The coronation of Charles III was truly spectacular. For a while people forgot the high inflation, shortage of food and fuel, strikes of nurses, etc.
Watching the coronation ceremony coverage on BBC, with various regiments marching past in 19th century uniforms, bearskin hats, carrying royal standards and flags, one felt one was seeing a gorgeous Hollywood film about glamorous royalty of the 19th century or a screenplay by Rudyard Kipling, a passionate believer in the British Empire. Then the past fable changes and the viewer is taken inside Westminster Abbey where an impressive orchestra plays musical compositions—not of Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky but of a homegrown composer, Wharton. Then a heart-warming image of an Afro-British woman in yellow taffeta dress singing an aria. A polite applause concludes her song.
The international power elite walk through the corridor; consorts in muted colours and subdued countenances, somewhat awed by echoes and scenes of the past. The smiling French President’s wife, the sombre American First Lady. And then comes a feast for the eyes; the Muslim First Minister of Scotland, the Muslim Mayor of London, a sari clad Baroness, a Jewish Rabbi (who may be remembering how Jewish merchants who came to present gifts to King Richard I, of Lion-Heart fame, at his coronation were assaulted by royal courtiers.) Then comes the procession of former British Prime Ministers like Tony Blair, who obediently followed George Bush to devastate Afghanistan and Iraq in the new millennium. Then come sundry representatives of former colonies.
And then the soul storming spectacle of a Rishi Sunak, the elegant British Prime Minister of Punjabi-Indian origin and his lissom Kannadiga wife in a grey dress and lacy hat.
A great Indian Mohandas Gandhi was scorned as a “naked fakir on the steps of Buckingham Palace” by a white British Prime Minister. The naked fakir helped to end the British Raj in India and by domino effect, rest of British colonial territories. Britannia ceased to rule the waves. And now a man of Indian origin and Hindu religion heads the British government. Bravo, Rishi Sunak.
Horses and bands accompany the gilt carriage where King Charles sits with his consort in white regalia. Briefly one might see the ghost of Charles’ first, star crossed, beautiful wife Diana, flit past. Perhaps Diana’s two sons may be thinking if only their mother was here to be crowned Queen Consort of England…
As the procession and gilded carriage turn, we see the bronze statue of King Charles I (who was beheaded by his subjects) glancing down at Charles III.
When King Faruk of Egypt was deposed, he said that five kings would survive the 20th century. These would be the four kings in a pack of cards—Spade, Diamond, Heart, Club and the King of England. The prediction did not materialize because other monarchs have survived well into the 21st century. But none with the glitz of the British royalty.
The British monarchy was not exceptional during medieval times. In fact the Plantagenet, Tudors, and Stuarts, possessed none of the power and glory of the Austrian Hapsburgs or French Valois or the formidable Castile-Aragon dynasty, who ruled half of Europe and the Americas, the great renaissance era families—Medicis, Sforzas, d’Estes who were generous patrons of art and literature that illumined European countries. The monarchs who ruled England then were given to violence and wars. There was no flowering of art, sculpture until Elizabeth I came to the throne. Even the Georges I, II, III, IV who came from Hanover to sit on the British throne did not have an aura around them.
The power and glamour that surrounded British monarchy began with the growth of the British Empire in India. It was as if the inhabitants of the foggy island found a new existence and identity amidst the vastness, sunlight and wealth of India. With advanced weaponry, organized standing armies, diplomatic manoeuvres and the interminable internecine warfare between Indian rajas and nawabs, treacherous courtiers who betrayed their royal masters, the rajas and nawabs who were ready collaborators of the East India Company—the vast land of India that had evicted Macedonians, Huns and Mongols in past ages was ready to be conquered, and impoverished. Treasures from India found their way to grand mansions and castles. Indian raw materials fuelled Britain’s industrial revolution.
Colonial empires were dismantled by the forces of nationalism after World War II. Britain lay prostrate, her manpower decimated, the imperial city of London in rubble and ruins, Gandhiji and his followers demanding freedom, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose raising the banner of revolt through the Azad Hind Fauj, which fragmented the British Indian Army, the Naval Mutiny. The Viceroy of India informed Churchill that with defection from the army, navy and police it would not be possible to continue British rule.
With British power gone, it was imperative to preserve the glories of the past, not through fast fading memories but through something more tangible and visible.
An unlikely saviour came in the form of Marion Crawford, governess to the “little princesses” Elizabeth and Margaret. She published a book with that title which became a trans-Atlantic best seller. Living then in New York, our parents gave my sister and me to read the book and behave like little princesses. As King George VI’s health deteriorated, Ms Crawford kept another book ready. Within a month of the king’s death and Elizabeth’s accession, “Elizabeth the Queen” was published and sold millions of copies.
Queen Victoria had been “Gloriana”, presiding over Britain’s finest imperial hour. It was predicted that Elizabeth II would usher in another great age like Elizabeth I. Instead this Elizabeth’s reign saw the British Empire vanish and the birth of sovereign nations in Asia and Africa.
The coronation of Charles III was truly spectacular as music played, heralds sounded and solemn prayers were intoned within the vaulted arches of the thousand-year-old Westminster Abbey.
For a while people forgot the high inflation, shortage of food and fuel, strikes of nurses and near collapse of the once splendid national health scheme.
Long live the King.
Achala Moulik is an author, a former Education Secretary, Government of India, and former Director General, Archaeological Survey of India.