Rishi Sunak, a person of Indian origin, the first Asian, the first brown man, and the first practising Hindu, has become the Prime Minister (PM) of Great Britain. It is a matter of happiness for Indians that one of our own has created history. It is also a tribute to the British, where people of Indian origin, although ubiquitous, are still a minuscule minority of an overwhelmingly White majority.
In some ways, the wheel of history has taken a full circle. But the circle is nevertheless far from complete. What time has wrought cannot be rewound, but it cannot be erased either.
When I was last in London, I visited the Tower of London. I wanted to see the Kohinoor, the diamond that once added lustre to the Moghul court in India. In the museum, you have to step onto a conveyor belt that propels you slowly past the array of gold, diamonds, rubies, and sapphires of the crown jewels. And, among these, resplendent in the centre of the crown made for the Queen Mother in 1937, is the Kohinoor.
It seemed curiously small, almost as if it could not match up to its own legend. But I was told that the original stone had been deliberately pared down to enhance its dazzle. At the end of the display, occupying a panel by itself on a velvet cushion, was the Imperial Crown of India, 1911, studded with rubies and sapphires and encrusted with diamonds, with a huge green emerald at its centre and a diamond orb on the top.
The Kohinoor was not the only priceless stone that came to Britain from India. In 1701, Thomas Pitt, while governor of Madras, helped himself to a diamond weighing over 410 carats from the Golconda mines. Christened the Pitt Diamond, it was later sold to the Prince Regent of France, who made it a part of the French crown. Through such jewels stolen, and other institutional means which involved destroying local industries, looting local raw material and dumping British goods made with the same material back into the colony, British per capita income increased in the period from 1747 to 1947 by 347%. In the same two centuries, India’s grew by a mere 14%.
Indians were used by the British in other ways too. In World War I, a million Indians served overseas to fight for the Empire, and 60,000 gave their lives for it, their names carved in stone at the India Gate Memorial in New Delhi, as compensation. Two and a half million Indians fought for the British in World War II, in conditions where an Indian soldier was paid a salary of ₹18 per month and a British soldier ₹75.
Given the above — only a very partial account of what India lost to British rule — is an Indian-origin PM compensation enough? Even symbolic gestures help to assuage historical grievances. I believe Queen Elizabeth had that opportunity when on her last visit to India in 1997, she visited Jallianwala Bagh. She could have — but did not — apologise or express regret at the wanton massacre in 1919 of hundreds of peacefully protesting Indians. And, perhaps, Rishi Sunak, could return the Kohinoor. But then, he may have to be more British than the British to prove that he is not partial to India.
Shah Rukh Khan
On November 2 this week, Shah Rukh Khan turned 57. Hundreds gathered on the road before his mansion in Mumbai to wish the “Badshah of Bollywood” or “King Khan”, and the actor graciously gave them “darshan“.
His is an amazing story of success from small beginnings. His father, a freedom fighter and follower of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, came to India from Peshawar after partition in 1947. The family lived in Rajinder Nagar, a relatively down-market-middle-class colony in New Delhi. He studied at St Columbus (where I, too, began my education), and won the highest award of the school, the Sword of Honour. At the beginning of his cinematic career in the late 1980s, he got a break only on TV serials. He married his childhood sweetheart, a middle-class Hindu girl, Gauri Chibber, in a Hindu ceremony. (I used to play golf with her father).
Today, he is the most successful star in Bollywood, the second richest actor in the world — beating Tom Cruise — and by far the richest actor in India. He owns Red Chillies Entertainment, a successful film production company. He also owns the Indian Premier League cricket team, the Kolkata Knight Riders.
It is very difficult to choose his five most enjoyable films. For me, they would be Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Yes Boss (1997), Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001), and Chennai Express (2013).
What would your choices be?
Pavan K Varma is author, diplomat, and former Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha).
Just Like That is a weekly column where Varma shares nuggets from the world of history, culture, literature, and personal reminiscences with HT Premium readers
The views expressed are personal
