‘I have a particular affecion for the subcontinent’
BRITISH ASIANS WILL BE REASSURED BY THE KING’S VOW TO SERVE ‘ALL CULTURES AND FAITHS’
BRITAIN’S Asian community will hope that King Charles III will stick up for them, as he has done for so many decades as heir to the throne.
As the Prince of Wales, he put so much effort into the British Asian Trust, spoke about his belief in inter-faith dialogue, defended the Islamic faith and previously indicated he wanted to be defender of all faiths and not just the Church of England.
He has long had a soft spot for India, a country to which he was introduced by his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, the country’s last British viceroy, and to which he, in turn, took his “mehbooba”, Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall and now his Queen Consort.
The new King has tried to reassure right-wing newspapers, which saw off the challenge from Rishi Sunak, that he will not be a “woke” monarch with new-fangled ideas. There was a time when some tabloids wanted the succession to jump one generation and go to Prince William, who has taken over from his father as the Prince of Wales.
In his first two speeches, the King has promised to follow the example set by his mother, and solemnly pledged himself “to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation”.
He said: “My life will, of course, change as I take up my new responsibilities. It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others.”
But Asians will take heart from his promise: “In the course of the last 70 years, we have seen our society become one of many cultures and many faiths. The institutions of the state have changed in turn. Whatever may be your background or beliefs, I shall endeavour to serve you with loyalty, respect and love.”
At the Accession Council at St James’s Palace, he was also made “head of the Commonwealth”, which was not something he could inherit automatically.
It will be recalled that the Queen made an extraordinary personal request at the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London. She said then: “It is my sincere wish that the Commonwealth will continue to offer stability and continuity for future generations and will decide that one day the Prince of Wales should carry on the important work started by my father in 1949.”
Commonwealth leaders, among them the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, signalled their assent and so the deal was done.
Prince Charles then set out his job credentials: “For my part, the Commonwealth has been a fundamental feature of my life for as long as I can remember, beginning with my first visit to Malta when I was just five years old.”
He made clear his past history: “I consider myself fortunate over the years to have been able to meet and talk with so many of the giants of the Commonwealth – Sir Robert Menzies; Kwame Nkrumah; Sir Keith Holyoake; Jomo Kenyatta; Pierre Trudeau; Kenneth Kaunda; Julius Nyerere; Lee Kuan Yew and many more.”
He outlined of his ambitions for the future: “I pray this Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting will not only revitalise the bonds between our countries, but will also give the Commonwealth a renewed relevance to all citizens, finding practical solutions to their problems and giving life to their aspirations. By doing so, the Commonwealth can be a cornerstone for the lives of future generations, just as it has been for so many of us.”
I got an insight into his thinking when I travelled with the then Prince of Wales and his wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, as part of the British press party to Italy; to Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in the Middle East; and to India.
There was a significant event that happened in Italy – or rather didn’t happen.
I remember a visit to the Vatican when the royal couple had an audience with Pope John Paul II. Moved by the meeting, Charles announced he hoped to celebrate mass with the Pope as a gesture of unity with the Roman Catholic Church. But on the morning of the day this was supposed to happen, the accompanying press officer, Vic Chapman, told us that the joint mass had been cancelled on the orders of Buckingham Palace. This did not improve HRH’s mood, said Chapman, adding in his characteristically earthy way, “It sure ****** up his lunch.”
In Britain, the sovereign holds the title ‘defender of the faith and supreme governor of the Church of England’. It was clear that traditionalists in Buckingham Palace did not approve of Charles relaxing the strict definition of ‘defender of the faith’.
He later explained: “I said I would rather be seen as defender of faith all those years ago because... I mind about the inclusion of other people’s faiths and their freedom to worship in this country. And it always seems to me that while at the same time being defender of the faith, you can also be protector of faiths. You have to come from your own Christian standpoint... ensuring that other people’s faiths can also be practised.”
One country he has visited on numerous occasions is India. His first visit was in 1975 when he was accompanied by Lord Mountbatten, from whom he inherited his love for the country. When Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA in 1979, the first country in the world to lower its flag was not the UK but India.
Just before Charles and Diana went to India in 1992, one of his senior officials invited me to Clarence House for suggestions on what he might say in his keynote address in Delhi. I said he ought to mention he had learned about India from Mountbatten – which he duly did in his speech which went down well. Unfortunately, he did not listen to another piece of advice – that he should accompany Diana to the Taj Mahal in Agra. He didn’t, with disastrous PR consequences.
Later, none of the press wanted to go with him to Bangalore; instead everyone wanted to accompany Diana to Golconda in Hyderabad. I was press-ganged into travelling on his VC10 – alone with him and his officials – to Bangalore to meet businessmen discussing how to make gas from cow dung. Although the air conditioner failed, he stayed in a stifling hot room the whole afternoon. But he did care about the possible benefits of making gas for poor Indians. And this concern was behind the setting up of the British Asian Trust.
The trust was founded in 2007 by a group of British Asian business leaders at his suggestion to serve as a “social fund” to support charities dealing with education, health and livelihoods in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Before a film was shown highlighting the stories of two individuals who had survived trafficking, Charles said: “Hearing of the horrific ordeals these young girls suffered is heart-breaking, but I was so very struck by their tremendous courage and could not be more encouraged by the local organisations working tirelessly to rescue, care for and rehabilitate women and children who have been victims of this appalling practice.”
The prince, who became the trust’s president, added: “As you can perhaps imagine, I am extremely proud that my British Asian Trust is making its own contribution to these overall efforts by this year launching its anti-trafficking fund, which I hope will help in a small way to
prevent and address violence against women and children.”
He held an annual black-tie dinner to celebrate the work of the trust. He used his standing to pull in tycoons like Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, who became chairman of the Indian Advisory Council of the British Asian Trust.
“I am hugely grateful to Mukesh Ambani, who has offered his support in India,” Charles told his 250 guests, mostly British
Asian, in 2013, when his charity marked its fifth anniversary at Windsor Castle.
Hitan Mehta, executive director of the trust, acknowledged at the time: “I think the diaspora generally does have a certain respect for the UK royal family. This is perhaps reinforced by the Prince of Wales’s own feelings about the countries the trust helps.”
Charles explained his feelings about the region: “I’m one of those people who was brought up surrounded by so many objects and pictures and stories about the subcontinent and about south Asia.
“So perhaps you can imagine why I’ve developed such an interest going back such a long way. I happen to have a particular affection and interest in that part of the world and indeed, as far as I’m concerned, it has been remarkable how many people have come from that part of the world and established themselves here and have contributed so much to the life in this country and made it a huge success in so many ways and are a very important part of our country – all the British Asians.”
He added: “I know also from the visits I’ve made to south Asia over the past 40 years, I’ve come across so many fascinating examples of really worthwhile activity being carried out by all sorts of different organisations. So having thought about these issues for quite a long time I turned to the entrepreneurial spirit of the British Asian diaspora. I wanted to see if there was a way of linking them with the wonderfully innovative local social entrepreneurs and grassroots charities I have encountered across south Asia.
“The result was the British Asian Trust, which has successfully linked the two groups to help transform the lives of thousands of people in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. Interestingly, the Trust has been able to help more than a million of the world’s poorest people in five years.
“I have always believed that it is not just the British Asian community who could be supporting this work, but it’s important to work in collaboration with in-country supporters to help us leverage funding. In the next five years, we should hope to do more and, if we can, on a larger scale – with a particular focus on women and girls – together with support for improving and caring for the natural environment in the whole region. In doing this, we will help to empower future generations, who can in turn facilitate long-term improvement in south Asia’s health and prosperity.”
Camilla spoke earlier this year of her travels “in places like India, Pakistan, they are very special, so full of culture. Everywhere you go, there’s something new and exciting to see”.
Recalling her trips to India, she said: “I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of these wonderful old manuscripts and these illustrated books, you know, these ancient illustrated books, which are completely fascinating and, of course you’ve got so many good authors there. My favourite is Vikram Seth….”
Charles took Camilla to India in 2006, a year after their marriage. I happened to be in Jodhpur, interviewing Gaj Singh, the erstwhile Maharajah of Jodhpur, about the challenges of bringing water to his desert kingdom. He was also jokingly telling me how his family’s style of the Jodhpur riding breeches had been “stolen” by the British (“I’m still waiting for my royalties”) when he suddenly broke off and said: “Sorry, I’ve got to receive Charles and Camilla at the airport.”
A little later, the couple arrived at Umaid Bhavan to a typically warm Rajasthani welcome. Camilla is a patron of the Marwari Horse Society which supports this rare breed of horse from the Jodhpur region.
The following day I caught up with
Charles and Camilla in a remote village where the Bishnoi tribe lived and worshipped nature. Camilla chose a selection of carpets by a local craftswoman, but apologised for not having enough cash, whereupon the woman produced a card machine from her wicker basket and said, “Do you have American Express?”
On a previous trip in 2003, Charles met the dabbawallahs – the tiffin carriers – in Mumbai. When the couple married at the Guild Hall in Windsor in 2005, the dabbawallahs sent her a sari as a wedding gift and were invited to send their representatives to the wedding – a signal honour.
When I met Camilla at a reception a few years later, she confirmed, “It is a lovely green sari; I’ve got it.” As to when she would wear it, she would only say: “I will pick my moment.”
It will certainly go down well with India and Indians if she now chooses to wear the sari as the Queen Consort. As for the dabbawallahs, they were prominent in leading the day of mourning in India last Sunday (11) for the late Queen.
It is also worth pointing out that Camilla’s younger brother, Mark Shand, who died, aged 62, in 2014, had a lifelong love affair with India, where he did much to promote the welfare of elephants.
In 1988 he bought a female, Tara, in Bhubaneshwar in Orissa (Odisha), rode her 600 miles to the Sonepur Mela and wrote a best-selling book, Travels on my Elephant. Another book, Queen of the Elephants, won the 1996 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.
On many occasions, Charles has spoken out in defence of Islam. In 1993, he gave a lecture entitled “Islam and the West” at the inauguration of the Distinguished Lecturer Programme at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He returned in 2010 and toured the centre before delivering another lecture, “Islam and the environment”, at Oxford University’s Sheldonian Theatre.
In 2015, he expressed concern about radicalisation in Britain: “Well, of course, this is one of the greatest worries, I think, and the extent which this is happening is the alarming part. And particularly in a country like ours where, you know, the values we hold dear. You think that the people who have come here, born here, go to school here, would abide by those values and outlooks.
“The frightening part is that people can be so radicalised either by contact with somebody else or through the internet...I can see to a certain extent, some aspect of this radicalisation is a search for adventure and excitement at a particular age.”
During the pandemic last year, Charles appealed to British Asians to get the Covid jabs and expressed support for the vaccine rollout: “As you undertake this absolutely vital work, I can only wish you every possible success in coming to the aid of our ethnic minority communities, for whom I hold the greatest affection.”