Hyderabad: Prince Philip, consort to Queen Elizabeth II has died at the age of 99, Buckingham Palace said on Friday. A somewhat controversial figure in the British royalty, he was known for his occasionally racist and sexist remarks — and for gamely fulfilling more than 20,000 royal engagements to boost British interests at home and abroad.
Prince Philip travelled widely and frequently in support of his many charities and promoted the British industry and science.
It was during this time that Philip developed a reputation for being impatient and demanding and was sometimes blunt to the point of rudeness.
The Prince travelled to India quite a few times. India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru received Prince Philip during his first visit in January 1959. He was then better known in New Delhi as the nephew of Louis Mountbatten, India’s last viceroy.
He subsequently accompanied Queen Elizabeth to India in 1961, 1983 and 1997. They toured Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata in 1961, and returned in 1983 for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
The Royal pair's 1997 visit took place amid a diplomatic row and remained in Indian public memory for a long time. Considered one of his many gaffes, Prince Philip reportedly questioned the number of deaths in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre during a visit to the memorial in Amritsar.
The backdrop of the 1997 visit was no less controversial. Hours before Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip landed in New Delhi, then prime minister IK Gujral reportedly told a meeting of Egyptian intellectuals in Cairo that Britain was a "third-rate power."
Gujral was said to be livid at then foreign secretary Robin Cook for suggesting during a visit to Pakistan that Britain might mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue and used the “third-rate power” phrase first mentioned by Lord Curzon, who had said in 1901: “As long as we rule India, we are the greatest power in the world. If we lose it we shall straightway drop to a third rate power.”
Also read: Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip passes away at 99
There were demands during the 1997 visit that the royal couple apologises for the 1919 massacre. Over the decades, there have been different estimates of the casualties of the firing ordered by Col Reginald Dyer. British estimates put it at 379, while Indian estimates are in the thousands. A plaque at the memorial says: "This place is saturated with the blood of about two thousand Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who were martyred in a non-violent struggle."
During the visit, the Queen bowed her head and placed a wreath at the memorial. On the way out, Prince Philip stopped to query an official on the number of dead: "Two thousand? It wasn't, was it? That's wrong. I was in the navy with Dyer's son. That's aa bit exaggerated…it must include the wounded."
Former Rajmata of Jaipur, the charismatic Gayatri Devi and her husband were great friends with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip and every year, she would send a box of Alphonso mangoes from India for the Duke of Edinburgh's birthday, says a new book.
