Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey listener discretion advised, Hey,
Speaker 1: this is Danish Schwartz, host of Noble Blood, the podcast
Speaker 1: you are currently listening to. Just a few quick bits
Speaker 1: of housekeeping before the episode. Today, I wrote a novel
Speaker 1: called Immortality, a Love Story. It's a sequel to the
Speaker 1: book I wrote last year, Anatomy a Love Story. And
Speaker 1: if you liked that, or you're just interested in spooky
Speaker 1: stories about nineteenth century British doctors, please preorder. It would
Speaker 1: mean so much. Pre Orders mean like a ton to authors.
Speaker 1: It's how publishers know which books to actually promote. Other
Speaker 1: than that, Noble Blood merch is available. I think you
Speaker 1: can probably still sneak it in if you want to
Speaker 1: get a holiday gift for someone. The link is in
Speaker 1: the episode description and also incredibly exciting a next summer August,
Speaker 1: I'm co leading a pilgrim meage to Cornwall to talk
Speaker 1: about Rebecca, the novel and Daphne Dmurier, the novel's author.
Speaker 1: That you can sign up for the company is called
Speaker 1: common Ground. If you google Danish words common Ground Rebecca,
Speaker 1: it'll come up. I went on one of these last
Speaker 1: spring about Frankenstein and Mary Shelley, and it was just amazing.
Speaker 1: It was like life changing. You get days just like
Speaker 1: reconnecting with your creative side, reading books, writing, talking to people,
Speaker 1: going on walks. I just I can't wait to go back,
Speaker 1: and I hope you come to. So yeah, that's the housekeeping,
Speaker 1: and now let's dive in. In London on September two thousand,
Speaker 1: twenty two, thousands of people formed a queue ten miles
Speaker 1: long to pay the respects to the late Queen Elizabeth
Speaker 1: the Second at Westminster Abbey. A million people were estimated
Speaker 1: to have amassed in London to witness the funeral procession.
Speaker 1: Those in line waited as long as twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: But imagine you turned away from the crowd who were
Speaker 1: looking west towards Windsor Castle, the Queen's final resting place.
Speaker 1: Imagine you walked against the crowd three miles east along
Speaker 1: the Thames, all the way to the Great Fortress of
Speaker 1: the Tower of London. If you walked into the inner ward,
Speaker 1: past the Neo Gothic gargoyles and into the Waterloo barracks,
Speaker 1: you would see it. The enormous diamond brilliant and gleaming
Speaker 1: mounted in a crown in awe inspiring symbol meant to
Speaker 1: represent the wealth and power of British Royalty. It is
Speaker 1: the Kohynor Diamond, the Mountain of Light, one of the
Speaker 1: most famous diamonds in the world. It weighs one hundred
Speaker 1: and five point six carrots, or more than a hundred
Speaker 1: times larger than the average engagement stone. It sits at
Speaker 1: the front of the crown, in the middle of a
Speaker 1: cross made of thousands of smaller diamonds, the centerpiece of
Speaker 1: a velvet tap in brilliant purple with a white ermine
Speaker 1: band dotted with black fur. On Whose head has that
Speaker 1: crown sat? You might be imagining the crown perched on
Speaker 1: the procession of British queens and queen consorts at their
Speaker 1: coronations Victoria Alexandria Mary the Queen Mother. In theory, Queen Camilla,
Speaker 1: the now wife of the new King Charles the Third,
Speaker 1: might air that crown with the Kynor Diamond at their
Speaker 1: royal coronation scheduled for next year May three. But and
Speaker 1: although this speculation, recent sources indicate that Camilla won't be
Speaker 1: wearing that crown. Why well, because there's another side of
Speaker 1: British history, and the diamond in the crown also evokes
Speaker 1: a very different royal funeral from the one that occurred
Speaker 1: outside the tower walls during the summer of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: In seeing the coryn Or diamond on Queen Camilla's head,
Speaker 1: one might imagine thousands upon thousands of mourners who flocked
Speaker 1: to a cremation in June of eighteen thirty nine in Loore.
Speaker 1: You might imagine Rajit Singh, the Lion of Punjab, first
Speaker 1: Maharajah of the Sick Empire, his body displayed on a
Speaker 1: model ship with sails made of spun gold, the sandal
Speaker 1: wood smoking under his funeral pyre. One might imagine his
Speaker 1: cognor diamond passing hand to hand and finally into the
Speaker 1: palm of a young boy, his young son, dew Leap
Speaker 1: sing One might imagine the ten year old signing the
Speaker 1: treaty that passed his diamond to the British. One might
Speaker 1: imagine his birthday party one year later, age eleven. Now
Speaker 1: in the care of the British family he was placed
Speaker 1: in after his mother was taken from him, One might
Speaker 1: imagine the strained birthday celebrations. The young boy gifted with
Speaker 1: comparatively tiny jewels that had been taken from his empire
Speaker 1: only months before. One might imagine his mother locked in
Speaker 1: prison desperately trying to get to her son, and one
Speaker 1: might get very, very angry. In eighteen forty nine, the
Speaker 1: British separated a little boy from his mother and separated
Speaker 1: a jewel from a continent. Ever since, many Indians have
Speaker 1: wanted the Cohn Or diamond back, but the call for
Speaker 1: reparations are especially strong right now because many specifically do
Speaker 1: not want the diamond sitting on the head of Queen
Speaker 1: Camilla at the coming coronation. Of course, returning the fruits
Speaker 1: of imperialist hunger may not be as straightforward as it seems.
Speaker 1: After all, the diamond had had a long history before
Speaker 1: the British took it from India. Over the centuries, it
Speaker 1: was involved in a series brutal conflicts from the Mughal
Speaker 1: Empire to Iran, to Afghanistan to the Sick Empire in Lahore, India, Pakistan,
Speaker 1: Afghanistan and others have all made claims to the Koynor.
Speaker 1: As of this recording, the coronation of King Charles and
Speaker 1: Queen Consort Camilla has not yet taken place. It is
Speaker 1: set for May sixth, two thousand, twenty three, and so
Speaker 1: the diamond for now sits in the crown in the
Speaker 1: Tower of London, a gift or a stolen bounty, a
Speaker 1: beautiful adornment, or a cursed talisman that has left a
Speaker 1: trail of blood in its wake. It is not the
Speaker 1: biggest diamond in the world. There are eighty nine bigger,
Speaker 1: but it looms large as a symbol of colonialism and
Speaker 1: imperialism of Britain's erstwhile dominant over the sub the continent
Speaker 1: and a big chunk of the world. The diamond is
Speaker 1: cut in an unusual way, said to look when viewed on,
Speaker 1: like a black hole. I'm Danis Schwartz, and this is
Speaker 1: noble blood. In the Bagavad Purana, a revered Hindu text,
Speaker 1: there's a story about the most famous jewel in Hindu legend,
Speaker 1: the sia Montaka, sometimes described as a ruby, sometimes a diamond.
Speaker 1: The Sun god himself wore the dazzlingly bright siam Antaka
Speaker 1: around his neck. When it made its way into the
Speaker 1: hands of men, it was a resplendent blessing or a
Speaker 1: disastrous curse, murder and bloodshed attended the gems zone. Perhaps,
Speaker 1: legend has it the Simon Taka was, in fact the
Speaker 1: diamond we know today as the koey Nore, forged by
Speaker 1: the gods themselves. For the less legendary minded among us,
Speaker 1: it's more likely that the khey Nore received from a
Speaker 1: riverbed in India in unusual but not impossibly large diamond
Speaker 1: the size of an egg. Today we may think of
Speaker 1: blood diamonds mined in conflict zones in Angola or Sierra Leone,
Speaker 1: but until the eighteenth century, almost all of the diamonds
Speaker 1: in the world were from India. The Koheynore made its
Speaker 1: first definitive historical appearance in the Mughal dynasty, a Muslim
Speaker 1: empire that came to rule much of South Asia between
Speaker 1: the early sixteen and mid nineteen centuries. The capital was
Speaker 1: in Delhi, and that is where the magnificent peacock throne sat,
Speaker 1: positively dripping with rubies, garnets, emerald pearls, and diamonds at
Speaker 1: the top of the throne. Attached to the head of
Speaker 1: one of the peacock figures that gave the throne its
Speaker 1: name was the Coeynore. In seventeen thirty nine, nat A
Speaker 1: Shah of Iran staged a bloody conquest of Delhi. In
Speaker 1: the end, he took the peacock throne out of India
Speaker 1: and the Koeynoor with it. Nattershaw wore it in his
Speaker 1: arm band, alongside the Timor ruby, which was possibly even
Speaker 1: more valuable. At the time, the Mguls did not consider
Speaker 1: diamonds as the most precious of the stones. They were
Speaker 1: more interested in rubies. The brilliant crimson Nattershaw was assassinated
Speaker 1: by beheading eight years after acquiring his bounty. As his
Speaker 1: head fell into the arms of a nearby soldier, his
Speaker 1: last thoughts racing through his severed brain impulses of electricity,
Speaker 1: he may have had a glancing thought about the kohey
Speaker 1: Nore that glittered on his headless arm. He may have wondered,
Speaker 1: as many have since, if the diamond was a curse
Speaker 1: to all its conquerors. Nader Shaw was dead, the kohey
Speaker 1: Noore and its blood red sister wound up around the
Speaker 1: arm of his guard, Ahmad Khan Abdali, who took the
Speaker 1: diamond with him as he led the Dorani dynasty in
Speaker 1: what is considered the start of modern Afghanistan. The kohey
Speaker 1: Nore had two sister diamonds that were also dispersed. The
Speaker 1: Daria Innor or the Sea of Light, is now part
Speaker 1: of the Iranian Crown Jewels in Tehran's now National Bank.
Speaker 1: The Great Mughal Diamond is probably now known as the
Speaker 1: Oral of Diamond, named for the man who was the
Speaker 1: lover of Russian Empress Catherine the Great. It wound up
Speaker 1: in her scepter and is now in the Kremlin. Roughly
Speaker 1: sixty years after Natarshah's death, shujah Shah was leading the
Speaker 1: Afghan Empire to the east. Ranjit Singh was the first
Speaker 1: Maharajah of the Sikh Empire. He had captured Lahore and
Speaker 1: expelled the Afghans during the Anglo Sick Wars. Now he
Speaker 1: wanted the kohey Norbeck to get it. He imprisoned shujah Shah,
Speaker 1: tortured his son in the scorching sun, and threatened to
Speaker 1: bring his daughters into a harem in the Sick Empire,
Speaker 1: to the point that shujah Shah's wife threatened to pound
Speaker 1: the koh Noor into dust and feed it to the
Speaker 1: women of the family just so Ranja Singh would never
Speaker 1: get his hands on it. In the end, Runjit sing
Speaker 1: got the kohey Nore and he treasured it. He had
Speaker 1: two replicas made of glass, so the real diamond and
Speaker 1: the two fakes could travel on three separate camels, and
Speaker 1: a would be thief would never know which was real.
Speaker 1: Ranjit Singh was the first to prize the diamond on
Speaker 1: its own, to wear it separately from its ruby twin,
Speaker 1: in an armband that was often the only adornment he
Speaker 1: wore on his white robes. It was not the last
Speaker 1: time the kohey Nore would come to be a symbol
Speaker 1: of empire. He had taken the territory and the diamond
Speaker 1: that had been taken by the Afghans, and he intended
Speaker 1: to show it. Ranjit Singh died in eighteen thirty six.
Speaker 1: His cremation was attended by thousands. But as much as
Speaker 1: he had loved the Coeynore in life, he seemed unable
Speaker 1: to escape its curse in death. His first successor was
Speaker 1: fatally poisoned, the next died of a smashed skull, perhaps
Speaker 1: a covered up bludgeoning. The third was shot in the
Speaker 1: chest in a so called accident. That's how the diamond
Speaker 1: and the sick empire fell into a young boy's hands.
Speaker 1: Douleep Singh was five years old when he became Maharajah.
Speaker 1: He was already forming a love of painting and Persian poetry,
Speaker 1: but the coeynor was the size of his tiny bice up.
Speaker 1: As he struggled to wear the heavy stone around his arm.
Speaker 1: He was told he was continuing his father's legacy, but
Speaker 1: he couldn't really remember his father, the fearsome run Jeet Singh.
Speaker 1: What he knew was his mother, jin Dan, who was
Speaker 1: only twenty six years old when her son ascended to
Speaker 1: rule the Punjab. She was a fierce, low born, beautiful
Speaker 1: woman who refused to be screened off in the woman's quarters.
Speaker 1: She was attentive when in eighteen for the first Anglo
Speaker 1: Sick War broke out against Britain's East India Company. She
Speaker 1: listened to the terms of the Treaty of Lahore at
Speaker 1: the end of the war, which stipulated that her son
Speaker 1: could remain Maharajah only under the so called care of
Speaker 1: the British only until he turned sixteen. They claimed, Maharani
Speaker 1: Jindan was not fooled. This was in occupying power, coercing
Speaker 1: her son to pay them to act against his interests
Speaker 1: in his name. She told him to resist at every return.
Speaker 1: The mid nineteen century was not an especially good time
Speaker 1: to be a noble woman in India. Ranjit Singh had
Speaker 1: had seventeen wives. Four were burned with him in his
Speaker 1: funeral pyre as sacrificial widows called sati. Seven enslaved girls
Speaker 1: had also burned in the smoke and skin and sandal
Speaker 1: would Jin Done had been the seventeenth and last wife,
Speaker 1: only eighteen years old when she married the fifty five
Speaker 1: year old Maharajah. Rumors swirled about her supposed sexual indiscretions,
Speaker 1: and now the British too had no use for a
Speaker 1: meddling young woman. They decided that her quote general misconduct
Speaker 1: and habits of intrigue are sufficient to justify her separation
Speaker 1: from her son. The British government, being the guardian of
Speaker 1: the Maharajah, have the right to separate him from the
Speaker 1: contagion of her evil practice end quote. Doo Leep Singh
Speaker 1: at this point was nine years old. His fierce beautiful mother,
Speaker 1: his one truest protector, was thrown screaming into a prison cell.
Speaker 1: So when the Second Anglo Sick War erupted in eighteen
Speaker 1: there was no one to protect him this time. The
Speaker 1: treaty that ended the war did not even pretend friendship.
Speaker 1: According to historians William Dalrymple and Anita Anand Quote, the child,
Speaker 1: terrified by the recent fighting in his kingdom, separated from
Speaker 1: his mother and surrounded by foreigners, was told he must
Speaker 1: sign over his kingdom, his fortune, and his future. His
Speaker 1: British allies now required nothing less than his complete acquiescence.
Speaker 1: The nine year old dou Leep Singh was utterly alone.
Speaker 1: In the first article of the treaty, he signed over
Speaker 1: the entire territory of the Punjab to the British. In
Speaker 1: the second, he ceded all state property to the East
Speaker 1: India Company. The second article was not specific enough for
Speaker 1: the British, they included a third article all on its own,
Speaker 1: which solely concerned the coveted diamond, the kohey Nore. It said,
Speaker 1: must be surrendered to the Queen than Victoria of England.
Speaker 1: The treaty is known as the Act of Submission. So
Speaker 1: by the age of ten, dou Leep Singh had lost
Speaker 1: his diamond, his kingdom, and his mother to the British.
Speaker 1: He was placed in the care of a British family,
Speaker 1: even though he had a mother who loved him, who
Speaker 1: was writing prison letters to her British captors, begging them
Speaker 1: in the name of their God, to reunite her with
Speaker 1: her son, promising quote, I will accept what you say.
Speaker 1: There is no one with my son. He has no sister,
Speaker 1: no brother to whose care has he been entrusted end quote.
Speaker 1: The answer was John Spencer Logan, a Scottish doctor, and
Speaker 1: his wife, Lena Logan, was kind enough for a guy
Speaker 1: who was essentially an accessory to kidnapping. In one of
Speaker 1: the wildest anecdotes from this whole period, Logan through do
Speaker 1: leap an eleventh birthday party in which he showered the
Speaker 1: boy with his own jewels, recently taken from his kingdom
Speaker 1: by the British, only the smallest of his jewels. Of course,
Speaker 1: we can imagine the sorrow of that little boy, draped
Speaker 1: in jewel rules, surrounded by strangers, without his mother. We
Speaker 1: can only wonder if any part of him knew that
Speaker 1: miles away his mother was trying to get to him. Yes,
Speaker 1: only a few days after her son signed the treaty,
Speaker 1: Ronnie Jindan, the absolute badass, dressed in rags and broke
Speaker 1: out of prison, leaving a note to the British. Quote
Speaker 1: you put me in a cage and locked me up
Speaker 1: for all your locks and your centuries. I got out
Speaker 1: by magic. I had told you plainly not to push
Speaker 1: me too hard. End quote. She walked eight hundred miles
Speaker 1: to Nepal. The history of colonialism is brutal, a history
Speaker 1: of bloodshed and children ripped from their parents. While Jindin
Speaker 1: did make it to Nepal, the British had beaten her
Speaker 1: there and they gave her saying actuary only as long
Speaker 1: as she promised never to contact her son again. It
Speaker 1: is probably too romantic and sentimental to imagine that something
Speaker 1: in young de leep knew that his mother was trying
Speaker 1: to reach him. It's pure magical thinking. But the magical
Speaker 1: coheynor diamond will do that to you. In April of
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty, the Coeynoor wound up locked in an iron
Speaker 1: chest on a ship leaving Bombay. You can be forgiven
Speaker 1: for hoping at this point in the story that it
Speaker 1: drowns there, that it never reaches the British and concludes
Speaker 1: it's cursed magical existence at the bottom of the sea.
Speaker 1: It almost did. The crew of the ship came down
Speaker 1: with cholera. The ship got caught in a massive storm
Speaker 1: at sea. On June, Queen Victoria survived a seemingly random
Speaker 1: assassination attempt in which a man cained her in the head.
Speaker 1: On June, her former Prime Minister, Robert Peel, was fatally
Speaker 1: trampled by his own horse. That very day, the cohey
Speaker 1: Nore arrived on the shores of England. I'll leave it
Speaker 1: to you to decide. If all this was the curse
Speaker 1: of the Diamond of the little boy and his mother,
Speaker 1: maybe it was pure bad luck. I'll just say this.
Speaker 1: The ship carrying the Coheynore was named the media the
Speaker 1: woman of Greek myth who murders her own children in
Speaker 1: fury and revenge. If you're superstitious, you might wonder what
Speaker 1: the khey Nore, at this point chained in irons had
Speaker 1: in its carbon heart. Ten months later, Queen Victoria and
Speaker 1: her husband Prince Albert, Welcome to the World to London
Speaker 1: for the World's Fair. They displayed the Coe norths of
Speaker 1: the British public for the first time, and the British
Speaker 1: public was not impressed. Quote too ordinary eyes, said one reviewer.
Speaker 1: It is nothing more than an egg shaped lump of
Speaker 1: glass end quote. Satire magazine Punch called it the Mountain
Speaker 1: of Darkness and claimed a Frenchman said that it shone
Speaker 1: with quote about as much light as the sun in
Speaker 1: England end quote. Queen Victoria herself, upon first seeing the gem,
Speaker 1: had dismissed it, remarking that it was so badly cut
Speaker 1: that it was spoiled all this blood and conquest for that.
Speaker 1: You might start to think, in the words of Ted
Speaker 1: Danson's character on The Good Place, diamonds are literally carbon
Speaker 1: molecules lined up in the most boring way. But of
Speaker 1: course the koy Nore was never so much a diamond
Speaker 1: as it was a symbol, a symbol of conquest of
Speaker 1: the Lion of Punjab, reconquering his land from the Afghan
Speaker 1: Empire of British imperialism, forcing India to submit a symbol,
Speaker 1: albeit a symbol that, once gotten, the British public didn't
Speaker 1: even really seem to like. Prince Albert was especially invested
Speaker 1: in rehabbing the disappointing koy Nore, but no matter how
Speaker 1: he displayed it, how he angled the curtains and pillows
Speaker 1: and gas lights, the magnificent Mountain of Light just wouldn't
Speaker 1: shine for England, so he decided to re cut it.
Speaker 1: In early modern India, the prevailing trend was to cut
Speaker 1: diamonds in order to best preserve their size, but in
Speaker 1: England the style was to sacrifice size for sparkliness, and
Speaker 1: in July of eighteen fifty two, gem cutters embarked on
Speaker 1: thirty eight days of work that would surgically anglicize the Coeynure.
Speaker 1: In the end, what remained of the Mountain of Light
Speaker 1: was sixty percent of its original size, true to cursed form.
Speaker 1: The man who made the first cut died of a
Speaker 1: stroke within weeks, but those losses didn't seem to matter
Speaker 1: to the British. They took the remains of their diamond,
Speaker 1: held it to the light, and saw it finally obediently shine.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty five, Queen Victoria debuted the new Coheynure
Speaker 1: in a crown of gold and silver flowers with hundreds
Speaker 1: of pearls and thousands of smaller diamonds. When her husband
Speaker 1: Prince Albert, she dressed in all black for the rest
Speaker 1: of her life, as covered on this podcast, but in
Speaker 1: her very first appearance after his death, she also wore
Speaker 1: the Koeen nore. Her look in all black was coincidentally
Speaker 1: an exact inverse of Rajit Singh, who had worn the
Speaker 1: diamond over robes of white. Queen Victoria outlived do Leep Singh.
Speaker 1: Under the influence of the British, he converted to Christianity
Speaker 1: as a teenager. He cut his hair against the sick tradition,
Speaker 1: grieving at the Punjabi people he had left behind. In
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one, after a separation of fourteen years, he
Speaker 1: did finally see his mother again. Jindal, nearly blind, brought
Speaker 1: her fingers to her son's face. She felt the hard
Speaker 1: angles of jaw that had replaced the soft cheeks she'd
Speaker 1: known of her precious little boy. Un or his mother's influence,
Speaker 1: Duleep converted back to Seekism. He fell out of favor
Speaker 1: with Queen Victoria and died in poverty in Paris in
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety three. His children remained in England. We covered
Speaker 1: the suffragette Sophia Duleep Singh on this podcast. Queen Victoria
Speaker 1: died in nineteen o one, and a new line of
Speaker 1: inheritance for the coyn Or began. No longer did it
Speaker 1: pass on thrones and arm bands of men. Now the
Speaker 1: diamond moved from British Queen to queen, the bauble in
Speaker 1: a crown. A new myth took hold, wishful thinking perhaps
Speaker 1: that the diamond brought bad luck only to its male wearers.
Speaker 1: Maybe a matrilineal inheritance could avoid the so called curse.
Speaker 1: So the coy Noor passed from Victoria to the wife
Speaker 1: of King Edward the seventh, Queen Alexandria. In nineteen ten,
Speaker 1: it passed to King George the Fifth's wife Mary. It
Speaker 1: skipped Wallace Simpson and went to George the Sixth's wife,
Speaker 1: who we know as Elizabeth the Queen Mother. That was
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty six. In nineteen forty seven, India gained
Speaker 1: its independence and the Bloody Partition split the territory into
Speaker 1: India and Pakistan. The Punjab was divided between the two.
Speaker 1: The British Queen was no longer Empress of India. One
Speaker 1: year later, the Daber's Diamond Corporation coins the slogan diamonds
Speaker 1: are forever to this day. Harvard Business School uses the
Speaker 1: slogan to discuss marketing that artificially preserved the whole diamond industry.
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty two, the Queen Mother wore the kynore
Speaker 1: at her daughter Elizabeth the Second's coronation. As recently as
Speaker 1: two thousand two, it rested on a purple pillow on
Speaker 1: the Queen Mother's coffin. Throughout Queen Elizabeth's seventy year reign,
Speaker 1: the coy Nore was hers to wear if she pleased.
Speaker 1: She never wore it, wisely, perhaps, whether she was fear
Speaker 1: of international criticism or a curse. The large crown you
Speaker 1: may have seen her in replete with diamond crosses. Purple
Speaker 1: cap and ermine band looks similar, but it's a ruby
Speaker 1: at the center and a different diamond at the base,
Speaker 1: not the coy Nore. The coy Noor sits in the
Speaker 1: Jewel Room in the Tower of London. On the day
Speaker 1: of Queen Elizabeth's grand funeral, the coyn Noor passed to
Speaker 1: Queen Consort Camilla. Will she dare wear it to the
Speaker 1: coronation in May of Calls for its return have grown
Speaker 1: stronger amid the prospect, and since Rishi Sunac became Prime
Speaker 1: Minister of the UK in October of two thousand twenty two.
Speaker 1: The question of repatriating objects taken by imperialist conquest is
Speaker 1: a long and complicated one which we don't have time
Speaker 1: to cover fully or fairly in this podcast episode. The
Speaker 1: basic question is to whom do cultural artifacts belong to?
Speaker 1: A person, a family, a dynasty, a religious group, a nation,
Speaker 1: a government, a geography. Doo Leep Singh is no longer alive,
Speaker 1: and he has no known legitimate heirs. Even if he did,
Speaker 1: was the diamond truly his or did it belong to
Speaker 1: something bigger and more nebulous to his empire or its subjects.
Speaker 1: The British have given no indication that they will of
Speaker 1: the diamond back, but if they did, to whom The
Speaker 1: Sikh Empire no longer exists. The Punjab region from which
Speaker 1: the diamond was taken is now divided between two countries,
Speaker 1: Pakistan India and Afghanistan Iran, and smaller states and communities
Speaker 1: within them have all made competing claims. There is no
Speaker 1: doubt that the British were brutal imperialists who took the
Speaker 1: kohe Nore from doo Leep Singh, and there is no
Speaker 1: doubt that a long pre colonial history of brutality got
Speaker 1: the diamond into his hand in the first place. Still,
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel right for the diamond to remain in
Speaker 1: captivity in England, a ready made symbol of imperial conquest.
Speaker 1: I'm honestly left frustrated by the lack of an easy solution.
Speaker 1: Could the kohey Nora live in peace in a museum
Speaker 1: between the Indian and Pakistani Punjab? Could it be divided
Speaker 1: like Solomon's Baby? There's a certain poetry to that idea.
Speaker 1: The peacock throne was meant to invoke King Solomon's from
Speaker 1: the Koran, after all, but doing so would destroy the diamond. Frustratingly,
Speaker 1: idealism doesn't align with reality. Here's what I know. The
Speaker 1: koyn Noor has been in British hands for nearly two centuries,
Speaker 1: but it has a history of not staying in one
Speaker 1: place forever. That's the story of the bloody history of
Speaker 1: the koyn Noor Diamond. But stick around after a brief
Speaker 1: sponsor break to hear about Duleep Singh's only reunion with
Speaker 1: the Stone. Queen Victoria adored the young dew Leipsing. She
Speaker 1: found him charming beautiful. He converted to Christianity, which pleased her,
Speaker 1: and she had brought him to England in eighteen fifty four.
Speaker 1: She commissioned a portrait of him by Franz winter Halter,
Speaker 1: which showed him turbind with a mini portrait of Victoria
Speaker 1: around his neck. Victoria watched the teenaged Dewleip posing for
Speaker 1: a portrait, and something must have come over her, some
Speaker 1: twisted love or uncomfortable guilt, or simply esthetic inclination. She
Speaker 1: told him she had something to show him, and then
Speaker 1: Queen Victoria handed duleipsing his father's diamond. He held the
Speaker 1: coey nore again, this degraded thing, now half its original
Speaker 1: size and weight, so chiseled compared to the heavy stone
Speaker 1: he had worn as a chubby child in his mother's lap.
Speaker 1: His heart must have been aching. Who knows what he
Speaker 1: thought at that moment of his imprisoned mother, his departed father,
Speaker 1: his old empire, his old God, maybe of Christ, his
Speaker 1: loyalty to a new God, maybe his gratitude to a
Speaker 1: new sovereign. Maybe rage and humiliation of revenge. It is
Speaker 1: novelsque theatrical, this young boy holding his inheritance in his
Speaker 1: hand by the window sill. But it's also true. After
Speaker 1: some time he gave the diamond back to the British Queen.
Speaker 1: Queen Victoria had never worned the coin, no er before then.
Speaker 1: Maybe she felt guilty after he gave it back to her,
Speaker 1: though maybe it was like she had been given permission.
Speaker 1: She started wearing it. But I can't help but wonder
Speaker 1: what else could de Leipsing have done? Thrown it out
Speaker 1: the window, smashed it, swallowed it. Diamonds are not, in
Speaker 1: fact indestructible. Acetone, chlorine bleach, extreme high temperatures all can
Speaker 1: damage them, but a boy's hand cannot. So de leip
Speaker 1: Sing gave the Kynore to England for a second time,
Speaker 1: this time not to faceless Britain in a treaty, but
Speaker 1: to the Queen herself in an intimate handoff. We cannot
Speaker 1: and will never know what it must have felt like
Speaker 1: and how much it might have hurt. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danishwartz.
Speaker 1: Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick,
Speaker 1: Miura Hayward, Courtney Sunder and Laurie Goodman. The show is
Speaker 1: produced by rema Il Kayali, with supervising producer Josh Thaine
Speaker 1: and executive producers Aaron Mankey Alex Williams and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.