Kohinoor was surrendered to the British, says ASI

The Kohinoor diamond was “surrendered” by the Maharaja of Lahore to the Queen of England and not gifted as was believed earlier, revealed the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) in response to a Right to Information (RTI) enquiry by activist Rohit Sabharwal.

In April 2016, the government had told the supreme court that the Kohinoor diamond was neither "forcibly taken nor stolen" by the British and that it was gifted to the East India Company by the successors of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who ruled Punjab at the time.

The Kohinoor diamond was given by Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s kin to the British as "voluntary compensation" to meet the expenses of the Anglo-Sikh War, the government had said at the time.

However, responding to Sabharwal’s query, the ASI said: "As per the records, the Lahore Treaty held between Lord Dalhousie and Maharaja Duleep Singh in 1849, the Kohinoor diamond was surrendered by the Maharaja of Lahore to the Queen of England."

Sabharwal had filed an RTI query seeking information showing the grounds on which the Kohinoor was transferred to the UK. "I had no clue who to approach with my RTI application, so I forward it to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). It was the PMO that sent it to ASI. The RTI Act allows a public authority to transfer an application to another authority which has the information sought," said Sabharwal, according to the Times of India.

In its reply, the ASI gives an extract of the treaty that reads, "The gem called Kohinoor which was taken from the Shah-Suja-Ul-Mulk by Maharaja Ranjeet Singh shall be surrendered by the Maharaja of Lahore to the Queen of England.

The treaty indicates that "the Kohinoor was not handed over to the British on the wishes of Duleep Singh. Moreover, Duleep Singh was a minor at the time of the treaty."