One of the lasting controversies generated by imperialist conquests concerns objects that were acquired by the conquerors as booty. Whose is the rightful claim to those objects? The conquerors or the former colonies from where the objects were forcibly — or even illegally — taken? The persistence of the debate is evident from the fact that the British prime minister, David Cameron, during his recent visit to India, had to say that there was no question of returning the Kohinoor diamond to India. The argument on which he based his refusal is a telling one. He said that if the Ko -hinoor was to be sent back to India, it would lead to an emptying of most of the leading British museums. What Mr Cameron said, in other words, was that most of the objects of history and antiques that are there in the British Museum do not actually belong to Britain. They were all acquired in the course of conquest.

Perhaps the most celebrated of such objects on display in Britain are the ‘Elgin Marbles’ in the British Museum and the Kohinoor in the Tower of London. Both were acquired by means that were not entirely honourable. In the case of the marble sculptures from the Parthenon which are mistakenly named after Lord Elgin, who had nothing to do with them except acquire them, it was clearly a show of power by an individual who claimed that he had the permission of the Ottoman emperor. This claim has never been proven and is probably dubious, despite the fact that the British parliament exonerated Lord Elgin. The transmission of the Kohinoor to the British Isles is a little more convoluted. The diamond was seen by Babur when he entered the Agra Fort after defeating Sikander Lodi in 1525. After that, it stayed with the Mughal emperors till it was taken by Nadir Shah when he sacked Delhi in 1740. From the Afghans it came to the political leader of the Sikhs, Ranjit Singh, in the 19th century. It came into British hands after they conquered Punjab. But to put an honourable gloss on what was nothing but a spoil of war, the British administrators made Duleep Singh, the successor of Ranjit Singh, offer this as a “gift” to Queen Victoria. Thus an imperial prize was made to look like a present.

There are thus justifiable grounds to demand that objects like the marbles from the Parthenon and the Kohinoor diamond be returned to their countries of origin. If this should lead to empty galleries in British museums, Britain will have to find different objects to fill those spaces. Empty galleries in museums cannot be a justification for acts of plunder in the past. India should also be prepared to hand over to China — if such a demand is made — precious objects acquired during the Boxer Rebellion that now lie in the messes of Indian regiments. India was both a victim and an agency of imperialist plunder.