British Rajera family is keen to return Indian artefact
LONDON: There is little prospect of the return of priceless Indian artefacts currently with Britain’s royal family, museums and people whose ancestors served the British Raj, but one such family is keen to give back an item discovered in a newly opened chest.
Iain Shore, whose ancestors include John Shore, the governor general of India during 1793-1797, returned a set of instruments used by another ancestor, engineer Arthur Garrett, during the restoration of Jaipur’s Jantar Mantar in 1902, to the Albert Hall Museum in 2016.
Shore is now keen to return a silver rose bowl dated 1906, which was found in a family chest that lay unopened for decades. It was presented to another ancestor, a soldier in the 35th Sikhs, the infantry regiment in the British Indian Army that saw action in several wars and conflicts. It eventually became the Sikh Regiment after 1947.
The rose bowl with a black wooden plinth bears the badge of the 35th Sikhs, with signatures inscribed of every officer of the regiment in 1906. It was presented to a captain, Shore’s great-uncle, GWG Lindesay, who was the brother-in-law of Major Arthur Garrett.
The chest was with Shore’s maternal uncle, Nicholas Lindesay Lyons, the last survivor of the generation who knew Lindesay. Being very frail, he expressed a “strong desire” that the rose bowl be returned to the Sikh Regiment in India.
“He considers the Sikh Regiment to be its natural home, where it can be seen, used and enjoyed by the officers of that historic, illustrious, honourable and battle-hardened band of brothers. One never leaves the regiment in which one has served - it is always in your blood,” Shore, himself a former army officer, said on Friday.
“It is my belief that much of India’s history was removed from India. As far as my family is concerned, I feel a personal debt to the country which gave so many of my family birth and infant nurture. I should like to return whatever I have, which is of historical significance, so that it can be enjoyed in the place where it belongs.”