seven ships of the Royal Navy were named after Medea of Greek mythology), was first stricken with cholera, then almost blown out of the water by hostile cannon and finally battered by a typhoon.

On 20 April 2016, in denial mode, the Indian government mustered the courage to make amends. It first took the stand in the Supreme Court that the diamond was neither stolen nor taken by force, but was gifted and as such India had lost right over the mountain of light. The assertion was in response to a lawsuit brought by a not-for-profit organisation — the All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front — beseeching the diamond’s return from Queen Mother’s crown.

No one can imagine that the diamond was a gift by young Duleep Singh to Queen of England. Ironically, the Centre told the apex court that heirs of Maharaja Ranjit Singh gave the Kohinoor to the British as “voluntary compensation” to cover the expenses of the Anglo-Sikh Wars. The fact is that Duleep Singh, the tragic King, was forced to hand over his kingdom and Kohinoor to the British in 1849. Though losing his lands and wealth wounded the Sikh maharajah deeply, the loss of the fabled diamond hurt him most of all. Often he used to refer to Queen Victoria as “Mrs Fagin” — a reference to the receiver of stolen goods in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist.