India, April 27 -- To be honest, I don't like to visit British museums. This has nothing to do with any aversion to British aesthetics, or some of the genuinely beautiful things displayed in them. My reservation stems from the fact that so much of what is there is part of the wanton plunder and loot of priceless Indian artefacts, and indeed, from other countries so colonised or conquered.

This was my reaction when many years ago I visited the Tower of London Museum. There, the centre of attraction is the famed Kohinoor diamond, rightly described as the 'mountain of light'. The 105.6 carat flawless diamond once adorned the Peacock Throne in Delhi. In 1849, following the Anglo-Sikh war, a young Maharaja Duleep Singh of Patiala was coerced ...