A post on Quora recently caught our fancy. The title is: Do you think Britain is right in keeping the Kohinoor diamond? Should it not return it to India?
With a question like that, you can obviously expect the replies to get heated. But Utkarsh Atmaram ‘s reply has all the makings of a sane argument. Read and learn.
(Because we couldn’t embed the post, we have copied-pasted some excerpts for you, instead.)
The Koh-i-Noor was handed over to the Queen of England as per a legal agreement. See Treaty of Lahore . On what basis do you expect the Queen to return the diamond? On the basis that it was a “theft”? Or as a symbolic gesture? Or on the basis that all things should be returned to the place they originated?
Even if the Queen does return the diamond only to India, we will have a huge ruckus over what the Government should do with this piece of condensed carbon.
Why would you want to waste the taxpayers’ money on misplaced national pride when we have greater issues to worry about? The Government is also in the possession of the Jewels of the Nizams (including the famous Jacob Diamond ), which are not on regular public display because of similar reasons. There is little point in arguing about ownership of things that are hundreds of years old, and have changed hands several times.
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