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Milkha Singh's refusal to accept the Arjuna Award has sparked off a heated debate over the country's highest sporting honour. This year's controversial list is being seen as the straw that broke the camel's back. Leading sports people believe the award has been devalued and compromised by political lobbying.

A Leader Reformed
A.K. Antony, a one-time Nehruvian socialist, is winning the support of industry as well as Central funds in his new avatar as the harbinger of reforms in the economically beleaguered state.

Family Bride
Poor sex ratio has forced the Gurjjars of Rajasthan to share their wives.

HERITAGE: NIZAM'S JEWELS

King's Ransom

	CROWN JEWEL: A 19th century sarpech (turban ornament) with Colombian emeralds and diamonds. The total weight of the emerald drops alone is over 300 carats.

If you missed the fabulous exhibition of Mughal jewellery from the Naseer-Al-Sabah collection at the British Museum, London, earlier this summer, here's an opportunity to catch up on some dazzling rocks. After years of dithering, the National Museum is readying to put on public view the 173 items of jewellery that had once belonged to the Nizams of Hyderabad.

The first impression is intimidating. The National Museum's imposing sandstone structure, the special vault with the priceless jewels, the grim men with rifles standing guard by the wrought-iron gates outside. Inside, sly electronic cameras and indiscernible infrared beams record the slightest flutter as museum staff and Culture Department mandarins work silently with palpable tension into the early hours, gently arranging the jewels on the cushioned comfort of their bulletproof glass cases.

After gathering dust for six years in a dark vault in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Mumbai, the much-disputed legacy of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh and last Nizam of Hyderabad, can be seen by the public for the first time after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurates the Nizams' Jewellery exhibition on August 29. Those who have seen it, like Rita Sharma, exhibition curator and keeper (numismatics) at the National Museum, have been floored by the collection. Sharma, who saw it soon after it arrived in three tightly-shut boxes in a special Indian Air Force flight from Mumbai, says, "It was an experience that will last a lifetime. I have handled the Indus, Taxila, Mughal and Rajput jewellery in the museum, but nothing can beat this collection." For many, like Chand Mehra, director of the Delhi-based Enchante Jewellery, the exhibition is an affirmation that the jewels actually exist. Says Mehra: "We had heard so many legends about the jewels. We had no idea whether they were true or only a myth. Besides generating tourist interest, the exhibition will bring gems and diamonds back into fashion."

The "mystery" shrouding the jewels grew due to a long-drawn legal tussle between the Government of India and the two jewellery trusts set up by the last Nizam in the early 1950s. With jewellers like Shantivijay & Co in India, the Galadharis of Dubai and Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos expressing their interest in the collection, the Nizam's heirs had almost managed to auction it abroad when the government stepped in, armed with the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972. The late Laxmi P. Sihare, who retired as director-general of the National Museum in 1991, was one of the few art historians instrumental in ensuring the jewels were not sold abroad. Sihare waged a relentlessly passionate war against their leaving the country. This led to the Supreme Court ruling that the jewels were "art treasures", a part of national heritage and so belonged to the state, not the former rulers. Finally, in January 1995, after 17 years of protracted legal battle, the government bought the jewels from the Nizam's trusts for Rs 218 crore.

MetroScape

Looking Glass

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