At 105 carat, the Koh-i-Noor is nowhere near being the largest diamond in the world. Nor, by many accounts since it was first displayed in 1851, is it the prettiest. But it is arguably the world’s most controversial. It is part of the Crown Jewels and is on display at the Tower of London. The Queen Mother wore it in her crown at her coronation in 1937. Traditionally, it is part of the Queen consort’s crown.
Days after the death of Elizabeth II, social media was incandescent with pleas that the diamond be returned to India. Most recently, a spokesperson for the Indian prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata Party said that if the new consort, Camilla, were to wear the Koh-i-Noor at her coronation on 6 May next year, it would “bring back painful memories of the colonial past… Recent occasions, like Queen Elizabeth II’s death, the coronation of the new Queen Camilla and the use of the Koh-i-Noor does transport a few Indians back to the days of the British Empire in India.”
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