ASI Says Kohinoor Was 'Surrendered' By Punjab Rulers To The British

In April 2016, the government had told the Supreme Court that the Kohinoor diamond was neither ¡°forcibly taken nor stolen¡± by the British. The government had stated that it was gifted to the East India Company by the successors of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who ruled Punjab at the time.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), however, has contradicted the government¡¯s stand by stating in a recent RTI reply that the diamond was in fact ¡°surrendered¡± by the Maharaja of Lahore to Queen Victoria of England.

In its response to a PIL, the government had said that Maharaja Ranjit Singh¡¯s kin had given the Kohinoor to the British as ¡°voluntary compensation¡± to cover the expenses of the Anglo-Sikh War.

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Activist Rohit Sabharwal had filed a RTI query seeking information showing the grounds on which the Kohinoor was transferred to the UK.

¡°I had no clue who to approach with my RTI application, so I forward it to the Prime Minister¡¯s office (PMO). It was the PMO that sent it to ASI. The RTI Act allows a public authority to transfer an application to another authority which has the information sought,¡± said Sabharwal.

In the RTI query, he also asked if it was a gift to the UK by the Indian authorities or if there was any other reason for the transfer.

The ASI replied, ¡°As per the records, 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 reply gives an extract of the treaty which reads, ¡°The gem called Kohinoor which was taken from the Shah-Suja-Ul-Mulk by Maharaja Ranjeet Singh shall be surrendered by the Maharaja of Lahore to the Queen of England.¡±

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According to the reply, the treaty indicates that ¡°the Kohinoor was not handed over to the British on the wishes of Duleep Singh. Moreover, Duleep Singh was a minor at the time of the treaty¡±.

¡°I recently met a British national who claimed that the Kohinoor was gifted to the queen. Since that day, I decided to go deep into the subject.¡± The chairman of the Maharaja Duleep Singh Memorial Trust, Kothi Bassian and poet Gurbhajan Singh Gill said this is exactly what they had been saying for many years ¨C that the diamond was taken away by the British from Maharaja Duleep Singh when he was only nine.