question_answer

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

The priceless Kohinoor diamond which adorned the crown of Queen Victoria and which is on display at the Tower of London is the prized possession of Britain, the supreme colonial power of the past. The history of the Kohinoor is, however, the history of enormous greed and the blatant use of power. At other times, the Kohinoor reveals the history of appeasing the powerful or showing the powerless their place in the world.

The narrative of the Kohinoor also points to many gaps in its history which cannot be filled easily and as such it raises issues of historiography. It is here that conjecture and guesswork fills up for verifiable historical facts and a number of stories get woven around the diamond, making it the subject of legends and folklore. One belief associated with Kohinoor is that it brings misfortune and bad luck to its owner. But what is certain is that the recorded history of Kohinoor is a tale of greed, the temporary buying of peace, and a display of power.

The precious diamond which was supposedly in the kingdom of Malwa, passed into the hands of Alauddin Khiiji and, from him, it probably changed many hands to finally be in the possession of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who established a very powerful kingdom in Punjab.

The argument that Kohinoor was gifted as "voluntary compensation" by the heirs of Maharaja Ranjit Singh to the British glosses over the unequal relationship between the powerful British and a kingdom in disarray, ruled by 12-year-old Maharaja Dalip Singh. Punjab was annexed by Lord Dalhousie and very humiliating conditions of annexation were forced on the kingdom, one of them being the handover of Kohinoor to the British. This was the period of the height of British power and this was colonial discourse displaying all possible arrogance. Probably there is greater awareness about the nature of colonial loot today but the naked display of power by present nation-states has not disappeared. The debate on the colonial loot is important not only to analyse the past, but to learn some lessons about the present, because the present forms of the display of power often replicate colonial patterns. The colonialism which depended on the actual annexation of land has been replaced by a more indirect kind of economic control of weaker nations.

Which of the following statements does not support the argument that Kohinoor was gifted as "voluntary compensation" by the heirs of Maharaja Ranjit Singh to the British? (Give the most appropriate answer.)

A) Punjab was taken over by the British under very humiliating condition.

B) That was the period of the height of British power.

C) Punjab, during that period, was ruled by a 12-year-old king, whose kingdom was taken over by the British, forcing upon a very humiliating condition of annexation on the kingdom.

D) All of these

E) None of these