New Delhi, Feb 7 (PTI) Queen Elizabeth II, the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee, was given a rousing reception in Delhi in January 1961 at the historic Ramlila Maidan where she also had addressed a massive gathering of people during her first royal visit to India.
On Sunday, the 95-year-old Queen completed 70 years of her reign, after having ascended the throne on February 6, 1952, on the death of her father King George VI, who also was the last emperor of India.
Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation took place in June 1953 and she had undertaken her first royal visit to India, along with her consort Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in 1961, becoming the first British monarch to visit India after its Independence from the colonial rule in 1947.
During her royal tour which began in the month of January, she attended the grand Republic Day celebrations at Rajpath in New Delhi on January 26, and was also accorded a splendid civic reception in the sprawling grounds of the historic Ramlila Maidan in the presence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and a massive gathering of people, according to archival records.
At the Ramlila Maidan, bedecked with a large number of Indian and British flags, several thousand citizens sat among the spectators, cheering and waving small flags of both the countries, as the royal couple were felicitated by the then mayor of Delhi Sham Nath, on a huge, elevated oriental-style rostrum, with ceremonial Indian ‘hars’ (garlands).
The Queen was gifted an artistic model of 12-century minaret Qutub Minar, while the Duke of Edinburgh received a silver candelabra on the occasion, as per rare archival footage of her royal tour.
The platform which today wears a rather faded look and the Ramlila Maidan, owned by the area’s civic body and located between New Delhi and Old Delhi, itself has been a silent witness to some of the historic events that unfolded in the seven decades that have followed after the Independence.
The Queen, during the Delhi leg of her 1961 tour, had also visited Rajghat and offered a ceremonial wreath at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial.
Accompanied by Prince Philip, she had also formally opened the institute buildings of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on January 27 at an impressive ceremony attended by the then President Rajendra Prasad.
AIIMS was established in 1956. A plaque commemorating the event still stands on a pillar inside the J L Nehru Auditorium building, and on its diamond jubilee in 2016, some of the rare images from her visit to the premier institute were displayed in an exhibition hosted in the campus.
The Queen had also planted a tree on the grand opening of the premier campus, but it was lost to termites, over a period of time.
“It was a glittering ceremony and on the opening day, she had planted a tree. Unfortunately, we have lost that tree to termites. But we have planted new trees there,” the then director of AIIMS, Dr M C Misra had told PTI in 2016.
The Royal Family in the past have recalled the memories of the India visit of the Queen, sharing old pictures from the multi-city tour of the country, on its official social media handles.
“The Queen and The Royal Family have a personal connection with India and have visited several times,” it had tweeted in 2017.
“The Queen’s first State Visit to India was in 1961, as the guest of Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India,” the Royal Family had said in a subsequent tweet.
“Her Majesty has undertaken three State Visits to India, the first of which was in 1961 – The Queen addresses a crowd in Ramlila Ground and The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh on a walkabout in New Delhi, 1961,” it had said in a tweet in 2019, and shared two rare pictures of the 1961 visit.
During her first royal visit, the Queen and Prince Philip had also visited Taj Mahal in Agra, Bombay (now Mumbai), Benares (now Varanasi, Udaipur, Jaipur, Bangalore, Madras (now Chennai) and Calcutta (now Kolkata). She also visited Pakistan during her trip to the Indian subcontinent.
Queen Elizabeth II, in 1961 had become the first British monarch to visit India after her grandfather King George V and Queen Mary’s historic visit of 1911 for his Delhi Durbar. While in 1911, India was a British colony, dubbed the ‘Jewel in the Crown’, during the Queen’s visit, it was a free, democratic nation, and a young republic. Both George V and Elizabeth II were accorded grand welcome by India.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip had made three visits to India – in 1961, 1983 and another one in 1997, when India was marking 50th year of its Independence.
The couple had got married in November 1947. The Duke of Edinburgh, who had also visited India in 1959, died last year, aged 99.
The day of anniversary of her ascension to the throne is also a moment of reflection for the monarch, who virtually overnight had been transformed from Princess Elizabeth to Queen Elizabeth II at a young age of 25 in 1952, far away from England.
The couple were in Kenya in February 1952, having left London on January 31, enjoying the nature and the wildlife, when the news was broken to her that her father King George VI had died on February 6, following which they returned to London. PTI KND TDS TDS
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Source: The Print
