Giving the Kohinoor Back

Maitreyi Arwari

TYBA, 2022-2023

As a member nation of the Commonwealth, India does not have the ability to abandon an official mourning for the Queen as an act of reclaiming their exploited past by the crown. The Kohinoor on the crown has spark(l)ed immense controversy in the Indian dialogue. It is a symbol of India’s colonial past utterly dictated at the behest of a small island nation far across. The scars of colonization still show prominently in the post colonial era: be it the tangible setback of $45 trillion over 173 years or intangible forms of lost autonomy by living in a post-colonial hangover. Returning the Kohinoor is the least reparative measure Britain can take among the many other pending apologies it owes to India and other ex-colonies.