Demands intensify for Queen’s $591 million jewel to be ‘returned’

As billions around the globe tuned in to watch Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, a centuries-old war over a $591 million jewel in the royal crown erupted online.

Thousands have called on a $591 million jewel in the royal crown to be returned – but its exact origin isn’t exactly clear.

Calls have intensified for the $591 million jewel in a royal crown made for King Charles III’s grandmother to be “returned” to India.

Queen Elizabeth II’s death reignited a centuries-old campaign to correct the course of British colonialism by returning the Kohinoor – one of the largest and most expensive cut diamonds in the world – to its rightful owner.

While its exact origins are unclear, the British are said to have acquired the stone in the late 1840s after convincing 10-year-old King Maharajah Duleep Singh to surrender Punjab to Britain’s East India Company, with the diamond reaching Queen Victoria around 1850.

It has been a matter of contention between India and England throughout history, but with the Queen’s death there has been added urgency in calls to return the jewel.

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Furious Indians have called for the Kohinoor diamond to be returned. The precious jewel is pictured at the centre of the Queen Mother’s crown (above, left alongside the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1937). Picture: Supplied

Thousands have taken to Twitter begging for the diamond to be returned.

“It’s time to give the Kohinoor diamond back,” one wrote.

“On behalf of Indians, we want our Kohinoor back,” another said.

The crown was last shown in 2002 resting on the Queen Mother’s coffin at her funeral.

A separate crown, named the Imperial State Crown, features 2,868 diamonds with the Cullinan II diamond at its centre. That purple piece was featured atop the late Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin on Monday as billions tuned in to farewell the late monarch.

Kohinoor is a foreign name given to our diamond by invaders and colonialists. The Hindus of earlier days called it by the name Syamantaka(स्यमन्तक).

Why are we also using the name given to our diamond by colonisers?

— Mr.B (@BharadwajAgain) September 11, 2022

The diamond has however changed hands more than once over the course of its long history, opening debate as to whether India is even the rightful owner.

Discovered “thousands” of years ago, the gem has spent time in the possession of Mughals, Afghans and Persians before it was held by the young Punjab Maharajah, and later the British according to Smithsonian magazine.

“The fact that India have the audacity to say that the Kohinoor belongs to them. I’m pretty sure it was originally found in Lahore therefore belongs to Pakistan,” one Twitter user contested.

On behalf of Indians, we want our Kohinoor back. pic.twitter.com/cgsnjwyXpZ

— samosa (@soulsamosa) September 8, 2022

“The Kohinoor is the most expensive diamond in the world. The diamond originally belonged to a Hindu temple. An object of British loot, it was forcibly seized from a … child Duleep Singh in a treaty after defeating him in war,” someone else argued.

Another claimed it belonged in Bangladesh.

“Kohinoor was taken from independent Hindustan not India, Bengal being the last of the Mughal empire the Kohinoor should be return to Bangladesh not India … on behalf of Bangladesh, I demand it back ’cause we need another Padma bridge,” they wrote.

Not a new debate

Jyoti Atwal, a historian at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, told the ABC King Charles III will now have to confront the past and apologise for Britain’s role in historical events.

“King Charles will have to look at this new phase of anti-colonialism because anti-colonialism has changed its face now,” Professor Atwal said.

However the campaign for the diamond’s return is not new.

In 2000, Indian politicians penned a letter to the UK asking for the Kohinoor to be returned.

“Britain owes us,” Indian MP Shashi Tharoor wrote.

“But, instead of returning the evidence of their rapacity to their rightful owners, the British are flaunting the Kohinoor on the Queen Mother’s crown in the Tower of London.

A separate crown sat atop the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II during her funeral. Picture: Danny Lawson – WPA Pool/Getty Images

“It is a stark reminder of what colonialism truly was – shameless subjugation, coercion, and misappropriation.”

In 2013, then-British prime minister David Cameron during a visit to India ruled out giving the diamond back, saying “I certainly don’t believe in ‘returnism’, as it were – I don’t think that’s sensible.

“The right answer is for the British Museum and other cultural institutions to do exactly what they do, which is to link up with other institutions around the world to make sure that the things which we have and look after so well are properly shared with people around the world,” he said.

The crown with the Kohinoor diamond is next tipped to be worn by Queen Consort Camilla on special occasions like the coronation of King Charles III, then Kate Middleton if or when she becomes queen.