ELIZABETH II VISITED INDIA THRICE

New Delhi: Queen Elizabeth II was accorded a rousing reception in 1961 at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan where she addressed a massive gathering in presence of the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru during one of her three State visits to India and had also formally inaugurated the institute buildings of AIIMS. The 96-year-old queen died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after remaining the UK’s longest-serving monarch for 70 years. She was the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee earlier this year. Her husband Prince Philip predeceased her last year just a couple of months shy of turning 100. Elizabeth II’s grandfather King George V and royal consort Queen Mary visited India to attend the historic Delhi Durbar in December 1911 to mark his coronation, and 50 years later, Queen Elizabeth II became the serving British monarch to visit India.

Seven years after her coronation in June 1953, she undertook her first royal visit to India, along with Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in January 1961. The royal couple toured Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. They also visited the Taj Mahal in Agra and paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in New Delhi. In Delhi, the queen was given a rousing reception at the Ramlila Maidan, where she addressed a massive gathering of people, with Nehru and Prince Philip also present on the dais. Several thousands of citizens cheered and waved small flags of both 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 12th-century minaret Qutub Minar, while the duke of Edinburgh received a silver candelabra, as per rare archival footage of the royal tour. The platform, which now wears a rather faded look, and the Ramlila Maidan, located between New Delhi and Old Delhi, have witnessed some of the historic events that unfolded in the seven decades since Independence. The queen, during the Delhi leg of her tour, had also attended the Republic Day celebrations at Rajpath (now renamed Kartavya Path).