Original subtitles

ever been in a museum or gallery,

Surrounded by treasures, and thought to yourself,

"this is nice."

But what is the story of how it got here?

That's a good question. That's also a hard question.

It's a bit of a mystery.

Ooh, it's...

That is a bit of a debate. Um...

In the days of the british empire, objects were taken.

Objects that tell us about who we are,

And how we ended up with the world we have today.

These artworks, jewels, sacred artefacts,

Usually ended up in impressive galleries

With polite little plaques.

But the truth of how they got there

Is rarely so polite.

why is this artefact here and not in china?

Like, explain.

today, it would absolutely be considered a crime.

official records call it a gift.

That's just an absolute load of horse shit.

My name is marc fennell,

And I want to take you around the globe.

Oh, wow!

And back through time.

Because this history has shaped billions of lives.

history is messy.

There is no such thing as a kind of,

Simple and straightforward, clean narrative.

there's always two parts to every story,

And we only ever hear the victors' part, you know?

This is the story of you and me...

And everyone around the world

Living in the wake of the british empire.

And it begins with something in the tower of london.

In the british crown jewels, there's a diamond.

It's been fought over, it's been sued over.

Some even say it's cursed.

But the real question is this.

Was it stolen?

in the tiny town of elveden,

Just two hours outside of london,

Is something that feels

Like it shouldn't be here.

It's the grave of an indian prince.

The maharajah duleep singh.

I'm here because he once owned

That diamond in the tower of london.

This is the mystery of a disappearing kingdom,

-A queen...

...And a boy who suffered an incredible loss.

But the best clues as to who that boy really was

Lie behind the doors of a very unassuming london house.

-Hi. -Hello, marc, how are you?

This is an incredible collection.

This is...

-This is amazing. -Oh, thank you.

How long have you been amassing all of this?

Oh, over 20 years now.

Twenty years.

It's incredible.

this is the home of peter bance.

A historian and collector,

He's made it his mission to piece together

The story of that diamond

And maharajah duleep singh.

maharajah duleep singh was

The last maharajah of the punjab,

Destined to be the ruler

Of one of the greatest empires

In the indian subcontinent.

the sikh, or punjab empire,

A vast kingdom that's roughly the same size as britain,

Land that's now partially in india,

Partially in pakistan,

Led by this man, duleep singh.

- oh my word.

For all intents and purposes, peter's house

Is a shrine to a long-lost ruler.

But why collect all of this?

I'm born in london, so I'm third-generation.

My grandfather came to london in 1936,

Before the independence of india.

The history of duleep singh interested me because

It was the history of punjab, and at that time of my life,

I'd never been to india.

The interest in history making me want to go back

And find out more, so I do that

Searching into my roots.

That's why I do this.

I'm half indian,

Half irish from australia,

And I know nothing about family history,

And I'm, I'm almost kind of envious,

When I meet people like you, who actually have

Taken the time and the years to acquire this stuff.

-'cause it says something. -Yeah.

It says that you are looking for something.

And what he's found is a mixture of surreal

And, at least for me, occasionally quite familiar.

Although it's empty, you can still smell...

Oh, wow. It smells like my auntie's place growing up.

that's incredible. Wow.

These are fragments of a story

All leading up to this,

One of the world's largest cut diamonds.

It's called the koh-I-noor, the "mountain of light."

It was a token of wealth.

So, whoever possessed the koh-I-noor

Had that power, had that wealth.

It was a status symbol.

A symbol worn by duleep's father,

This feared sikh leader, ranjit singh,

Who dies

Leaving behind a brutal and divided royal court.

And it's into that arena

That a 5-year-old boy, duleep, ascends to the throne.

But, there is a bigger threat surrounding the punjab.

An army of thousands,

Belonging to one of the most powerful corporations

The world has ever known.

A trading and military force

Called the british east india company.

The majority of india, by that time,

Was under the control of the british east india company,

And the punjab was that last piece,

Which was not in their possession,

And it was one of the last independent kingdoms.

And they knew during the lifetime of duleep's father,

That they could not touch it,

Because he was just too powerful.

And they must have seen duleep singh, and went,

-"now's the time." -yeah.

and so begins horrific wars

Between the sikhs and the british.

That, combined with internal strife,

Culminates for the child leader in the spring of 1849.

The victorious british

Usher the young maharajah into lahore fort

To sign a treaty.

How old is he when all that happens?

He was around 11 years old.

I don't think he would've known much.

You know, he would've just been told

What to do, and he would've just done it.

The reality would not have kicked in

Until much later,

And it did kick in much later in life

When he realised what he had lost.

What about the diamond?

What happens with the diamond after that moment?

There's several objects within this treaty

Which are to be handed over to the crown,

Which includes the koh-I-noor diamond.

and so the british east india company

Quietly sneaked the diamond onto a boat

Steaming to britain.

But how does it end up in the crown jewels,

And why isn't there a plaque next to it saying,

"hey we took this from a child."

It turns out, I'm not the only one

Asking these questions.

when we go and see the koh-I-noor diamond,

It's being shown as this treasure,

This jewel, this part of the crown jewels.

Like, you don't actually get any of the history

Of how it came here,

The way that it's been sort of used,

And translated and transformed over time.

You really only have

Its kind of current position and its current power.

and that is where

A person like alice procter steps in.

Alice is an art historian

Who specialises in

Let's call them "contested artefacts,"

The sort taken from britain's many colonies.

diamonds are something that are fairly portable,

And so if you are a powerful military officer,

Kind of powerful colonial figure,

And you want to come back to britain,

You can't necessarily show people

The fort that you built.

You can't show people the amount of land

That you annexed or colonised or whatever.

And so you have to find some way of, like,

Showing that wealth and showing that power.

And diamonds and other precious stones

Are a really, really good way of doing that.

but this is no ordinary diamond.

The mountain of light was sent here

For a very special recipient.

The queen herself, victoria.

But what nobody expected

Was how this particular diamond

Would help change this city forever.

-Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you too.

rav singh is a sikh history researcher

Who reckons the best way

To understand the story of the diamond

Is on foot, walking the streets of london.

Because this city has actually been reshaped

By the existence of this diamond.

See after it arrived here in london,

They actually put it on show,

As part of a huge event

Called "the great exhibition."

so the great exhibition of 1851

Was to showcase the great victorian age.

One hundred thousand items

From across the empire and across the world,

10 miles of galleries in hyde park

In a constructed glass palace.

And at the centre,

The centrepiece of this great exhibition,

Is the koh-I-noor diamond.

there's all of this hype

About how it's going to be the jewel in the crown.

so the queues were forming,

You know, to see the koh-I-noor.

And it's in, like, this birdcage.

And it has velvet underneath it.

Now, the europeans had heard about this diamond

Being the "mountain of light."

And then what would happen is, you'd get to the front

And you'd expect it to sparkle.

Diamonds sparkle, right? That's what they do.

You go up to it and you see it,

And it doesn't sparkle.

this was not good.

When we think of diamonds, we're usually thinking about

These kind of big, shiny, multifaceted stones,

And the european cuts

Are all about getting as much light

Reflecting off them as possible.

It's a large, egg-shaped oval diamond

With few facets.

To make it sparkle, you need facets to refract light.

So fair to say,

It didn't impress a european audience.

and so it was decided that this indian diamond

Would be sliced to a fraction of its original size.

New facets added to truly reflect

The glory of the british empire,

And it becomes this.

A brooch, worn by queen victoria herself.

Now, the diamond may have shrunk,

But the exhibition itself, that made tons of money.

It was very, very successful.

It made a profit of £186,000,

Which must be the equivalent of millions today.

And all of that money, all of that revenue that was raised,

Was used to create museums that we see today.

everywhere in this city,

You can see the profits of the exhibition

And its star attraction.

the natural history museum,

The science museum,

The victoria and albert museum,

The imperial college

Of science, technology and medicine,

And later, the royal albert hall...

The royal college of music.

The legacy of that exhibition

Was this huge cultural quarter.

So, the most important sort of cultural locations in this city

Were built with proceeds...

from...

A diamond taken from a kid.

so that's the diamond.

But what happened to that boy

Who surrendered it back in the punjab?

so, duleep singh is taken away from the punjab.

And then, in 1854, he travels to london,

And he's given an instant audience

With queen victoria,

Who takes an instant liking to him.

She allows him to mingle with the royal family.

He even holidays with the family.

somehow duleep singh ends up being

This beloved sort of pseudo-adopted son

Of queen victoria.

well, he's a very handsome-looking young man,

Very exotic.

And he becomes that, that party piece

That she can have at her formal and her royal functions,

And show him off as one of the princes of her colonies.

And again, there's some really uneven

And nasty power dynamics there,

That she has this kind of control over him.

and that relationship gets even more complicated

With the diamond.

There is this incredible scene

When duleep singh is 16 years old.

He's in the court of victoria.

He's having his portrait painted.

And then the queen ushers him over.

She has this box.

She opens up the box

And there is the diamond.

This is the first time that he's seen it

Since he signed it away as a child.

And so duleep singh, he takes the diamond

And he holds it up to the window.

People don't know what he's going to do.

They think he might throw it out the window

In a fit of rage.

All these emotions pass through his face.

And instead, what he does is,

He takes the diamond

And he places it in victoria's hand.

A diamond he doesn't own

Into the palm of a woman his entire future depends on.

And he gives it to her as a gift.

And that was the last time that duleep singh

Or any of his descendants would ever hold the diamond.

with all of these power dynamics at play,

Can you really call the koh-I-noor a gift?

It's a gift in the sense that it is freely given.

It's not stolen.

It is handed over from one owner to another.

But that's done under

These incredibly coercive circumstances, right?

He is still a kid.

He is not, like, able to make

These kind of important decisions for himself.

So, yes, it's a gift,

But it's a gift from a child.

You can't forget that.

Like, you can't get away from the fact that

He's a kid when all of this is happening.

so when you lay all of it out,

Who really should own the diamond?

I think it should stay where it is

Mainly because that's where most people can see it.

I think it's in the right place for it.

not every indian

Sees the plight of the diamond the same way,

Especially this guy.

This is indian-born author and historian

Zareer masani.

And as far as he's concerned,

The diamond is exactly where it should be.

I think it belongs to the world, really.

It's changed hands so many times,

It doesn't belong to any one country

And none of these countries are directly descended

From anyone who mined the diamond

Or directly owned it.

the thing is, zareer kind of has a point.

The history of the diamond before britain,

Before duleep singh, is,

Well, it's messy.

What do you reckon most people get wrong

About the koh-I-noor diamond?

That it was somehow stolen

By the british

From this sikh child

Without understanding

That it's been stolen many times

Over the last two or three centuries.

historians mostly agree

That the diamond was originally mined in india.

But then it was looted, it was stolen,

It was traded by rulers right across the subcontinent.

It's sort of totally anachronistic

To try and apply notions of theft

To something like the koh-I-noor diamond

Which has been a trophy of war for hundreds of years.

nations around the world,

India and pakistan in particular,

Have asked for the diamond back.

What do you make of their claims?

I mean, I think they've got as much claim

As anyone else does, right?

The history of an object like this one

Where it's changed hands so many times

And it's moved so much

Means that we're always looking for

The kind of most recent or most legitimate claim,

And that's a really messy and impossible thing.

What do you think should happen with the diamond?

Oh, it's...

It's quite a controversial subject

Because, yes, it should go back, but to who?

That's the argument we have.

- who indeed?

Welcome to toronto, canada.

my family's desire?

That koh-I-noor, it belongs to the sikhs.

It belongs to maharajah duleep singh.

And we want, or I demand,

That the koh-I-noor be returned to the sikhs.

damandeep singh sandhanwalia

Is one of dozens of relatives of duleep singh

Sprinkled throughout the global sikh diaspora.

do you regard the koh-I-noor as stolen?

Indeed, actually.

So, koh-I-noor was robbed from a boy child,

And he was cut off from his relatives.

He was cut off from his people.

yes, that is the other part of duleep singh's story.

In 1847,

The british removed duleep singh's mother,

Maharani jind kaur.

-they imprisoned her.

Duleep singh was only nine years old

When his mum was taken from him.

Did duleep singh ever ask for the koh-I-noor back?

Yes, indeed.

In the later years,

Maharajah duleep singh wrote to queen victoria.

He says you have forcibly taken away my kingdom,

My empire, and I also ask that the koh-I-noor,

Which is in your personal possession,

I ask that you give it back to me,

Which was stolen from me.

And he says that,

I know you have loved me

But this is something that I own,

And I want it back.

What did she do?

She didn't reply, of course.

in time, the relationship

Between the exiled maharajah and the british

Begins to sour.

He ends up declaring

His intention to return to the punjab,

But duleep singh never makes it.

Concerned he'll attempt to reclaim his throne,

The british stop him and he ends up back in europe.

He dies in 1893 in paris.

He has an epileptic fit.

He's found...

Days later.

And sadly, a man who was destined

To be the ruler

Of one of the greatest kingdoms in the indian subcontinent

Dies all alone, penniless,

As a pauper in a shabby hotel room in paris.

after the death of duleep singh,

His body was brought back to England and buried here,

The last maharajah of the punjab kingdom.

how do you feel about duleep singh?

well, the way I look at the maharajah is that

He was a puppet throughout his life.

So, his destiny was never in his hands.

I can sum his life up in one word, which is "tragic,"

Because I really do feel sorry for him.

Historians say it was tragic.

I would say it was revolutionary.

He was not left with anything.

He was-- his entire wealth was gone.

But he died an honest man.

He died like a revolutionary. A fighter.

I see through maharajah duleep singh's writings

His spirit, his, his courageousness,

His, his fight for the freedom of punjab.

I see that.

in time, the diamond was placed in this crown.

It was last worn by the late queen mother,

And it's now on show in the tower of london.

millions of people

Go past that diamond every year.

What's the story you think they should know about it?

I mean, I think they should at least understand

That it has this kind of violent, complex history.

Do you think this country is prepared to have

That conversation about its impact

As an empire around the world?

No.

It's nowhere near,

Nowhere near that point yet.

I think we're a long way away from a kind of full

And free acknowledgement.

for me, it's very emotive for every punjabi,

Every sikh.

You know, it reflected an empire.

Most people don't even know that we had an empire.

You know, most people think india is just one country,

And don't realise it was actually

Lots of different empires,

Lots of different cultures.

And it was really the british that made it into one entity

Because it was good for business.

Koh-I-noor, for us in punjab,

Is reflective of our history, you know,

And it tells a story when we were

At a height of our kingdom.

you'd be amazed how uncoordinated I am.

Peter has invited me

To his gurdwara, temple,

For sikh new year

To show me an answer

To a question I asked earlier.

Why invest so much time and energy

In collecting and telling

The story of the last sikh emperor?

thank you.

This is why he does it. This community.

it's very important that the next generation,

Not only punjabis and sikhs,

But also the next generation in britain,

Know about the joint history, because it is a joint

Anglo-indian history.

So knowing where you come from, your roots, and the mistakes,

And whatever you've made in the past,

That's the only way you can rectify them

And work towards a more positive future.

Duleep singh may have had a sikh empire

Taken from him as a child.

But in death, sikhs around the world have reclaimed him.

And as for the future

Of the koh-I-noor diamond itself?

If it's never given back, will it be a failure?

never.

We sikhs never see defeat

As a defeat.

We see it that

We may have lost,

But we are not defeated.

So even if the koh-I-noor is never returned,

We will always ask for it.

Even if the coming generations

Continue to lose the fight for koh-I-noor,

We will still not be defeated.

Because in our spirits,

In our mind, in our heart,

We are always fighting for our cause.