New York Mayor Mamdani says he would ask King Charles to return Kohinoor

New York: Affirming his anti-colonial principles, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said that he would have told visiting UK King Charles to return the Kohinoor diamond that has come to be a symbol of British loot of India.

Before he was to meet the monarch on Wednesday (local time) at a ceremony to honour the 9/11 victims, he said, “If I were to speak to the King separately from that, I’d probably encourage him to return the Kohinoor diamond”.

Later, the Democratic Socialist met Charles in a crowded setting at the memorial in a crush of VIPs.

Videos of their brief encounter showed Charles smiling as they spoke very briefly.

But it was not known what they spoke about, and Charles’ demeanour did not betray any discomfort or that a serious matter was raised.

Charles is on a four-day visit to the United States as the nation prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its Independence gained when it threw out the colonial oppressors of his long-ago predecessor, George III, in a bloody revolution.

He made a flying visit to New York to lay wreaths at the 9/11 memorial, visit an urban farm, meet business leaders, and attend a cultural event.

True to his roots as the son of Mahmood Mamdani, a professor who has written extensively about the ravages of colonialism, the mayor was unenthused about the visit and indicated he would limit the interaction to the minimum demands of protocol.

He said on Monday that he would limit his interaction to the wreath-laying ceremony “to pay tribute to the more than 3,000 who were killed in the horrific terror attacks of September 11 (2001)”.

“And that will be the extent of my meeting with the King and with others who are present”, he added.

It was former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, rather than Mamdani, who escorted King Charles and his Queen Camilla to the memorial to place flowers there.

The 106-carat Kohinoor is now set on the crown worn by Charles’ grandmother and is at the Tower of London.

One of the world’s largest diamonds, it was seized in 1949 by the East India Company from 11-year-old Maharaj Duleep Singh after the Second Anglo-Sikh War.

Britain claims the diamond was legally obtained because an 11-year-old minor gave it to them.

Since India’s Independence, the country has been demanding the return of the diamond.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor put the country’s claim succinctly: “For India, it stands as a symbol of the artefacts and cultural treasures that were taken to Britain as trophies of Empire”.

The diamond was mined in the area of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh and was taken in its uncut form to Britain, where 66 facets were cut into it, giving it its opulent shine.

It was found in the Kollur Mines in the Guntur area of Andhra Pradesh.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have also demanded its return, but Mamdani did not say which country it should be returned to.

IANS