New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday that he encourages Britain’s King Charles to return the Koh-i-Noor Diamond, with his comments coming during the British monarch’s ongoing visit to the US.
“If I were to speak to the king apart from this, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor Diamond,” Mamdani, who is Indian-American, said when asked at a news conference hours before a ceremony commemorating the victims of the deadly Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Later in the day, the king spoke to Mamdan at the ceremony. Buckingham Palace declined to comment. Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether Mamdani raised the issue with the king.
India has repeatedly demanded that Britain return the 105-carat diamond.
Britain’s then colonial governor-general of India arranged for the large diamond to be presented to Queen Victoria in 1850 after the East India Company had annexed the Punjab region in 1849 and taken the diamond from a deposed Indian leader.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said King Charles should return the Koh-i-Noor diamond. pic.twitter.com/sb0rJyGuHF
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Charles on Wednesday remembered the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, placing a bouquet of flowers at the memorial where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood.
India gained independence from British rule in 1947. The British colonization of India and the widespread atrocities committed against Indians during that period remain sensitive issues in the country.
India has previously said the diamond was a “prized work of art with strong roots in our nation’s history”. The possession of the diamond by the British is seen by many Indians as a symbol of colonial atrocities during British rule.
The diamond has previously been owned by the Mughal emperors of India, the shahs of Iran, the emirs of Afghanistan and the Sikh maharajas, according to the Royal Historic Palace charity.
