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As Sarvar Irani sifts through the piles of royal memorabilia stored in her Mumbai flat, she has one main thought: she needs to get more gifts from Charles, the new King.
“Now I’m starting to collect Charles,” she told CBC News. “So far it’s mainly Queen Elizabeth.”
The 62-year-old has been tracking down commemorative tokens for decades now, mainly books, but also stamps, coins and plates that focus on everything about the British royal family.
Irani’s interest has always centered on the queen, whose fashion sense and love of corgis make the Mumbai native smile, but now she looks forward to Charles’ time as king.
“I thought, when will he get his chance to be King? Now at least we’ll see what else he can do,” he told CBC News.
“They have to follow through [the Queen]”Irani continued. “But I’m sure he will do well too because he sees his mother and he sees how much people love his mother because of her.”
Warm feelings towards the British royal family are far from universal in India, where many are indifferent to seeing a new King crowned, half a world away.
“Royals are never interested in me,” says Cyrus Appoo, walking into a coffee shop in Mumbai.
He shrugged before giving his thoughts to Charles. “The Queen’s been around for so long, I didn’t think she’d be King. She’s got her chance, so let’s see.”
Others still see the monarchy through the lens of colonial India, subjugated under the British Raj.
Irani has heard these sentiments from several people around him who are perplexed by the need to collect royal memorabilia.
“Most people would say … ‘look how India is doing [treated].’ I said, ‘forget everything.'”
WATCH | India’s stolen treasure exhibited in Britain
From precious statues to jewels, the coronation of King Charles is a reminder of the many cultural artifacts taken from India before and after British rule. One of the top items is the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which will not be part of the coronation ceremony.
But it is hard to forget for many Indians.
Nothing epitomizes imperial plunder like the infamous Koh-i-Noor diamond, seized by the East India Company in 1849 when Punjab was annexed and later awarded to Queen Victoria. It is now part of the crown jewels and is on display in London.
In a subtle acknowledgment of the controversy and ill-feeling around diamonds in India, and in other countries such as Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan which also lay claims to jewels, Buckingham Palace announced in February that the Koh-i-Noor will not. as part of the coronation ceremony.
It will be part of the Tower of London exhibition just a few weeks after the coronation, which is presented as a “symbol of conquest.”
The announcement of the Koh-i-Noor’s absence from Saturday’s ceremony was welcomed on social media, but online chatter in India quickly turned to an important question: why not return?
‘You should be ashamed’
For Vijay Kumar, one of the founders of the India Pride Project which uses a crew of volunteers to track looted cultural artifacts from India that are in museums in the West, the diamonds are an insulting reminder of past wrongs.
“You cannot proudly display looted goods and on top of that, collect fees,” Kumar said. “You should be ashamed,” he added, referring to England.
However, for those working hard to negotiate the return of hundreds of stolen Indian idols, the precious diamonds are just symbols.
“Koh-i-Noor is only a stone to me. Our gods are precious.”
The same sentiment passed through one of the shrines waiting for the venerated statue to return.
The 15th-century copper was recovered from the Sundara Perumal Temple in Kumbakonam, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, in 1957 and later exhibited at Oxford’s Ashmolean museum, where it is now on display. A sign was recently added to the display, acknowledging that it may have been stolen but that the bronze remains in the museum, despite talks to return it.
“We have to get him back, we just believe that the temple will come back to life,” temple priest Aaravamudan, 33, told CBC News in an interview, describing his helplessness as he waited for word on where the holy idol was and if it would ever be returned.
“Without his presence, the temple has lost all its glory.”
‘Not paying much attention’
But the ruling feeling in India in the days leading up to the coronation was not anger – but indifference.
This, despite King Charles’s love for India, which has been visited 10 times, and the work with the British Asian Trust charity that helped create, which helps the disadvantaged across South Asia.
Mumbai resident Abhishek Deshwal had no idea the coronation was happening.
“It’s just a waste of taxpayers’ money, maintaining the palace and the royal family’s expenses and everything,” Deshwal said, adding that he had no real opinion of Charles as King.
“You have an opinion about the people who do or make the policies,” Deshwal said, not knowing. “But he’s just a figurehead, a nominal head, so we can’t have an opinion about him.”
Others on the streets of Mumbai’s Bandra neighborhood were quick to respond when asked if they were paying attention to the fact that Charles would be officially crowned.
“Not at all. Everyone is just focused on sports and the Met Gala,” Sonia Kathi told CBC News, before rushing off.
Shifa Malik, 19, politely explained why the coronation was not important to her and her friends.
“We Indians don’t pay attention to the royal family,” says Malik, especially the young.
“But I think Charles is a good King? Maybe?” he added.
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