Empire: World History - 10. Killing for the Koh-i-Noor

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

Divide and rule, a man described as Brian Blessed but ‘with a bigger, bushier, blacker beard’, and a whole lot of regicide. Join Anita and William as they continue to take us through the rip-roaring history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond. LRB Empire offer: lrb.me/empire Twitter: @EmpirePodUk goalhangerpodcasts.com Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Jack Davenport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community. Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mpirpoduk.com. Welcome back to Empire with me, Anita Arnden. And me, William Durimple. Just say, it has not gone unnoticed how well you do that now. I mean, it's the worst. I sit here.

with my family practicing it morning after morning. No, I'm proud of you. I am very proud of you. We're back on the path of gore, aren't we again this week? This is another special week of Coenor, where we throw two episodes dripping in blood at you. And this episode, episode three, contains your favourite bit of eater,

the roulette wheel of death, as you used to call it, on our lecture tour. I tell you what, there is an awful lot of killing, shooting and a stabbing and a poisoning. that goes on in this particular bit. Bludgeoning. There's also a share of bludgeoning.

I mean, basically, you name it. If Angela Lansbury were here, murder she wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote, because there's a lot. It's what I'd say. So, just for those of you who weren't up to speed, this is the third episode of our four-part series on the Coenall Diamond.

In the first two episodes of this series, we took you through the history of this time, which in many ways is a symbol of the complexity of empire and empires. many different peoples, many different kingdoms regard this diamond as their own. Many have fought for it and many still want it back, particularly most obviously India and Pakistan, but also Iran, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. And even the Taliban have put in a claim for this diamond.

I think it's safe to say they're the least likely to get it back. I think any of it's going to happen very soon. But I think it's a very good place to start a podcast on empire, because it's not only a diamond which overlaps with so many different empires, but it's also one which symbolises, in a sense, the heart of the imperial debate today, which is what is the consequence of centuries of colonialism, particularly European colonialism? And should we be looking at some sort of reparations in Britain, should we be educating ourselves more about the consequences? of centuries of loot and asset stripping from other parts of the world, how does one deal with the legacy of empire? All this is bound up in one tiny little stone. Yeah.

And although, you know, both William and I, in many respects, are artefacts of empire. I mean, artefacts are rubble from empire. No one's put us on a nice purple cushion. Not yet. But we're talking about more than just the British Empire and the British relationship with India. So we will throughout this podcast series

to be looking at empires from across the globe. But as William said, you know, just think of the Coenor in this respect as the most dripping with gore baton in a relay race. It's a very nice image, Janita. It's a very gorgeous thing for our listeners to wake up and think about it. But, you know, and it gives us an excuse to do a romp through centuries. So where did we leave off at the last episode? We left off with the death of Ranjit Singh.

Now, Ranjit Singh had taken the diamond from the Afghans, from Sharsudra Mulk when he was in his captivity. according to Shoshuja, he tortured his son in front of him. But this is by no means the end of the relay race of Gore, as my co-presenter so elegantly, puts it. In fact, it's the beginning of what is probably the fastest moment of terrible events in the whole history of the diamond, which is the bit that you are, I think, going to open with Anita.

I am, I am. I mean, really fasten your seat belts and have a sick bag. So, Ranjutsing closes. apologies for me to watching this at breakfast or listening to this of record. So Ranjit Singh has just closed his eyes. He is the one man who's managed to be a custodian of this diamond without meeting some tragic, horrific and deforming death. But when he closes his eyes,

everybody knows that there's going to be a scramble for power, but nobody knows where the Cohen or diamond has gone. And because this is a gem of state, That is of great interest to a great many people. The mystery can be solved through one actually quite minor court official in the court of Lahore. And it is that man, Belli Rahm. If you were listening to the last podcast, you'll know this was the man who is the head to looked after the Toshahana, the treasure house of Ranjit Singh. It was his responsibility whenever Ranjit Singh went riding around his empire on his elephant to make sure that nobody nicked the Kohenor diamond.

He slept with it. he would have slipped the throat of anyone who came near it. But Belly Rahm is the man who, as soon as Ranjit Singh breathes his last, takes the diamond and hides it. And he hides it for a very good reason, doesn't it? Because there is a very controversial episode, William, on his deathbed, on Ranjit Singh's deathbed, which until today is contested. It's an interesting episode because what Ranjit Singh wants to do is to leave the diamond

to a famous temple in Arissa, the juggernaut temple. So the priests say. I mean, you're tired, because this is something that others say, he couldn't even talk. He'd had a catastrophic stroke. I have half a memory reading the court. We wrote this book a few years ago, but I remember reading the court diary, and I think it's in there for better or worse. And he says, I'm going to give it to Lord Juggernaut.

He doesn't name the temple itself, but what's interesting also is that theology this is quite complicated for Sikhs, because modern Sikhism abjures all. idolatry and Hindu gods. But if you go to 18th and 19th century Sikh Godwara, there's plenty of images of Hindu gods. And we know for a fact that Ranjit Singh, when he died, died looking at an image, I think, of Rahman Sita. Yeah. So, but this is something that's contested by the Sikhs who say, actually it's impossible. Even if it's inserted into the court records, it's insorted by nefarious ways. Because number one, he was a seat. Why would he be giving the most precious diamond of the kingdom to a seat term?

to a Hindu temple. And number two, he couldn't talk. He couldn't speak on his deathbed. So anyway, even on his deathbed, there is a controversy about this. The case for it being true for one second, because it's controversial and very interesting matter of this. And I think the first people who actually put in the claim in 1947 for the return of the diamond from Britain was not the Indian government, but the Jagannut Temple. In Orissa, that's right. And when I gave this talk once in Arisa, all the Orisans were very clear.

It was there specifically. diamond that it wasn't belonging to India, it was belonging to ERISA and this temple. It is interesting because I remember you saying earlier that Sikhism is almost like a form of Protestantism. That's certainly the modern understanding of Sikhs and Godwara is very bare and there are no images, particularly in diaspora, goodwires in this country, in Britain. But what is interesting is that in the 18th and 19th century you go around a lot of old Sikh goodwires that are images of Hindu gods, not necessarily in the main prayer,

but in the buildings around by and in the gatehouses in the residential quarters and so on. And what has happened in the 20th century is that reforming Sikhs have often whitewashed these. And this happened at the Golden Temple. And there are images, for example, of the gateway into the Golden Temple, which have many of these images in the early 20th century, now completely bare. And there's been a very important destruction of Sikh art across Pakistan lately by diaspora. seeking to do the best thing and raising money to renovate old Godwara's that had not been touched since partition.

And they've whitewashed many of the frescoes there in the last two, three years. And so the fact that he gave to the Jagat Temple is a doubly complicated thing. And I'm going to argue against, you know, the position that is argued by the Sikhs, certainly, who say with as much gusto as those in ERISA, it's our stone, give it back to us. Don't give it back to India, give it back to the Sikhs, is that. that actually, Ranjik Singh was a very unusual Sikh leader because he married wives from different religions. So he had Hindu wives, he had Muslim wives.

And he was the first person who ruled that part of the kingdom, the north of India. But the thing is that he is a man who is a polymath. He's also accepting of different religions and different faiths in a way that none of his predecessors for hundreds of years have been. So William talked about the jizziah tax, which had been imposed. by the Mughals, which was if you were not a Muslim and you wanted to practice your own, by some of the Mughals, you wanted to practice your own religion, you would have to pay a tax.

Whereas when Rangit Singh comes to the throne, he says, no, Jazeer, that's it. You worship the way you want, you do what you like. So it's possible that he wanted to give it to Jagannab. Anyway, the point is, who cares? Because where's the diamond? It's not here. So let's get back to Ballyram. Then Belyram, despite the potential of dying,

of his master for whom he would have spilt blood and died has decided no. Even if Ranjit Singh has given this stone over, it wasn't his to give. So this minor, imagine the guts on this man. This minor court official has taken his duty of state so seriously he is the son of the man who looked after the toshakana. His children are working in the toshakana. This is the family business. But he says no, and he doesn't take it for himself.

He hides it away because he's. He says the man who takes over, as the Maharaja, this is his gem, and I will hide it until then. You know, this is extraordinary. The next man, by the way, who is entitled to wear it. Before we finish, Beli, Mr. Ram, rather than I was giving a lecture on this one afternoon when his entire family turned up at the reading. You never told me. I'm a very proud of it. And they've got documents and all sorts of stuff.

If ever we want to do any more. Well, you've been very much. Camille was just telling me this now. Anything else you want to mention? Good God. So what did they? I mean, did they know how brave? And they were very proud of his bravery.

And because I'd mentioned him in the talk. They came up afterwards and said, actually, and they were refugees from partitioned. They'd come over the border in 1947 and now living in Gogh. So they'd been living in Lahore all that time. Living in Newhall, right up until 47. Isn't that amazing? So it's hidden.

No diamond. No diamond. No king. That's what Belli Rahman's decided. But the next. ex-man who is entitled to wear that diamond in the view of most of the people in the court of Lahore is not fit to wear it. His name is Karik Singh, who's the oldest son, from the first wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. And this man is, well, you know how we've sort of described

Rangela, who I liked, who is the party, Party Central? He's a little bit like that, and the Sikhs really don't like it. Emily Eden, who's a great adventurous and a historian and a travel writer at the time. She's quite magnificent. She does sketches around India and writes about it. A very piquant travel writer, skewers everybody with her tight little sentences. She describes correct singer as an opium-eating blockhead. That's quite charitable in her lexicon. She must have liked him. But, you know, not wrong, because this was a man who preferred his own pleasure to matters of state. As soon as he becomes Maharaja, whoo!

weeks of being. Not over and down with intellect, either it should be said. No. The hence blockhead, I think. covers that, that base. So he is barely on the golden gutty because he decides he will sit on the throne that his father doesn't sit on. His father, if you remember, Renjit Singh leaves it empty for Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith. But Kerak Singh Parks is fairly wide bottom on it and is comfortable. But almost immediately his nobles decide he's got to go. And they start to poison him gradually, slowly over months by a mixture of white lead and camphor, Ruskampo. Which isn't a very nice way to go? No, I mean, you know what it does to a human body.

It's not that you've poisoned anyone. Not that you've done it. But it's slowly, it's a neurotoxin. So it slowly robs a person. of their faculties. Now, Carrick's thing doesn't help his own situation because he drinks a lot. He's sort of, you know, decried as a notorious drunk.

So, you know, when he starts to wobble a bit on his feet, nobody really notices or cares because he's always... He's been wobbling quite a lot. He's been wobbling for months. He starts to slur. Nobody really is that bothered because it's not unknown for him to be a bit slurry. But it's when he starts having terrible shooting pains

in his fingers. his toes, which then spreads through his body. Then he loses the ability to walk. Then he cannot, he's in screaming pain, like a thousand needles of pricking his skin all the time. And he's just taken off and put to bed. He's stuck the king until he dies, but he's out of the way. And the nobles are basically, the ones who are responsible for this poison plot, are waiting

for his son, who is a much more... And is Kirkson wearing the Kohino, as he's having... He wears it when there are state occasions, so when he is in front of the Lahore, the Ababa, but when he's sick, I mean, it would have been, it's, it would have been taken away again, belly round probably, you know, again, looking after it because, you know, one supposes they don't sleep with it on. It's like it's uncomfortable. So, you know, so it's safely away from him, but it's waiting for a better recipient.

And the better recipient is a 19-year-old boy called Norniharsing, who is Karak Singh's eldest son, who unlike Kerricksing, he's very responsible. Also rather beautiful in the miniatures. Very beautiful. Very good-looking boy. He's got this sort of, you know, the very traditional North Indian features, sort of very aquiline nose, fair skin, angular, angular, lean and fit. Whereas Kerricksing is this gnarly, bearded, wide-load.

Old uncle. Yes, exactly. So Kerak Singh finally does die. And nine-and-e-half. is about to be, we don't crown them as king, but anointed as the new Maharaja. He doesn't make it past his father's funeral, William. Not even past his father's funeral. The curse of the governor strikes again.

Well, that's, this is why this starts gaining this particular momentum really starts to stick that reputation. So, Nornihal has just cremated his father. So he's covered in the ash and dust of the cremation. He goes to wash his hands in the river and he comes back to the palace. Now he's going to walk through the palace, through the royal gardens, through a major gateway called the Hazuribar gate. Which was built, I think, by Ranjit Singh to celebrate his capture of the Coenol from Shashoja. Absolutely. So everything comes back to the Coenor. So, Nornihar, with two of his retainers, is walking through the Hazuribar gate, making his way to the palace.

And suddenly, and completely inexplicably, a large block from the Huzuri gate falls. and it hits him and his companion kills his companion out right who's also a blood relative a cousin of his but according to the court records at the time and an eyewitness do you remember we talked about Alexander Gardner the tartan turban the tartan turbaned well mercenary who was working for rancheet Singh he is an eyewitness to this he's walking just a few paces behind noonehal Singh the crown prince the Maharaja to be and he says you know actually norahal gets up and he's really grumpy because it's probably not lovely

to watch your cousin bludgeon to death by this great block but he's okay and he's offered a palanquin to take him away and he says no no I'm walking and he walks back which makes what happens next all the more suspicious suspicious very suspect because later that night

a physician called another Western physician who's actually a homeopath called Honigberger goes to see him we should say that the seat court is full of these sort of strange Europeans who've turned up crossed through Europe and across Asia. Adventures, actually, yeah. And there's these strange ex-Nopolionic generals who've married Sikh women,

have got huge families living in old mogul tombs with long beards. Some of them return eventually and spend their days eccentricly in Santrapay with these huge Sikh families. And one of them is Honegberger. And Honeboga spent a lot of time in the Northwest Frontier digging early Buddhist remains. And he's very important archaeologists. In fact, when you go to the Ashmolean and to the... to the Pugman Museum in Berlin. You see a lot of Honigburgers early, I mean, he's been looting and digging very unscientifically

through these beautiful Hellenistic stupas, these very earliest Buddhist remains. But in this part of the story, he's doing his job, which is at the palace doctor. Yes, he's going to go visit none a heart to see if he's all right. Exactly. When he goes, he's not all right. Far from it. He's far from all right. Because he's lying dead in his bedchamber and his head has been caved.

in. And there's grey matter. He describes grey matter being spilt on the pillow. Now, how is that possible that a man who walked away from a glancing blow from a falling, mysteriously falling piece of masonry, is now has his brain splattered all over the bed. So this has clearly been yet another murder. Two kings in one fell swoop have gone. So this idea of the, you know, the Kono wreaking havoc already, you know, that Ranjit Singh was strong enough. The lion of Punjab was strong enough to wear it, but let's see about his cubs. This is also the period that you begin to get some Hindu writers suggesting that because of this history of bloodshed, that this is the Siamanticajama'am, we talked over in the first episode,

that clearly the Khoi Nore's old name was the Siamanticajian, because like the Siamandika gem, it leaves this trail of bloodshed, wherever it goes, whatever the empire, whatever the period of history, it's done this extraordinary work of dividing people and creating conflict. Yeah, and let's not forget, you know, a lion ate it and then a bear ate the lion. It's a diamond that's got full. I need to say the bug of Arparan, which is from about the 10th century AD that has the story about the Symantica general. Anyway, go back to episode one if you want to hear that. It's a fun story.

So, look, this is now a Lahore in absolute crisis because what are they going to do? Who is going to lead now? There are many queens of Ranjit Singh with many heirs. And if they decide that they're all going to fight for this, there's going to be a bloodbath. So, Karek Singh, the dead Maharaja, the one who is poisoned with white lead and Ruskumfer, his wife is a woman called Chand Khor. Her son has just died. Nornihal Singh has just died. But she decides, we have to keep this in the family.

My God, we've got to keep this in the family because there are other sons who are going to converge on the capital. Circling the like sharks. So she orders the gates of the Lahore Fort to be closed because she has Nornihar's wife, this young woman, and she's pregnant. And Chalphor is gambling everything That the child growing In her daughter-in-law's belly will be a boy Please let it be a boy Let it be a boy, let it be a boy

And you know, Lahore's just simmering With tension but they're waiting Because if it's a boy There is a clear line of succession here And if there's nothing, then anarchy could break out Absolutely And the British are waiting just over the Sutledge Well, you're right

Because the British, and just remind people While Ranjit Singh's been on the throne They haven't been able to get a sniff of the north, have they? So Ranjit Singh controls what is arguably the richest agricultural land in the whole of India, the Punjab. And while he has been consolidating this empire with quite clear boundaries, the ocean to the south, the Himalayas and Afghanistan to the north, the Kaiba Passes, his northern boundary, and with the Sutledge River marking him off from the rest of India.

While this has been going on, a commercial company, the East India Company, has been using Indian mercenaries and borrowing money from Indian bankers to conquer the rest of India. And they've hoovered up an incredible amount of territory. One man, forgotten now, never appears in any European or English textbooks. But Lord Wellesley, who's the elder brother of the Duke of Wellington, conquers more of India than Napoleon conquers of Europe. That's a great fact. And he, in the series of wars from 1798 to 1805,

Wellesley destroys the Maratha Confederacy, destroys Tepus Sultan. All this has done with incredible speeds. So that by the time that Ranjit Singh is dead, the whole of the rest of India is either controlled by the East India Company directly, through direct rule, or through a network of alliances with Indian princes who have all assigned acts of submission. But this holdout citadel in the north, it just won't budge. And they won't go near it because they know.

And under Ranjit Singh, it was fine, it was safe, and it had these Napoleon generals, it had this incredible army. It had guns, it had technology, it had tech, it had fighters. But now there's chaos. It's like the Tory party. It's like this bag. Keep bringing this analogy. It is.

It's like a bag of ferrets. So there is Jan Khor, looking at her daughter and a law, swollen belly, going, please let it be a boy. Let it be a boy. Is it going to be a boy? Join us after the break to find out. Welcome back to Empire, the podcast about Empire's rising, falling with me andita Anand. And me, we live in our own. So we left you just before the break with the most pressured mother to be,

who is sitting there cradling a swollen belly with her mother-in-law going, better be a boy. Otherwise, we're done for. That happens anyway in most situations. True. But the whole of Lahore as well, simmering, praying, and whatever temples or mosques they go to or grudoiras they go to. So let it be a boy.

And it's a boy. But it is a. But it is a stillborn boy. Charleston knows that's it. The jig is up. It will be a matter of hours before Cher Singh, who is the next legitimate claimant to the throne, is going to be on the march from his ancestral homeland in Batala,

which is a few kilometers away. The first thing we should say is the kind of ultimate, the picture of him is the ultimate sort of man you don't want to sit next to in the tube. No, he's sitting there. Man spread somewhat, doesn't he, a little bit? I mean, he's, imagine Brian Blessed, with a bigger, busier, blacker beard.

I mean, that's... Taking up two seats. For the Western audiences, you know what we're saying. So she knows he's going to... Sher Singh is on the way. And she orders the gates of Lahore Fort to be closed. People come terrified into the fort. Savists, save us.

Those who are left outside, like, oh dear, what's going to happen here? And sure enough, Sher Singh lays siege to Lahore. Now, it's not a long siege, but it's a... brutal siege. And there are people, you know, the people of Lahore are hammering on the gates saying, please, open the gates, open the gates, let him in, let him in, we can't tolerate this. And with great reluctance, Chanthor, the Queen Mother, who has now lost in short order, let's remind ourselves, a husband, a son and a grandson is ripped with grief, frightened for her life and her daughter-in-law's life

and says, I will open the gates if we make a deal. You have to let us out, Sherr Singh, and we will never trouble you again. But you are not to bother us again. And he says, fine, that sounds fair to me, let me in. And she opens the gates, she's allowed to leave with her retinue, her daughter-in-law with her.

And it seems like everything is settled. You know, Lahore has stability. It's not a year goes past. when Chanth Corps is sitting in her own palace she's supposedly in retirement and her maids are brushing out her hair they're putting oil in her hair they're brushing it out This isn't going to end happily I can tell

Well you're not wrong Because suddenly and without warning These handmaids pull out from behind their backs bricks and they bludgeoned the Queen Mother to death Now could this be a mystery It could have been however These women are dragged off by the vizier of,

because actually conveniently, Scher Singh is not in Lahore at the time this happens. He conveniently is not there. He's on a hunting expedition. So he can turn around and say, not me, Gov. It's nothing to do with me. However, what they do to these poor women

is they chop off their hands and they throw them outside the city gates. Honingberger, the physician that we're talking about who keeps a great contemporaneous record of what's going on at this time. Actually, you know, they chopped off their hands, but they would have been better off ripping out their tongues, because the whole time they were screaming,

Sher Singh made us do it. Shering paid us to do this. So there we are. The Queen Mother has gone. Does Shering have a long and happy life with the coroner? Well, it's funny. You should say that. Because, weirdly enough, Shering doesn't.

Despite being this sort of mountain of Sikh manhood and spreading his legs and wearing the Coenol on his arm in his portrait. Absolutely. I mean, you know, another man, the virility of the koanour, the muscularity of the koanour, you see it in court painting. At this period, a wonderful portrait painter turns up, I think, from Austria, or August Scherft, and paints the whole der Bas.

So amid all this swirl of bloodshed, not only do we have these fantastic records from Honekberger, we also have this astonishing series of portraits by Scherft. And he's the guy that paints this sort of fantastically sort of male picture of Cher Singh. Yeah. But he does it just at the right moment because Sher Singh is not around for long. No, it's good he didn't hang about, frankly. Because on the 15th of September, 1843, should do a little date market here.

This is where we are. Shering is in his summer palace, and he's invited his cousins round. And his cousins are saying, look, you've got to invite us around because we've got these new fowling pistols. We want to show you these fowling pistols. He's a very keen hunter, as Shering, as you'd expect with a man who takes up two seats on the tube. And he likes hunting and a fish and mostly hunting. And so they want to show him these guns. And all of a sudden, they bang.

Surprise, surprise. It goes off. One goes off in his chest. And the cousins turn around say, oopsie. It was an accident. But they really can't explain how bang it goes off for a second time in his face. And the Crown Prince Cher Singh's own son is found dead elsewhere in the palace. He's been hacked to pieces.

So who, on the basis of, Chesh Lafam, where's the, who gains from this murder? Well, there is a period of bloodletting in the Lahore there are surprise, surprise, where people who are vying for this diamond or for primacy in Lahore are just happily shooting, poisoning and chopping each other up. And the last man standing in 1843 is not a man at all. He's a little boy. Chubby-cheeked.

Chubby-cheeked, doe-eyed little boy of five years old, long eyelashes, beautiful. This child is a beautiful, beautiful child. And his name is Dilip Singh. He's the youngest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh from his youngest wife. This was not a kid who was ever meant to be king. And the mother is an extraordinary figure. She's a great beauty for a start.

But she's not from the courtly class. Her dad was, I think, the hounds of the kennels. He is. The kennel keeper's daughter. Her father was actually, I think, just quite a dreadful man called Olaq Singh who looked up. after the hunting hounds for Ranjit Singh.

And from the time she's a child, basically this beautiful, celebrated beauty, just prepubescent and lovely, runs beside his master's horse saying, do you want to, do you want to feel more virile and young? In that case, why don't you marry my young daughter?

She'll put fire back into your loins. And even Rajit Singh says no, age 10. Yeah, no, absolutely no. And so All Auxing asks, you know, again and again and again. and only when she's 16 years old, does Maharaja Rindji Singh say, yes, I will marry her. And he marries this woman, Jindon, Rani Jindon, is her name. And Rani Jindon becomes the mockery of the court, because she's just the kennel keeper's girl.

So, you know, she's kind of snubbed and shunned and not taken seriously at all. But she turns into one of the most remarkable women in the whole story. She is not a woman who is easily pushed aside. She's amazing. She's one of my favorite characters in history. But her little son is also mocked and teased Because for a while people say How could the gnarled old front sheet sing

First of all have produced an air at all Because he's so old Second of all a child of such beauty And they start rumours and gossip And we should say this is a face That many people will actually know Many listeners will know Because of the famous portrait of him

Done later in life by Winterhausen Winterhalter Yes winter halter And yes a nice born house For example, on the front of the great Raj exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, sometimes regarded as the greatest portrait to come out of the entire period of the British in India. It is stunning. And more on that, a bit later.

But if you have ever gone to Osborne House, it still hangs in a place of great prestige there, this beautiful young boy, Maharaja de Leap, saying. In Osbourne in the, out of white. So, you know, this tiny little boy is now the only one who can be the Maharaja, because everybody else has done everybody else in. And the court of Lahore is delighted. You know, because look, they've got a little boy, they've got a puppet. They can do whatever they want.

They are de facto rulers, except one woman gets in their way. His mother, the kennel keeper's daughter, who is never meant to amount to anything, who everybody teased, says no. I will come out of the Zanana, the women's quarters. I will sit with my son in my lap and I will rule for his interest. She has a brother who's going to help her out in this. Unfortunately, her brother is a little of a louse.

He is a wheeler dealer del boy type character who is deeply unpopular. You know, they're both, you know, these terrible, terrible siblings in the view of the very noble-blooded Lahore Darbar. Who on earth do they think they are that they're going to take control and they're going to tell us what to do? So right from the get-go, right from the moment Dilip Singh assumes power in love. Lahore, there is frothing and discontent. And who likes a froth better than the British? No one more than the British. So what is the thinking? What's the calculation, the calculus going on among the British? So the British have been preparing for this. And again, we should be careful to say this is not the British government. This is still the East India Company, which

is, you know, like Google or Facebook or X or Mobile, is a corporation that's run by its shareholders. Increasingly now the British government has turned it into something like a public-private partnership, but nonetheless is self-governing. And waiting in the wings, the company has put three quarters of its Bengal army directly on the satelage. And there's this huge cantoonement. And there's a whole spying machine also. Rather like Berlin in the 1930s or 1960s with this whole spy networks with everybody spying

on everyone else, Ludiana is the British Centre of Espionage. and they're sending out Indians dressed as pilgrims to measure the Himalayas. They're worried about the Russians just over the Afghan border. And it's a huge sense of intrigue. So this is very much the era of the beginning of the great game. And there are two things that the British are spying on out of Ludiana. One is the Russians who are heading at a rate of about 100 miles every decade southwards to walk through what is now Uzbekistan and Kikistan and so on,

towards the Afghan border, towards the oxes. and they're also spying on the Lahore court and they've been waiting for this. They know that while Rajit Singh is alive there's no way that with his Napoleonic generals it's just not going to be worth invading. But as soon as they can create dissension and factions, they can take advantage.

And this is what they've been doing throughout India. At this stage, funny enough, the British do not use the phrase divide and rule. It's such a thing. I've always been looking out for it in all my historical research in the primary sources. it's such a thing in the secondary sources.

People always say the British divided and rule. They didn't use that phrase at this period, but they certainly did it. Yeah. And they knew how to take advantage of divisions. They'd done this in Hyderabad. They'd done this with the Maratas in particular. They'd taken all the different Maratha kingdoms and set them against each other. Particularly, Lord Wellesley, had this brilliant stratagem just a few years before this

when they were taking on the great Maratah army, which was, like the Sikhs, was run by European And mercenaries had fantastic cavalry, fantastic artillery. And what they managed to do was they managed to capture a letter from one maraudita leader slagging off the other and then let it look as if it had fallen into his hands by mistake. So that Holker and Sindia, who were the two leaders, ended up not joining forces and the company could take them out one by one. Exactly the same. Now happens in law. Well, that's what they're doing in the court of Lahore.

So they know that people are really fed up with Jindon and her awful brother. So they start doing some deals They say to her vizier The person who should be advising her And one of her generals When the time comes We will ask you to betray your king And if you do betray your king

We will reward you We will reward you with your own kingdoms We will carve this place up And we will give you We'll make it worth your while And that's exactly what happens 1845 we know 1845

So we're in 1845 Joara, the brother of Jindon is because emboldened by this idea that these two are not going to be here for long. The British are making promises and it's such a rest of kingdom. Little DeLeep is on an elephant with his uncle. And the court comes around the elephant, the faithful, the really faithful seeks, come around. And they surround the elephant. They say this man is a drunkard and he's dissolute and he's immoral.

And he's also spilt royal blood. They say that he's intrigued his way and he's been part of this poisoning plot to get rid of rivals. they pull him off the elephant and they cut him to pieces and the blood splatters little tiny infant de lebe. It's one of his earliest memories is of being covered in his uncle's blood. Without him, now this is a really exposed queen and a little boy with very little to protect them. And it is in that situation that the first Anglo-Sikh war takes place.

And it's one of the great most hard-fought conflicts of the East India Company's military history because they're not taking on old-fashioned mogul armies who are using outdated cavalry techniques. The Sikhs can match them gun for gun, musket for musket. In fact, in many ways, the Sikh guns are rather better than the East India Company ones. They've got these extraordinary artillery makers in Lahore who've come from Europe.

And the Eastern India Company knows this and realizes the only possible hope is if they can create the division that they've just managed to do. And they do. And, you know, the two men that they've paid off, do betray their king at the right time. And even when they defeat the Sikhs in battle, they realize that they can't just march in and conquer the country

and move in in the way they did, for example, in Tipu's kingdom in the South, because they realize that the Sikhs are united against them and it'll be a disaster. So they come across, they create a very sort of clever technique. A diplomatic solution. A diplomatic solution where they say, look, we come as friends,

and you're an unstable kingdom, don't like this kind of instability. And you mustn't like this kind of instability. Let us help you. So we will be friends. We will rule this place in your name. You can still be the Maharaja little boy and your mother. She must. But you know, when it comes to your age of majority, we'll leave as friends. And that way we have a huge ally and will protect you. Now, you know, everybody, again, Lahore's been through a lot at the moment. So everybody starts breathing a sigh of relief. General stand down. Armies are at rest. They go back to their fields. But one person is not quiet. And that's Rani Jindon, who is screaming at her courtiers. What are you doing? She shouts, you know,

what are you doing? Do not trust them. They are biding their time. They're going to take everything. And in the meantime, this sort of bemused little boy with, just imagine this tiny spindly little arm with this big diamond on it, which is completely outweighing his mask. and also his ability is there on show. Now there's somebody, again, who's got a close eye on this diamond because the British are there and they're quite happy for a while, you know, under Henry Harding, this is a good arrangement.

He doesn't want to take Lahore. It's too hard to take Lahore. But we've got a new man in who is Dalhousie. Now tell us a little bit about James Andrew Brown Dalhousie. So Dalhousie is the classic sort of ambitious Old Etonian who is hoping to, when he retired, has from being vice-royd to become foreign secretary or even prime minister. I can't imagine a modern trajectory like that.

And he is, he's bright and ruthless and he realizes that what he wants above all, although he's actually employed by the East India Company, is he wants to give the Coenor to Queen Victoria. And that will keep, in a sense, his place at the, in Downing Street warm for him, because with the Queen's influence, with her support, who knows what's possible. So he has this plan all lined up. But the first thing he needs to do is to get rid of Jindon. He needs to get rid of Jindon, and that is what happens.

So Jindon is removed. She's called, first of all, they start actually disparaging her and undermining her. So they start referring to her in British circles as the Messalina of Punjab, the whore of Punjab. They start to reseed the gossip of his childhood. This is not the legitimate child of. Ranjit Singh. Ranjit Singh claims him as a legitimate heir, but no, they say no.

He is the product of an affair between his whore mother and a water bearer, a bishdi in the court. So he has not one drop of noble blood. This is the story they put out. The propaganda. Almost certainly not true. And then, well, I mean, who knows?

Who knows? Who knows? But they don't know. Who knows? So they drag away his poor mother. To actually a rather nice place, to Sheikh Kapura, where there is, I mean, if you're going to be locked up

somewhere near the hall, not a bad place to begin your exile. The palace where she was is still there, and it's got the original frescoes. It's one of the great sites. If everyone had the chance to visit Lahore, go out to Sheikhipura. And there's two lovely things. One is a gorgeous lake with a octagonal structure built by the Emperor Jahangir, the Mughal Emperor Jahangir for his favorite deer.

It's called the Hiraminar. And then next to it is this extraordinary palace full of frescoes from this period. and anyone interested in art history of the Pahriray Art School and Seekart needs to make a B-line for this because they're completely intact and completely perfect. So this is where Rani Jind is sort of rattling around, unable to leave, under her arrest. Although, I mean, I don't think any frescoes or any number of frescoes in the world will help her heart because at the moment she is in absolute agony. And we know she's in agony.

She's been separated from her only child. Her only child who is a very small boy. And she writes these absolutely pitiful letters. to Henry Harding, the resident of Lahore saying, just give me my son back. Please give me my son back. He's all on his own. He has nobody with him. I won't trouble you again. I won't ask for anything. I don't want anything. Just let us leave. Just give me my boy. Please just give me my boy. And Harding is actually moved by these letters. But Dalhousie, not one bit. And now the stage is set with the little boy king, all on his own for the final, final.

of the British takeover. And it's provoked by the, I think, by the British moving yet more forces up to the Sateledge border. Already, I think, three quarters of the Bengal army is camped out on the border, ready to invade, rather like the Russian forces building up in the months before the invasion of Ukraine. And everyone, again, like the Russians, can see them massing there. So eventually a Sikh party crossed the Satelage into the British side to make a demonstration of resistance. And this is the trigger that allows the company to move in properly.

And the reason it's, again, it's one of those controversial moments in history is that it's a raiding party. It's a raiding, but a small party on horse that crosses the river. And the British say it's an invasion. They say it's the cause of spello. It's the reason that they will go to war. And in the swirl of rumours, there are some people suggesting that, in fact, this raiding party has even put up by the British side, to give them a a reason. And again, we have some extraordinary battles when Oh, Chilliwalla is just so bloody.

I mean, talk about Chilliwala. That's a, that's a horrendous battles. One of the great conflicts of Indian history and the two best armies of the time go at it. And in fact, the guns from Chilean Wallow are now in London. If you go to Chelsea Hospital onto the front

lawns, you can see them all lined up there. And next time we're at the Chelsea Flower Show, you can pop around and see them. A rather unlikely place. And because the British was so proud of this victory, because it was their most formidable enemy. But some of the generals already in company pay, they've already been, the position, I think, of the artillery, for example, has been betrayed to the British in advance. And it ends in the second treaty of law, which is 1849. And this is the one.

This is the one that, well, this settles. This settles the fate of the Coenor and of Delapes, because actually, you know, this is very... Also, and this is important, but it also settles the fate of Lahore. Yes. And this is the treaty which gives Kashmir to the Degras. And so the whole, I mean, a lot of modern Indo-Pak conflict is centred on this particular clause of the second treaty of Lahore. So a lot of, you know, in the sense,

the, what's often said to be the most sensitive nuclear trigger in the modern world, certainly up to Putin and... Ukraine, is the Lahore... It's armed and loaded by the Brits. It's armed and loaded by the 1849 Treaty of Lahore when Kashmir is given to the docker. Well, look, so now 1849, you've got Dharasi, Bouhis, who's on the scene, who says, right, you know what, I want it all, I want all of it. So this Maharaja's got to go.

So he's got to get out of Lahore. So this little, there's actually an really very powerful etching of this, which is the little boy. London, from the illustrated London news. Yeah, and he's standing surrounded by these epauleted soldiers, you know, speaking a language he doesn't understand with nobody who really cares about him anywhere near him. He's already, again, this now, a very elegant little seven-year-old, nine-year-old? Nine-year-old, yeah, yeah. And he is forced to sign over everything. And the Coenor is actually scheduled very high up in the number of things.

So I think it comes right after signing over all rights to Lahore. But what, again, is crucial as it isn't given to the East Indy Company. it's given to the queen. Which actually there was no mandate. The East India Company goes wild about this. They're like, who the hell do you think you are, Tauhausy? We've spent all the money on the armies. We're the ones who, you know, have lost all the blood and coin here.

Who are you to give this? But he has a plan. This is his fast track to power as well. And also they can't publicly say this. They can't have it to the queen. They're like, oh yes, your majesty. Hope you like, hope you like it. Hope you like it.

So there's the diamond is now going to be going to Queen Victoria. Dilipe Singh is sent away from Lahore. And even now, you know, there are laments in Punjab. It's really, I can't stress this enough. This is such an open wound in the psyche of Sikhs, Punjabi is in general, but Sikhs in particular, that their little boy king was so cheated and introduced and taken away. And, you know, there are reports of the time of your Lahore being lined with

weeping people as their boy king is taken away. And he's taken away and he's given to foster carers. A Scottish couple. Actually, a really delightful Scottish couple. I think they're nice people. But they're still not his parents. He is going to be sent away to Fatigar, which is now in present day UP. And the Logans, it's worth sort of mentioning the Logans.

John Logan is a medic and he is arguably the most honest man in Punjab. Apart from Beliram, he is a man who is entrusted with looking after all the gems and actually doing the inventory of the Doshakana. And his writings are really fascinating. And he's the one who first lays eyes on the Coenor and describes it and the wonder of it and the heft of it. But he also, every single gem and coin, he is the one who's accounting for it. After the conquest, he is the one, I think, who gives the chit to Dalhousie. Exactly that. And Dalhousie has to sign.

I have received the Coenor. That's right. There is paperwork. And the Brits are very good at paperwork. It's very good for a historian, actually. the paper trails that are left behind. But having given over the diamond, he gets the boy. He gets the king.

And down as he says, just take him away, far away, and just look after him. And he with his wife, Lena Logan, become de facto parents for the little boy. Where is Rani Jindon at this point? She has been locked away. But she manages to get one loyal to her to come who delivers food with a basket of clothes. And she leaves dressed as a washerwoman. So she sneaks out into the night somehow, and goodness knows how it, because she hasn't got means, and she's, you know, worth a lot to the British. She makes it all the way to Nepal.

And she throws herself on the mercies, the tender mercies of the Bahadur of Nepal. Turns out not very merciful, because he knows that she's worth a lot. So he gets in touch to the British and goes, you might be interested in who I've got here. Do you want her? And the British say, no, actually just keep her. You just keep her because when she's with you, she's out of trouble. and he keeps her and she sort of lives in sort of house arrest

in Nepal. So she's in Nepal. She's living a comfortable life but she can't, she's not free. It's sort of a glorified house arrest. And Dilip Singh in the meantime is being brought up by a very sweet couple traumatised, one must imagine.

This boy has been splattered with blood not so long ago. Has seen his kingdom four, has seen his mother taken screaming away from him. And he tries almost immediately to be the best. best boy. Can I be the best boy, you know? And he learns to do British parlour, sing British parlour songs. Yeah, he puts away blind man's bath. He puts away his Persian poetry picks up. Shakespeare. He puts away all of the Sikhism of his past and he starts reading the Bible.

And this is the point when he kind of really breaks the heart of all the Sikhs. Well, already a grieving, grieving Lahore who've lost their king. And it happens over a number of years. So, he becomes more and more inquisitive about Christianity. He's absolutely obsessed with the Rani of the world, you know, Victoria, this mother figure who, you know, he's told as the mother of the empire. Who he started writing to? Yeah, and who is enchanted by him, who thinks he's utterly fascinated. She asks for reports, regular reports about Dilip.

And, you know, he's beautiful. He is charming. He speaks very good English. This is a woman who's never going to see her Eastern Empire. but she has this totem of what it is to be Maharani of India. And so, you know, there's this sort of dual obsession which starts developing between this little boy and this queen in England.

And we'll come to that in a minute. But in the meantime, the diamond. So the diamond is still in Lahore. Deleep is safely out of Lahore. And the diamond, now Dalhousie has to get it the hell out of Lahore. Because, you know, as long as it stays in the Punjab, there is a chance somebody else will steal it. and then they will have the emblem of power

and he can't have that. So there's some wonderful stories at this point. We've had in previous moments. We thought this was going to be a three-partive. It's not, is it? We're going to four parts, aren't we? We're going for an epic. So there's some wonderful little moments

in the history of the Code. There's that moment we've already had when it ends up as a paperweight on a Mueller's desk. He doesn't realize what it is. Now, Lal Haussie decides to become the kind of diamond runner himself, doesn't it? I mean, it's so hilarious.

So, you know, this is, first of all, the diamond when it's signed over and he signs the chitty, is given to a group of three wise men who are in Lahore, including a man called John Lawrence, who's this swashbuckling character who's a great soldier. John Lawrence, I should say, is rather a hero in that he's one of the few Brits from this period who stands scrutiny from our point of view today. Yes. And in years to come, when the great uprising, the 1857 mutiny breaks out, which we're going to talk about in a later podcast, it's, It's John Lawrence who stops the massacres and then actually saves quite a lot of Mughal Delhi from destruction. There's been a plan to destroy the great Jammar Masjid, arguably the greatest mogul mosque of all, and replace it with a Gothic cathedral. We haven't got that got that Gothic cathedral thanks to John Lawrence.

Thanks to John Lawrence. Anyway, at this point, though, one of it, he's not particularly interested in jewellery and bling. No, so this is the problem. It's not one of his finest moments. So he's given the diamond to look after because, you know, he's a very brave man, a very strong man, and he takes the diamond and he puts it in his waistcoat bowl. it and he said, I will look after it. Lord Dauhausi, until the moment you need it. You can rely on me and he properly forgets where he puts it. So when Dahlhausie, the most valuable diamond in the

world goes missing. Crackers. A year later, roughly, Dauhausie, there says, right, you know what, I'm going to get it out of Lahore because it's just too, this rock is too hot. We've got to, we've got to shift the hot rock. And he says, okay, John, where's the rock? And John goes, where's the rock? Oh, God, where's the rock? Oh, God, where's the rock? It's one of those You've lost your phone. You've lost your charger. You can't find your credit card. But it's worse.

I mean, so he goes home and he turns everything upside down. This is according to him. And according to Boswell, the man who does his biography, says, you know, he looked everywhere. He couldn't find it. So he shouts it with his valet. Like, you know that waistcoat I was wearing that time? There was something in the pocket. Where is it?

And the guy goes over that rock. Oh, I just put it over here. I mean, thank God. Can you imagine? The man-servants has put it in a little drawer somewhere safe from harm. And so he has no idea, again, what it is, gives it back to Lawrence, who says, oh, my God. Thank God. And then gives it to Dalhazi.

And you're quite right. Da Housie doesn't trust anybody with this diamond, because it is now really such a hot rock. It's political significance, its value, everything makes it a target. So he has this very small circle of trust. The three wise men, including Lawrence, who were looking after it. He tells his wife, he tells his nephew. And he himself is going to be the diamond mule to get it out. And Lady Dalhousie knits him a little muffler for it.

I mean, it's a little purse. She's so, I mean, honestly, this is a woman, I guarantee he's not saying it on a button for the last 30 years. And yet somehow, because she's trusted, she makes a little pouch, a kid's skin pouch, with loops around it for a golden chain, which will fasten around Dalhousie's neck and around his waist. So if someone tries to grab it and, you know, it slits his throat, it's still attached his body from the waist. I didn't know that. It's around his neck too. Around his neck and around his waist. So it is now doubly secured on Dalhousie, who is now going to hard gallop it with his nephew

to Bombay to get it their hell out of India and over to Queen Victoria. And then they find, rather like with sort of British Airways now, all the flights are cancelled, they find that all the ships have gone off to fight some other war and they haven't got any ships going to London for a bit. There's nobody available. And what they want is they don't want a big ship and they don't want something that's attracting attention. They want something that is fast, that is small, that is completely unnoticeable, and they have to wait for about a year until the riot ship a year. So they finally find the ship, and it's called the Madeir, and it's a sloop. So it's, you know, it's fast.

Steam sloop. So it's, you know, a very fleet, up-to-date, state-of-the-art, and it'll get there quickly. The man who's in charge of this steam sloop is a man called Lockyer. And does he sends his nephew with it? He sends his nephew and there is an official from the East India Company because they're still a bit ticked off. I mean, actually, they do get their revenge because Dahlasi in his mind has this whole thing of, I give on to you, Queen Victoria, the Cohen when they say, no, it's not yours. We're going to give it to her.

You can wind your neck in and stay at home. And he's furious about it. You know, he's really livid that these sort of apparatchiks are taking the glory from him. But that's the way it is. So it's loaded onto this steam sloop, the Medea. Captain Lockyer is only told at the very last minute what he's carrying. The crew are not told at all. They just know that there is a casket which is being loaded on.

And inside that casket is another casket. Inside that casket is another casket. All of them have different keys. And each man is given a key. So not one person on the Medea can open all three unless they kill the other two. That's such as the security of the diamond. Brilliant. So something tells me that this is not getting.

be an easy voyage, but we're going to save the story of the Medea and its terrible journey to England for the next episode. Goodbye from me, William Durhampole. And me, Anita Arnon.