title: 10. Killing for the Koh-i-Noor
author: Empire
contenttype: podcast
publication: Empire
published: 2022-10-03T21:00:00-04:00
sourceurl: https://pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/A27C8C/traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR1227944197.mp3?updated=1703674492
word_count: 10309
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.empirepoduk.com Welcome back to Empire with me and Eta Arnan and me, William Durimple. Just say it has not gone unnoticed how well you do it now. I mean it is. That's what it is. I sit here with my family practicing it morning after. Yeah, now I'm proud of you. I am very proud of you. We're back on the path of gore. Can't wait again this week. This is another special week of Cohenore where we throw two episodes, dripping in blood, atcha. And this episode, episode three, contains your favourite bit of Eta. The roulette wheel of death is used to call it on our butteutore. I tell you what, there is an awful lot of killing. Shootin' and a stabin' and a poisonin' that cares on in this particular bit. Bloodling? A bloodling? There's also a share of bloodlinging. I mean, basically you name it. If Angela Lansbury were here, murder she 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 Cohenore 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 wanted back, particularly most obviously India and Pakistan, but also Iran, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. And even the Taliban have put in a claim for this time. I think it's safe to say they're the least likely to get it back. I think it's going to have any of this 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 diamond, which overlaps with so many different empires, but it's also one which symbolizes, in a sense, the heart of the imperial debate today, which is what is the consequence of centuries of clonistically 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 artifacts of empire. I mean, artifacts are rubble. No one's put their soul 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 be looking at empires from across the globe. But as William said, you know, just think of the Koehnoor in this respect as the most dripping with gore baton in a relay race. That's a big image of you. Well, I think gore just thinking for all 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 the last day? We left off with the death of Ranjit Singh. Now Ranjit Singh had taken the diamond from the Afghans, from Shashudra milk when he was in his captivity, according to Shashudra, 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, say elegantly, but 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 any time. I am, I am, I mean really fast in your seat belts and have a sick bag. So Ranjit Singh closes his eyes. Apologistically, so watching this have breakfast, honestly, to this have breakfast. 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 coin or diamond has gone. And because this is the 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, Belly Ram. If you're listening to the last podcast, you'll know this was the man who is the head to looked after the Doshakhana, 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 coin or diamond. He slept with it. He would have slipped the thread of anyone who came near it. But Belly Ram 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 he? 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 a rissa, the juggernaut. So the priests say, you're a tad cussist, 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. I doesn't name the temple itself, but what's interesting also is that theologically this is quite complicated for Sikhs, because modern Sikhism abjures all idolatry. Any idolatry? Yeah. And if you go to 18th and 19th century Sikh Godwara, there's a plenty of images of Hindu gods. We know for a fact that Ranjit Singh, when he died, died looking at an image, I think, of ramen cita. Yeah, so 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 a fair, it's been inserted in nefarious ways, because number one, he was a Sikh. Why would he be giving the most precious diamond of the kingdom 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. But the case for it being true for one second, because it's controversial and very interesting matter 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 juggernaut temple. The juggernaut in Arissa. Correct. That's right. And when I gave this talk once in Arissa, all their rists were very clear. It was their specific diamond. It wasn't belonging to Iddi, it was belonging to Arissa at this temple. It's interesting because you 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. Godwara is in this country in Britain. But what is interesting is that in the 18th and 19th centuries, you go around a lot of old Sikh Godwara. There are images of Hindu gods. Not necessarily in the main pretel, but in the buildings around by and in the gate houses 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 Sikhs wanting to do the best thing and raising money to renovate old Godwara 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 Golden Temple is a doubly complicated. And I'm going to argue against the position that is argued by the Sikhs certainly, who say with as much gusto as those in a ruse, it's our stone. Give it back to us. Don't give it back to India. Give it back to the Sikhs. Is that actually, Ranjit 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 in different faiths in a way that none of his predecessors for hundreds of years have been. So William talked about the Jiziya 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 attacks. Whereas when Ranjit Singh comes to the throne, he says, no, Jiziya, 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 jug enough. Anyway, the point is, who cares? Because where's the document? It's not here. So let's get back to Bellyram. Then Bellyram, despite the potential dying wishes of his master, for whom he would have spilled blood and died, has decided, no. Even if Ranjit Singh has given this stone over, it wasn't his to give. So this mind, 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 says the man who takes over, as the Maharaja, this is his gem. And I will hide it until then. This is extraordinary. The next man, by the way, who is his entitled swear. Before we finish, Bellyram, rather than Sally, I was giving a lecture on this one afternoon when his entire family turned up at the reading. They told me. I'm a very proud bit. And they've got documents and all sorts of stuff. Everyone do many more. I'm going to keep in the room to help you. Come here, just telling me just now. Just tell me about it. Anything else you want to mention? It got. So what do they mean? Did they know how brave? They knew the story. 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 partition. They'd come over the border in 1997. And now living in Gugan. So they've been living in Lahore all that time. Living in Lahore right up into Falsett. Isn't that amazing? So it's hidden. No diamond. No king. No diamond. No diamond. No king. That's what Belly Ramas decided. But the next 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 Kirk Singh, who's the oldest son from the first wife of Maharaja Rinjutsing. And this man is... Well, you know how we've sort of described Rangila, who I liked. He's a 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 the discipline. Very pecan, uh... Yeah. Travel writer. She's a skewer with everybody with her. She's quite wasp. Very wasp. She describes Kirk Singh as an opium eating blockhead. That's quite charitable in her, in her lexicon. She must have liked him. But... 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, woohoo! He's just... ...weeks of... Not over and down with a detective, or it should be said. No. The head's blockhead. I think I was that. I think I was that. That base. Um... So he is barely on the golden gutter because he decides he will sit on the throne. That his father doesn't sit on. His father, if you remember, rendue it, leaves it empty for Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith. But Kirk Singh parks his... ...fairly wide bottom on it, and is comfortable. But almost immediately, his noble's decided he's got to go. And they start to poison him, gradually, slowly over months, by a mixture of white lead and comfort, rust scum for it. Which isn't a very nice way to go. No, just... I mean, you know what it does to a human. Body, it's... It's not that you've always done to anyone. I know that you've done it. But it's slowly... It's a neurotoxin. So it slowly robs the person of their faculties. Now Kirk Singh doesn't help his own situation because he drinks a lot. He's sort of, you know, decried as a notorious drunk. Um, so, you know, when he starts to wobble a bit on his feet, nobody really notices or cares because he's always... It's going to be wobbling quite a lot. ...for months. He starts to slur. Um, 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 and his toes, which then spreads through his body, then he loses the ability to walk, then he cannot... And 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 he's currently wearing the koi nore as he's having... He wears it when there are state occasions, so when he is in front of the Lahore d'Arabah, when he's sick. I mean, it would have been... It would have been taken away again, belly round probably, you know, again, looking after it, because, you know, one... One suppose that they don't sleep with it all. That's like, so comfortable. 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 Norena Halsing, who was Karak Singh's eldest son, who, unlike Karak Singh, he's very responsible. Also rather beautiful in the miniature. Very beautiful. Very good looking boy. He's got this sort of, you know, the very traditional North Indian features, the very aqualine nose, fair skin, angular, angular lean and fit, whereas Karak Singh is this gnarly, bearded, wide nose. Oh, uncle. Oh, don't call. Yes, exactly. So Karak Singh finally does die. And Norena Hals is about to be... We don't crown them as king, but anointed as the Numa Harajah. He doesn't make it past his father's funeral, William. Not even past his father's funeral. The curse that carried all strikes again. Well, that's... This is why this starts gaining this particular... This period, people start to really... It really starts to stick that reputation. So Norena Hals 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 in through the royal gardens through a major gateway called the Huzooribad gate. Which was built, I think, by Ranjit Singh, to celebrate his capture of the Kowinor from Salfurja. Absolutely. So everything comes back to the Kowinor. So Norena Hals with two of his retainers is walking through the Huzooribad gate, making his way to the palace. And suddenly and completely inexplicably, a large block from the Huzooribad falls and it hits him. And his companion kills his companion out, right, who's also blood relative, a cousin of his. But according to the court records at the time, and eyewitness, do you remember we talked about Alexander Gardner? The Tartan Turban. The Tartan Turban, well, mercenaries, who was working for Ranjit Singh. He is an eyewitness to this. He's walking just a few paces behind Norena Halsing, the crown prince, the maraja to be. And he says, you know, actually, Norena Hals gets up and he's really grumpy because it's, you know, probably not lovely to watch your cousin bludgeon to death by this great block. But he's okay, and he's offered a palakwin to take him away. And he says, no, no, I'm walking. And he walks back. Which makes what happens next. All the most suspicious. Suspicious, very suspicious. Because later that night, a physician called another Western physician, it's actually a homeopath called Honigberger, goes to see. We should say that the seat court is full of these sort of strange Europeans who've turned up crossed through Europe and across the US. Adventure is actually, yeah. And there's these strange ex-depolyonic generals who've married to seek women and have got huge families living in old mogul tombs with long beards, some of them return eventually and spend their days accentically in Santa Pei with these huge seek families. And one of them is Honigberger. And Honigberger spends a lot of time in the North West Frontier digging early Buddhist remains. And he's very important. Okay, oh, just in fact, when you go to that, Mollion and to the Purgman Museum in Berlin, you see a lot of Honigberger's early, I mean, he's been looting and digging very unsightfully through these beautiful Hellenistic stupas, these very earliest Buddhist remains. But in this part of the story, he's doing his job, which is that the kind of job that the person is not a heart to see if he's all right. Exactly. When he goes, he's not all right. Far from it. He's awful, right? Because he's lying dead in his bed chamber 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 fellsweve have gone. So this idea of the, you know, the Konaureeking havoc already, you know, that Rangit Singh was strong enough. The lion of Punjab was strong enough to wear it. But let's see about his cup. This is also the period that you begin to get some Hindu writers suggesting that because of this history of bloodshed, this is the Simonicogen we talked over the first episode, that clearly the Koei Nors old name was the Simonicogen because like the Simonicogen 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 gone. This is the bug. We need to say the bug of a bronze, which is from about the 10th century AD, as the story about the Simonicogen. 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 Rangit Singh with many heirs. And if they decide that they're all going to fight for this, there's going to be a blood bath. So, correct thing, the dead Maharaja, the one who was poisoned with white lead and rust comfort, his wife is a woman called Chant Kaur. Her son has just died. Nornahal 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. Exactly. So she orders the gates of the Lahore fort to be closed, because she has Nornahal's wife, this young woman, and she's pregnant. And Chant Kaur 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. And Lahore is 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 Anaki could break out. Absolutely. And the British are waiting just over the sattelage. Well, you're right, because the British and just remind people, while Rangit Singh has been on the throne, they haven't been able to get a sniff of the North, have they? So, Rangit 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 Kiberpasses, his northern boundary, and with the sattelage 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 at the Queen. That's a great fight. And in the series of wars from 1798 to 1805, destroys the Meratic Confederacy, destroys Tipusultan. All this is 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 whole outset of the North, it just won't budge and they won't go near. And the Ranjit Singh, it was fine, it was safe, and it had these Napoleon generals, it had this incredible army of now. It had guns, it had technology, it had tech, it had fighters. But now there's that the Tory party is like this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this analogy. And it is, it's like, it's like a, it's a bag of ferrets. So there is John Corr looking at her daughter and all 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 and Eta Arnand. And me William Durable. 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 looking, better be a boy. Otherwise we're done for. That was anyway, most of the choice. True. But the whole of Lahore, as well, simmering, praying, and whatever temples or mosques they go to, or Guru Dwarath as they go to, so let it be a boy. And it's a boy, but it is a stillborn boy. John Corr 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, you know, if you want to say it's the kind of ultimate, the picture of him, the ultimate sort of value they want to sit next to the tube. No, he's sitting there and 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, Cher Singh is on the way. And she orders the gates of Lahore for it to be closed. People can't terrified into the fort. Savius, those who are left out, it's like, oh dear, what's going to happen here? And sure enough, Cher Singh lays siege to Lahore. No, it's not, it's not a long siege, but it's a brutal siege. And there are people, 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, Chan Kaur, 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, her says, I will open the gates if we make a deal. You have to let us out, Cher 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 ago, it's by when Chan Kaur is sitting in her own palace. She's supposedly in retirement. And her maids are brushing out her hair. You know, they're putting oil in her hair, they're brushing it out. This doesn't get away 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 bludgeon the Queen mother today. Now, could this be a mystery? Could have been, however, peace women are dragged off by the viseer of, because actually conveniently, she's 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, Gough. 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, honing burger, the physician that we're talking about, who keeps a great contemporaneous record of what's going on at this time. So, 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, Shares Singh made us do it. Shares Singh paid us to do this. So, there we are. The Queen mother has gone. Does Shares Singh have a long and happy life with the Queen mother? It's funny, you should say that. Tee-ee! Of course, weirdly enough, Shares Singh doesn't. Despite being this sort of mounted of Sikh manhood and spreading his legs, and wearing the Kowinaw on his arm in his portrait. Absolutely. I mean, you know, another man, the virility, the Kowinaw, the muscularity, the Kowinaw, you see it in court paintings. At this period, a wonderful portrait painter turns up, I think from Austria, called Auguste Shreft, and paints the whole Derba. So, amid all this swirl of bloodshed, not only do we have these fantastic records from Honny Burger, we also have this astonishing series of portraits by Shreft. And then he's the guy that paints this sort of, fantastically sort of male picture of Shares Singh. Yeah. But he does it just at the right moment, because Shares Singh is not around for long. No, it's good he didn't hang about, frankly. Because on the 15th of September, 1843, we should do a little date market here. This is where we are. Shares Singh 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 fouling pistols. We want to show these fouling pistols. He's a very keen hunter, is Shares Singh. As you'd expect, with a man who takes up two seats on the tube. And he likes hunting and efficient, 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 and say, oopsie. That 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 Shares Singh's own son is found dead elsewhere in the palace, and he's been hacked to pieces. So who on the basis of Shesh Lafayam, where's the, who gains from this murder? Well, there is a period of bloodletting in the Lahore, though, but 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. He's a chubby cheeked. Chubby cheeked, dough-eyed, little boy of five years old. Long eyelashes, beautiful. This child is a beautiful, beautiful child. And his name is Delip Singh. He's the youngest son of Maraja 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, I kept the hounds of the kennels. He is. The kennel keepers, she's the kennel keepers, daughters. Their father was actually, I think, just quite a dreadful man called Alak Singh, who looked after the hunting hounds for Ranjit Singh. And from the time she's a child, basically this beautiful, celebrated beauty, just pre-pubescent and lovely, runs beside his master's horse saying, do you want to, do you want to feel more of your male and young? In that case, why don't you marry my young daughter? She'll put fire back into your loins. She'll run it. Even Ranjit Singh says no age 10. Yeah, no, absolutely no. And Alak Singh asks again and again and again. And only when she's 16 years old does Maharaja Rengit Singh say, yes, I will marry her. And he marries this woman, Jinden, Rani Jinden is her name. And Rani Jinden becomes the mockery of the court, because she's just the kennel keepers girl. So 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 favourite characters in history. But her little son is also mocked and teased. Because for a while people say, how could the Naldo, Ranjit Singh, first of all, have produced an heir at all because he's so old? Second of all, a child of such beauty. And they start rumours and gossip. I mean, she'll 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 Winterhazen. Winterhazen? Yes, Winterhazen. And they're not born as. For example, on the front of the great Raj exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, it's sometimes regarded as the greatest portrait to come out of the entire period of British and India. It is stunning. It is stunning. I'm going 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 Delip Singh. In Osborne in the out of white. 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, it's 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 Kennell Keeper's daughter, who is never meant to amount to anything. Who everybody teased, says, no. I will come out of the Zanana. I have 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, Zanana Laos. He is a wheeler dealer, Delboy 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, their bar. 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 delievesing assumes power in Lahore, there is frothing and discontent and who likes a froth better than the British? No one. 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 ExxonMobil is a corporation. This run by its shareholders. Increasingly now the British government has turned it into something like a public private partnership. And nonetheless, it's self-governing. And waiting in the wings, the company has put three quarters of its Bengal army directly on the satellite. And there's this huge contumant and there's a whole spying machine. Also rather like Berlin in the 1930s or 1960s with this whole spying network. Because 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 centre of intrigue. So this is very much the ear of the beginning of the great game. And there are two things that the British are spying on. Adudiana, one is the Russians, who are heading at a rate of about 100 miles every decade, southwards, to walk through what is now as beckostar and kickers is done and so on towards the Afghan border, towards the oxas. And they're also spying on the Lahore court. And they've been waiting for this. They know that while Rajat 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 decensions and factions, they can take advantage. And this is what they've been doing throughout India. At this stage, the British do not use the phrase divide and rule. It's such a thing. I've always been looking out for it. And all my historical research in the primary sources, because it's such a thing in the secondary sources, people always say the British divide and rule. They didn't use that phrase at this period, but they certainly did it. And they knew how to take advantage of divisions. They'd done this in Hyderabad. They'd done this with the Marathas 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 Maratha army, which was like the Sikhs was run by European mercenaries, had fantastic cavalry, fantastic artillery. And what they managed to do was they managed to capture a letter from one Marathida slagging off the other and then let it look as if it had fallen into his hands by mistake. So the Holker and Sindeer 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. Well that's what they're doing in the court of Lahore. So they know that people are really fed up with Jinden 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 make it worth your while. And that's exactly what happens. 1845 we know. 1845. So we're in 1845. Joar the brother of Jinden 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 restive kingdom. Little deliep is on an elephant with his uncle. And the court comes around the elephant, the faithful, the really faithful Sikhs come around and they surround the elephant. They say this man is a drunkard and he's disillute 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 deliep. 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-Sete war takes place. And it's one of the great, most hard-fought conflicts of these India companies' 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 that they've got these extraordinary artillery makers in Lahore who've come from Europe. And so, and the East India Company knows this and realizes they're only possible hope. Is if they can create the division that they 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, move in in the way they did, for example, in Dipu's kingdom in the south. Because they realize that the Sikhs are united against them and that it'll be a disaster. So they come across, they create a very clever technique. Diplomatic solution. A diplomatic solution where they say, look, we come as friends and you're an unstable kingdom and we 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... We will protect you. Alan, we'll protect you. Now, you know, everybody, again, Lahore has 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 Jendon, who is screaming at her courtyards. What are you doing? She shouts, you know, what are you doing? Do not trust them. They are biting their time. They're going to take everything. And in the meantime, this sort of bemused little boy with just a matter of this tiny spindly little arm with this big diamond on it, which is completely outweighing his mass 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, you know, 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 Dalhazi. Now, tell us a little bit about James Andrew Brown Dalhazi. So Dalhazi is the classic sort of ambitious old detonian who is hoping to, when he retires from being vicerate to become foreign secretary or even Prime Minister. Of course, and the match and no, a multi-torture 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 Koeh Noor to Queen Victoria. And that will keep, in a sense, his place at the endowning 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 Jinden. He needs to get rid of Jinden. And that is what happens. So Jinden 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 Messolina of Punjab, the whore of Punjab. They start to recede the gossip of his childhood that this is not the legitimate child of Ranjit Singh. Ranjit Singh claims as a legitimate heir, but no, they say no. He is the product of an affair between his whore mother and a water bearer, Abishdi in the court. So he has not one drop of no blood. This is the story they put out. The propaganda, they get that. Almost certainly not true. And then, well, I mean, who knows? Who knows? Who knows? But they don't know. Who knows? You know? So they drag away his poor mother. To actually rather nice place to shake a purer, where there is, I mean, if you're going to be locked up somewhere near Lahore, and it's 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 shake a purer. And there's two lovely things. One is a gorgeous lake with a octagonal structure built by the Emperor Jahangir, the Moghla Emperor Jahangir, for his favourite deer. It's called the Heran Minar. And then next to it is this extraordinary palace full of frescoes from this period. And anyone interested in art history of the Pahari art school and Seek Art needs to make it be lime for this because they're completely intact and completely perfect. So this is where Raleigh Jenner is rattling around, unable to leave and underhose the right. 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 an agony. She's been separated from her own child. Her own 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 has 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 act of the British takeover. And it's provoked by the British moving yet more forces up to the Satslige border. Already, I think three quarters of the Bengal armies 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 the massing there. So eventually, a Sikh party crossed the Satslige 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 by a small party on horse that crosses the river. And the British say it's an invasion. They say it's the cause of Spele. It's the reason they will go to war. And in the swirl of rumours, there are some people suggesting that in fact there's raiding parties even put out by the British side to give them a reason. And again, we have some extraordinary battles when... Oh, Chilean Wallet. It's just so bloody. I mean, talk about Chilean Wallet. That's a random conflict. Lots of Indian history. And the two best armies of the time go added. And in fact, the guns from Chilean Wallet 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 you're at the Chelsea Flower Show, you can pop around and see them. They're on unlikely plays. And because the British were 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 artinery, 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. The settles, the fate of the Coenaw and of Delipsey. 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 doggers. And so the whole... I mean, a lot of modern Indo-Pak conflict inscentered on the particular clause of the second treaty of Lahore. So a lot of... You know, in a 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... Is armed and loaded by the British? Is armed and loaded by the 1849 treaty of Lahore when Kashmir is given to the doggers? Well, look. So now, 1849, you've got Dahazi, Buhis, who's on the scene, who says, right, you know what, I want it all, I want all of it. So this Maharaj has got to go. So he's got to get out of Lahore. So this little... There's actually a really very powerful etching of this, which is the little boy. From the... It's called the... The straight London news. Yeah, and he's standing surrounded by these epilested soldiers, 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. And he has forced to sign over everything. And the Koehnoi is actually scheduled very high up in the number of things. So I think it sort of... I think comes right after signing over all rights to Lahore. But what is again, is crucial, is that it isn't given to the East Indie company. No. It's given to the Queen. Which, actually, there was no mandate. The East Indie company goes wild about this. They're like, who the hell do you think you are? Don't have to say. We've spent all the money on the armies. We're the ones who, you know, lost all the blood and Koehnoi here. Who are you to give this? But he has a plan. Yeah, this is his... This is his fast track to power. And also they probably... They can't publicly say that. They can't have it to the Queen. They're like, oh yes, you might just see. Hope you like it. Hope you like it. I'm just gifting. Hope you like it. So there's the diamond is now in... Going to be going to Koehnoi Victoria. Deliebsing is sent away from Lahore. And even now, you know, there are laments in Punjab. If it's... I can't stress this enough. This is such an open wound in the psyche of Sikhs. Punjabis in general, but Sikhs in particular. That their little boyking was so cheated and produced and taken away. And, you know, there are reports of the time of your Lahore being lined with weeping people as their boyking 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 Fathega, which is now in present day UP. And the Logan's, it's worth sort of mentioning the Logan's. 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 Dorshikana. And his writings are really fascinating. And he's the one who first lays eyes on the Koehnoor 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. And he is after the conquest, he is the one I think who gives the chit to Dalhazi. Yeah, exactly. Dalhazi has to sign. I have received the code. The Koehnoor. That's right. There is paperwork. And the Brits are very good at paperwork. It's a very good for his story and actually, that the paper trails had left behind. But having given over the diamond, he gets the boy. He gets the king. And Dalhazi 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 Ronnie Jindal 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 because she hasn't got means and she's 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 with the British. 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's not free. It's sort of a glorified house arrest. And in, and deliebsing in the meantime is being brought up by a very sweet couple traumatized. One must imagine is the boy's been splattered with blood, not so long ago, her senior's kingdom for, her senior's mother taken screaming away from him. And he tries almost immediately to be the best boy. Can I be the best boy, you know? And he learns to do British. Yeah, he puts away. He puts away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did they get a blind man's bath? He puts away his Persian poetry picks up. Shakespeare. Shakespeare, he puts away all of the secism of his past and he starts reading the Bible. And this is the point when he kind of really breaks out of all the seats. Already a grieving, grieving law 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 ranny of the world, you know, Victoria, this mother figure who, you know, he's told is the mother of the empire. He started writing to you. Yeah, and who is enchanted by him? Who thinks he's utterly fascinated? She asks the reports, regular reports about deliebs. 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 East and 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. Delieb is safely out of Lahore. And the diamond, now, how has he 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... We thought this was going to be a three-party. It was not. We're going to four parts, aren't we? We're going for the epic. So there's some wonderful little moments in the history of the Kodal. There's that moment we've already had when it ends up as a paperweight totem on a mother's desk. He doesn't realize what it is. Now, how has he decided to become the kind of diamond runner himself? Oh, 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... Absolutely. In years to come when the great uprising, 1857 Mutiny breaks out, which we're going to talk about in the later podcast, it's John Lawrence, who stops the massacres and then actually saves quite a lot of Mughal deli from destruction. There've been a plan to destroy the great German massager. I'll give you the greatest Mughal Mosque of all and replace it with a Gothic cathedral. We haven't got that Gothic cathedral. Thanks to John Lawrence. Thanks to John Lawrence. Anyway, at this point, though, he's not particularly interested in jewelry and bling. No, so this is the problem. This is not one of his finest moments. So he's given the diamond to look after it 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 pocket and he's like, I will look after it. Lord Dahlhousie, until the moment you need it, you can rely on me and he probably forgets where he puts it. So when Dahlhousie, the most valuable Dahlhousie in the world goes missing. Rackers, a year later, roughly. Dahlhousie, there's this right. You know what, I'm going to get it out of Lahore because it's just too... It's this rock is too hot. So 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? That's what it was about here. We'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, he says, everything upside down. This is according to him. And according to possible man, who does his biography. Says he looked everywhere, he couldn't find it, so he shouts at where's Valle, like, you know that waistcoat? I was wearing that time. There was something in the pocket, where is it? And then I go, it's over that rock. Oh, I just put it over here. We found God. Can you imagine? He's put it in a little drawer somewhere safe from harm. And so he has no idea what it is. Gives it back to Lawrence, who says, oh, my God. God, thank God. And then gives it to Dahlhousie. And you're quite right. Dahlhousie doesn't trust anybody with this time because it's now really such a hot rock. It's political significance, it's value, everything makes it a target. So he has this very small circle of trust. The three wise men, including Lawrence, who we're 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 Dahlhousie knits him a little muffler for it. It's a little person. She's so, I mean, honestly, this is a woman I guarantee is not so at all 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 Dahlhousie's neck and around his waist. So if someone tries to grab it and slits his throat, it's still attached to his body from the waist. I think that is the brand's neck. And around his neck and around his waist. So it is now doubly secured on Dahlhousie, who is now got a hard gallop it with his nephew, to Bombay to get it their hair out of India and over to Queen Victoria. And then they find, rather like, sort of with British hair ways now, or the flights cancel, they find that all the ships have got off to fight some other war and they haven't got any ships going to another river. 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 ride ship a year. So they finally find the ship and it's called the Medir. And it's a sloop. So it's fast. A steam-sloop. Steam-sloop. So it's a very... Latest technology. 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 Lockhear. And does he sense his nephew with it? He senses nephew and there was an official from the East India Company, because they're still a bit ticked off. But this whole... I mean, actually they do get their revenge because Dahlhazi and his mind has this whole thing of, I give on to you, Queen Victoria, the co-inor and 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 apparatus are taking the glory from him, but that's the way it is. So it's loaded onto this steam-sloop, the Medir. Captain Lockhear's 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 has given a key. So not one person on the Medir can open all three. And I say kill the other two. That's such as the security of the diamond. Brilliant. So something tells me that this is not going to be an easy voyage, but we're going to save the story of the Medir and it's terrible journey to England for the next episode. Goodbye from me, William Durham, Paul. And me and Eta Arnham.