King Charles III coronation: The British Royal's India connections

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and actor Sonam Kapoor are among the Indians invited to the coronation of King Charles III.

Many moons ago, my significant other and I were leafing through BabyNames for something suitable for our second daughter and after some back and forth we settled on the name Kamila. Subsequently, a friend who shall remain nameless, congratulated me saying, “I heard you have given her a royal name?” Somewhat perplexed, I countered weakly with, “Er, no, Kamila is supposed to mean perfect…” Whereupon she let fly with a crisp backhand down the line, “C’mon yaar, I also watch BBC, I know you named her after Camilla Parker Bowles.”

There seemed very little point in debating the matter; after all we had no lofty ambitions of rearing a consort for a future King, but it augurs well for King Charles that his love life is so closely monitored by a young woman from Kodagu in south interior Karnataka. That apart, the man who ascends the throne on May 6, 2023, has several connections with India going back to Emmanuel College in Cambridge where he was tutored by Shomie Ranjan Das, who went on to become a byword in the annals of higher education in India and who was principal of the Holy Trinity of education: Mayo, Lawrence & Doon. A triple crown, so to speak.

King Charles has long been a passionate advocate for farmers and the environment; legend has it that he speaks (in English, presumably) to plants while lesser mortals are content to use veganism as a form of virtue-signalling. The King is a firm believer in therapeutic, evidence-informed yoga and has sought the counsel of Dr Issac Mathai in Bangalore who has been the royal couple’s holistic physician for the past 15 years. He is also a huge fan of the Dabbawallas whom he invited for his second marriage to Camilla; the wedding gift was a rare Paithani saree for the bride while the groom had to make do with a lehenga kurta. The King is a “details” person who was fascinated by the clockwork precision with which the Dabbawallas ply their craft, especially in a country where chaos is the default setting and jugaad the go-to solution.

Given the new King’s deeply ingrained sense of integrity and fair play, this may perhaps be the right moment to seek the return of the Koh-i-Noor, the 106-carat diamond which has been a part of the crown jewels. At the very least Indian tourists should have free entry to the Tower of London based on the reasonable premise that we have paid in advance. Collectors of trivia may be intrigued to know that during his 1980 visit to a Bollywood studio, the Prince got lucky when 16-year-old Padmini Kohlapure planted a demure peck on the royal cheek. It’s payback time, Your Highness, hold on to the crown but give us back our diamond.

The coronation ceremony will take place at Westminster Abbey and will be conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury with a young man of Indian origin who has been chosen to herald the occasion with a resounding “God Save the King”, after nearly a century of imploring the Almighty to save the Queen. On May 7, for the first time ever, the East Terrace of Windsor Castle will be the setting for a fabulous concert featuring Katy Perry, Take That and our very own Bollywood belle, Sonam Kapoor, who will deliver a spoken word performance. The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, will read from the Book of Colossians, while Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Sikh peers will present the King with items of the coronation regalia.

Lord Navnit Dholakia, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, is one of the fortunate peers who will be gracing the coronation with his presence, dressed in a ceremonial ermine robe, while the King will be more austerely outfitted in military uniform. Lord Karan Bilimoria who founded the legendary Cobra beer company was one of the lucky 30 peers who were chosen by ballot to attend, so presumably the bar will be well stocked. Maya Joshi who runs the Peepul Centre Crisis Café dedicated to vulnerable elders, people with hearing loss and women facing domestic abuse, is a distinguished invitee as is Jay Patel, who found a job as a chef at CN Tower, one of Canada’s most iconic tourist attractions, thanks to the King’s Trust Canada initiative.

Anuvab Pal, who has been described as India’s most intelligent comedian, holds the distinction of having performed twice at the Royal Awards ceremony at the Albert Hall - for Queen Elizabeth in 2021 and subsequently for King Charles in 2022. As he wryly observed at the ceremony, to the King’s considerable merriment, “Two hundred and fifty years ago some of you British people came to India and taught us to speak English propahly. Then, all of a sudden, back in 1947, you quit India…. World’s first Brexit.”