New York: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said he would privately encourage Britain’s King Charles III to return the iconic Koh-i-Noor diamond to India, should the opportunity for a one-on-one conversation arise.
Mamdani made the remarks ahead of a wreath-laying ceremony on Wednesday at Manhattan’s National September 11 Memorial, where he joined other dignitaries, including Governor Kathy Hochul, to honour the more than 3,000 victims of the al-Qaeda attacks on September 11, 2001. King Charles and Queen Camilla attended the event as part of the monarch’s four-day state visit to the United States.
When asked by reporters what message he might convey to the King outside the solemn context of the memorial, Mamdani replied: “If I were to speak to the king separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return th
e Koh-i-Noor diamond.”
He initially emphasised that his primary focus at the Ground Zero event was paying tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, not raising other issues.
No private meeting between the mayor and the King took place, and Mamdani’s office has not confirmed whether the diamond was discussed during their brief public interaction. A spokesperson for the royal family declined to comment on the mayor’s statement, Independent reported.
The Koh-i-Noor Diamond
The Koh-i-Noor, one of the world’s largest cut diamonds and valued as priceless, was mined in India’s Kollur mine around the 13th century, passing through Mughal emperors, Persian invaders under Nader Shah in 1739 — who named it “Mountain of Light” — and then Sikh rulers in Punjab.
In 1849, under British colonial rule, the East India Company coerced 10-year-old Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last Sikh emperor’s son, to cede it as war reparations after annexing Punjab; it reached Queen Victoria in 1850 amid India’s subjugation.
Displayed in the Tower of London’s Crown Jewels since, India has pursued its return since 1947 independence, with formal bids in 1953, 1965, 1996, and most recently 2016 under Prime minister Narendra Modi.