India took possession of some valuable artefacts which were stolen from the country and taken to Britain before Independence on Friday after an agreement was signed between the High Commission of India and the United Kingdom’s Glasgow Life, which supervises Glasgow’s museums.
The agreement was signed during a formal ceremony at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, and seven priceless objects were presented to Indian representatives. Six of these objects were plundered from shrines and temples in north India, including Kolkata, Kanpur, Bihar, and Gwalior, during the nineteenth century, while the seventh is an Indo-Persian ceremonial sword with a wavy serrated serpentine blade and gold damascening, possibly dating from around 1350 CE.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, NTACH co-convener P Anuradha Reddy said that the sword was gone during the rule of Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, Nizam VI. He said, “Salar Jung was the Prime Minister during Mahbub Ali Pasha’s reign. Sir Archibald Hunter had also taken charge as the General Officer Commanding of the Southern Army in 1907; he must have had some connections with the Hyderabad state and its rulers. I believe someone must have presented the sword to Hunter and it travelled with him to Europe.”
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