Opinion The circumstance of pomp

Royals,whether Indian or foreign,are famous for being famous. Moreover,the bond between our erstwhile royals and the House of Windsor has lasted: Prince Charles comes visiting,as he did in 2010,and he and Camilla are hosted and feted by Amarinder Singh of Patiala and Gaj Singh of Jodhpur. Incidentally,all our former royals still refer to themselves in correspondence and on their letterheads as His Royal Highness. And,for many Indians,England’s royals are our royals. Late last year,there was another royal wedding in Europe. The heir to the Swedish throne,crown princess Victoria,married her fitness instructor. The couple were young and attractive,the wedding procession was four miles long and the couple were transported by royal barge instead of royal carriage,yet not one media outlet in India saw fit to cover the event. Our royal allegiance is restricted to the Windsors.

We Indians also love ceremony and rituals and the British royals do pomp and ceremony better and more elaborately than any other. The Indian armed forces still carry on many of those ceremonial traditions. We also love our weddings and band baja baraat was in full display at Westminster Abbey,Buckingham Palace and down the Mall.

There is also the fact that the Windsors have become more human thanks to a series of scandals,divorces,an annus horribilis,tragedy and generally dysfunctional behaviour. The little girl playing with her father in the Oscar-winning The King’s Speech is the same person who struggled to respond to Diana’s death,and is about to become grandmother-in-law to Kate Middleton.

Indeed,the royal nuptials in London bring back nostalgic memories of another fairytale wedding,Charles and Di. Her own marriage in 1981,its tumultuous aftermath and then her death,transfixed us. Now the elder son,who looks so like his mother,is marrying a commoner. Fairy tales don’t get fairier than that. Let’s not forget that it was at the Taj Mahal that the first signs of marital discord between his parents became apparent to the world.

Of course,the India connection goes deeper than that and the royal linkages are far more complex. Parts of India are still very feudal; we may celebrate our democracy and our millionaire entrepreneurs and our egalitarian society — but reality is far more complicated than that. The royals may have no legal standing,but,even stripped of their titles,most are still comparatively rich and powerful,and many became members of parliament and even senior cabinet ministers. Morever,they are still treated as superiors by their “subjects” back in their home states. We are still captivated by their aura,mystique and the fabulous lifestyles they led. The Windors are a more permanent throwback to that era.

Ultimately,the royal wedding is a modern fairytale; like the ones we all grew up with,the handsome prince and the beautiful princess. The Friday nuptials may have knocked the IPL off the TV ratings — but what explains the fact that so many IPL teams have a royal connect in their choice of names? We have the Royal Challengers,the Rajasthan Royals,King’s XI Punjab and the Chennai Super Kings. That is subject for a larger psycho-analytical study — but,for now,here’s the bottomline. Trapped in the midst of scams and scandals and with politicians,the judiciary and even corporate India hit by a major crisis of credibility,a royal wedding is the ideal distraction,a perfect extension to India’s enduring connection to family far away.