The woman who saw Queen Elizabeth II, at arm’s length.. / Rashmi Talwar / Kashmir Images

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Reena Chhibber saw Queen Elizabeth in 1961, New Delhi

The Woman who saw Queen Elizabeth II, at arm’s length……

Rashmi Talwar

AMRITSAR 9^th September 2022—–

Britain’s longest-serving monarch Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on Thursday 8^th September 2022, visited India three times in the year 1961, 1983, and 1997. Her first was a landmark visit, of a reigning Monarch to a commonwealth nation, 15 years after India’s Independence. That made her the first Monarch to visit the former colony in the year 1961 with her husband Duke of Edinburgh Phillip. She was invited by India’s first President Dr. Rajinder Prasad and presided over the Republic Day Parade as Guest of Honour on the 11^th Republic Day of India.

An Indo-Pak Partition victim from Rawalpindi, Reena Chhibber  (90) at the time about 30 years old who was residing in Delhi then, talking from Pune to the author, described the moment of “27^th January 1961”.

She recalled – “Each year on 27th January after India became a Republic in January of 1950, a program was held at Raj Bhawan’s Theatre, where selected personalities were invited for cultural program. In 1961 we were at the theatre and Queen Elizabeth II of England was the Guest of Honour at India’s Republic Day Parade. She attended this program which had few people. As I came out with my friend, the Queen was sitting in a moving Horse Buggy right outside the gate. She was at an arm’s distance from me. She looked at me and I waved my hand at her. The Queen radiantly smiled back and waved a white-gloved hand at us. She was wearing a ‘fluffy Hat’. It was her aura and grandeur that we remembered and discussed for many many nights thereafter.”

Reena had recently visited her birthplace in Rawalpindi, marking the 75^th year since she had last seen her home at the time of partition and had to move to India along with her family when she was just 15 years old. Reena had witnessed many historical moments including the flag hoisting of the first flag of Independent India on 15^th August 1947, at Simla. She had met many important personalities including the first Indian Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.

 The Queen during this 1961 tour also addressed a massive crowd at Ramlila Grounds, Delhi, where thousands came to listen to her address. The Monarch was gifted an exquisite sculpture of Kutab Minar carved in Ivory while her husband Prince Philips was gifted a silver Candelabra. Subsequently, the Royal couple including the Queen’s Husband- The Duke of Edinburg Prince Philips also toured Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore, and visited the Taj Mahal in Agra. The couple paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi and planted a pine sapling at the Samadhi of the Father of the Nation, at Raj Ghat Grounds.

The Queen with Prince Philips visited Amritsar on her 3^rd visit to India in 1997. A day earlier on 13 October 1997, the Queen referred to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in a state banquet address. “It is no secret that there have been some difficult episodes in our past — Jallianwala Bagh, which I shall visit tomorrow, is a distressing example,” she said. 

Seen by the author on 14^th October 1997, Her Majesty’s visit to the Jallianwalla Bagh Memorial – a remembrance of the indiscriminate killing of people on the bloodied Baisakhi day of 13^th April 1919- meant a lot to the hurt psyche of the people of Amritsar. Though the Queen never apologized for the massacre, she and her husband placed wreaths at the memorial. The massacre at Amritsar spurred a renewed spirit of Freedom for India from the British. 

Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philips known to make many gaffes made an infamous and insensitive remark at the memorial site in 1997, questioning the number of casualties in the massacre in 1919 by British Gen O’Dwyer and his men, and commented that it was ‘less’ than mentioned on the memorial stone.

Special permission was granted to the Queen and Royal consort Prince Philips to walk in socks at the Golden Temple parikrama or circumambulation around holy Sarovar or pond outside the sanctum sanctorum of the holiest Sikh Shrine.

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DATED 10th September 2022

CONTINUED…..

Jatta Ayi Baisakhi !!!”91st Anniversary of Bloody Baisakhi of Jallianwala bagh

By Rashmi Talwar

Baisakhi is special to undivided Punjab, ushering the start of the golden harvest of ripened Rabi crop and spelling Prosperity for the hard-working Punjabi farmer.

 Legend has it …That so sacred was this festival and so auspicious this day for the mostly agrarian community of the state that is often referred to as the –’food basket’ of the country– that children born were given their first sip of water-or ‘amrit’—nectar of life –on this day. So a child born a day or two after Baisakhi had to wait for the next Baisakhi to wet his lips from the holy sarovar of the Golden Temple!…In some villages of Punjab  the practice still carries on …