India to get back seven stolen artefacts including Nizam’s sword from UK museum

HYDERABAD:  India on Friday got possession of some invaluable artefacts looted from the country and taken to Britain before Independence, following an agreement signed between the High Commission of India and the United Kingdom’s Glasgow Life which manages Glasgow’s museums.

The agreement was signed during a formal ceremony at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and seven invaluable objects were handed over to representatives from India. Six of these objects were looted from shrines and temples across north India from places like Kolkata, Kanpur, Bihar and Gwalior, during the 19th century while the seventh object is a ceremonial sword of Indo-Persian design of wavy serrated serpentine blade and gold damascening, possible from around 1350 CE.

INTACH co-convener P Anuradha Reddy told TNIE that the sword went missing some time in the rule of Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, Nizam VI. “Salar Jung was the Prime Minister during Mahbub Ali Pasha’s reign. Sir Archibald Hunter had also taken charge as the General Officer Commanding of the Southern Army in 1907; he must have had some connections with the Hyderabad state and its rulers. I believe someone must have presented the sword to Hunter and it travelled with him to Europe.”