Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Sikhs Want Their Treasure Returned

A British Sikh group has requested the Queen to return their artifacts which were plundered by the British troops during the Raj. The items includes sacred scriptures, swords, letters and writings of Maharaja Duleep Singh (he is said to have converted to Christianity) who was exiled to Britain after annexation of his kingdom. He reportedly presented the famous Kohinoor diamond to Queen Victoria which now is a part of crown jewels. In a letter to the Queen they have written- “Across the U.K., within the custody of your royal family, royal castles, museums and government bodies, there is an immense range of unquantified and unidentified cultural property belonging to the Sikh nation,” the Slough-based Sikh Community Action Network says in a three-page letter calling for “quantification” of such property.

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