A Boxful Of History

Thieves have an annoying habit of not leaving receipts behind. And when Lord Dalhousie set sail for England carrying away the Kohinoor, one can safely assume he didn't leave a note saying it rightfully belonged to Maharaja Ranjit Singh's descendants. But today Beant Singh Sandhanwalia sitting in Amsterdam thinks otherwise. Secret papers in a Swiss vault soon to be made public will, he insists, give Maharaja Ranjit Singh's descendants title to reclaim the Kohinoor. And as one who claims to be recognised by the Punjab government as an official descendant of Ranjit Singh's family, Sandhanwalia believes the Kohinoor will soon be his. And once it's his, he'll present it to the Golden Temple.

Nice thought. Sandhanwalia does not say how exactly he has come to be claimant to the property of Ranjit Singh or that of his son Duleep Singh who was abducted to England by the British when he was only eight years old. But he is eagerly awaiting the opening of the mystery box lying in a Swiss vault for scores of years now.

Those out to re-establish a place in history for the unfortunate Duleep Singh have been told the box will soon be opened.  We were told earlier that the box would be opened before August this year, but now we believe this is imminent,  Harvinder Singh Rana from the Duleep Singh memorial project in Britain told Outlook last week. That box had been placed in a vault in Zurich by Catherine, daughter of Duleep Singh. Catherine died a spinster in 1942. She's believed to have possessed all sorts of documents given by Duleep Singh, of which some are believed to be locked up in that box.

There are only a few Swiss bankers yet who know what exactly is in the box. It was opened soon after Catherine's death, its contents listed and sealed again. Its existence became public knowledge in '97 when the Swiss authorities published a list of owners of 5,570 unused accounts in an attempt to unearth gold and other treasures believed to have been hidden away in Swiss banks by the Nazis. Now the box will be opened again and its contents made public.

It's not certain yet who all have made claims to its contents. Sandhanwalia is believed to be the only Sikh claimant. But Lahore's Karim Baksh is at least one other, according to Duleep Singh followers in Britain. Baksh maintains to be descended some way from the Maharaja, and through that lays claim to the contents of the box as well as the Maharaja's treasures taken away by the British - the Kohinoor among them.

 There's a lot of speculation about what the box might contain,  Harvinder Singh Rana told Outlook.  Our research suggests it's not likely to contain any diamonds or jewels or anything of material value,  he said.  Duleep Singh was in great financial difficulties towards the end of his life and it's unlikely he would've left diamonds and jewels lying around in a box.  Instead, he believes the box to contain material of  historic value .

The most that Harvinder Singh and others from the Duleep Singh Trust expect is material that might throw fresh light on the annexation of Punjab by the British.  This strengthens our organisation's resolve to get to the bottom of events regarding the annexation of Punjab and what happened to Duleep Singh and his family,  he says. It's a sad state of affairs that more than a century after his death so many questions remain unanswered about Duleep Singh. 

Sandhanwalia has declared with some confidence that  it's just a matter of time before I get the box, the Kohinoor and the other Sikh treasures belonging to my family that were taken away by the British by force or trickery . But no one seriously expects anyone to pull a paper out of the mystery box, wave it at the British and bring the Kohinoor back to India. The diamond sits resplendent in the Queen Mother's crown. Following Indian superstition that the jewel brings bad luck to any male who wears it, no male among the British royalty has ever been associated with it directly. But whatever the box holds, it's unlikely that the British will dismantle the crown, pull out the Kohinoor and hand it over to Sandhanwalia.

Back then, the British had made arrangements to convert their stolen property into a 'gift'. Duleep Singh is said to have taken time off while posing for a portrait in Buckingham Palace to present the Kohinoor himself to Queen Victoria. Which means that Duleep Singh, who was under British charge, was given the Kohinoor and instructed to give it to the Queen, which he did. Duleep Singh was said to have told Queen Victoria how pleased he was to present the Kohinoor to her with his own hands. In bitterness and disillusionment later, he remarked that Queen Victoria had about as much right to the Kohinoor as he had to Windsor Castle. But there is still no known record that he claimed it back. If he had, it's a demand that would certainly have been turned down as so many of his far lesser demands were.

A few groups in Britain have tried to make the claim to Kohinoor an issue of Sikh sovereignty. But few Sikhs seem to care. They're far more keen on recovering the Kalgi and the sword of Guru Gobind Singh that the British took away. The mystery box is unlikely to reveal their whereabouts. Or to produce papers that would bring the Kohinoor back to Punjab. The closest an Indian is likely to get to the Kohinoor is to file past it in the Tower of London standing on that conveyor belt which ensures no tourist takes a longing, or even long enough, look at it.