The exciting news this week that the Indian government has partnered with France to create a world-class museum heartened me, because such a museum is long overdue. India’s got plenty of museums and majestic outdoor monuments that function as museums, but nothing on par with the Louvre, the British Museum or the Smithsonian.
My first thought on reading the news in New India Abroad about plans for the Yuga Yugeen Bharat, meaning essentially National Museum of India, is that they’re laying the groundwork for the Kohinoor Diamond to finally return to the region.
One of the UK’s oft-repeated reasons for refusing to return the gem that the British Empire looted from India is that there’s no museum in India secure enough to display it while protecting it from being stolen. I’ve heard this same sentiment expressed by diasporic Indians in the US. While this might be arguably true or just a common misconception, this argument will evaporate with the launch of the Yuga Yugeen Bharat, which is still several years off.
The Kohinoor aside, India has many other historic art and cultural treasures that deserve a first-rate museum, so I’m happy to hear it. I do believe there’s a quiet agenda here, though, to clear a path for cornering the UK into finally returning it.
Given the fighting in India that went on between the British and French Empires in the 18th century, which in many ways mirrored their simultaneous conflicts and proxy wars in North America, I can’t help seeing the fact that France has stepped up to work with India as an old score being settled, the ghost of the French Empire firing a final shot across the bow of the British Empire before the sun sets on both empires forever.
Time will tell regarding the Kohinoor but if I’m right, you heard it here first.