Kohinoor was surrendered, not forcibly taken by British

One of the largest cut diamonds in the world, the Kohinoor weighing 21.12 grams, was not forcibly taken by the British but was instead surrendered by the erstwhile Maharaja of Lahore to the Queen of England, reveals a recent RTI reply.

The information was provided by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in response to an RTI application filed by a resident of Punjab’s Ludhiana. That the Kohinoor, now housed inside the Tower of London in the UK, was not stolen or forcibly taken by the British.

The RTI reply received by activist Rohit Sabharwal said that ‘as per the Lahore Treaty held between Lord Dalhousie and Maharaja Duleep Singh in 1849, the Kohinoor diamond was surrendered by the Maharaja of Lahore to the Queen of England’. The Lahore Treaty, according to the RTI reply by the ASI, also indicates that the Kohinoor was not handed over to the Queen on the wishes of Maharaja Duleep Singh, who was a minor at the time the treaty was signed.

The RTI reply, in a way, challenges what the central government had informed the apex court way back in April 2016. While the government had maintained that the precious gem was not stolen or forcibly taken by the British, it added that the Kohinoor was rather gifted to the East India Company by successors of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The government had said that the kin of Maharaja Ranjit Singh had handed over the Kohinoor to the British as voluntary compensation for expenses of the Anglo-Sikh war.

Rohit said he had travelled to the Tower of London where he was informed by a British national that the Kohinoor was gifted to the British. He said he was astonished by the response and so filed an RTI to seek clarity on the issue on his return.