After the British occupation of Punjab, the kalgi was taken to England

LUDHIANA, August 2: ``...I wish you could walk through that (Ranjit Singh's) Toshkhana and see its wonders; the vast quantities of gold a...

LUDHIANA, August 2: “…I wish you could walk through that (Ranjit Singh’s) Toshkhana and see its wonders; the vast quantities of gold and silver; the jewels not to be valued, so many and so rich; the Koh-i-noor, far beyond what I had imagined; Runjeet’s golden chair of state; silver pavilion; Shah Soojah’s ditto; Relics of the Prophet; Kulgee plume of the last Sikh Guru; sword of the Persian hero Rustum (taken fron Shah Soojah); sword of Holkar, etc…" wrote an overwhelmed Colonel Robert Adams after visiting the treasury of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

The plume, or kalgi, which is believed to have been worn by Guru Gobind Singh, who is often referred to as Kalgidhar (wearer of the plume), was one of the items in Ranjit Singh’s possession. After the British occupation of Punjab following the Second Sikh War, the kalgi was taken to England where it finally ended up at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Now it turns out that the museum has confirmed that while the kalgi was indeed once in its possession, it is untraceable and has been so far the past 23 years.

These facts came to light when Kamaljit Singh Boparai, secretary of the International Shiromani Sant Khalsa Foundation, wrote to the Indian Foreign Secretary requesting that the kalgi of the 10th Guru be sent from the United Kingdom to India for display during the year-long tercentenary celebrations.

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The Foundation, a creation of Sant Darshan Singh of Dhakki Sahib, now in jail on murder charges, was informed on May 20, 1999 by Bhaswati Mukherjee, Joint Secretary (EW), Ministry of External Affairs that “…in view of the importance attached to this matter, it was taken up at the highest level with the UK High Commission in Delhi. The High Commission has stated that the whereabouts of the kalgi of the 10th Guru are unknown. They also indicated that an extensive search made in 1976 by the Victoria and Albert Museum, where it had previously been situated, failed to trace it.”

The UK High Commission stated that this fact had been reported to the Chief Minister of Punjab and to the Sikh leaders at Amritsar in February, 1976. However, it is not clear what, if any, steps had been taken by these authorities regarding the matter. The kalgi was not the only item in the treasury. Of the lot, the Koh-i-noor is the most famous.

Colonel Robert Adams had written to his cousin Lady Login, detailing the items under the charge of her husband Doctor Henry Login, who was formally made the Keeper of the State Toshakhana by the British. In a footnote, he had stated — “the enclosed rough memorandum will amuse you.”

The memorandum half-seriously goes on to list the young ruler of the family of Sikhs, Duleep Singh, Ranjit’s 33 ranis and 130 concubines among the items under Login’s charge

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Most of the objects listed in the memorandum should be with British museums but no effort seems to have been made by the state government to track them down.