November 20 is a very important date in the history of British monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II married the Duke of Edinburgh on this day 60 years ago. No British monarch till date has celebrated his/her marriage diamond jubilee and the British are determined to make this day a very memorable one. Many exhibitions and displays related to their marriage are being held since July 2007.

The most important of these was the display of  gifts the queen received which havebeen retained by the queen in her royal treasures ever since. For Indians, the most interesting gift is a shawl presented by Mahatma Gandhi to the queen (then princess Elizabeth). Woven out of the yarn spun by the Mahatma himself, and bearing the words Jai Hind, this is the gift, out of all the exhibits, that would fetch the maximum price if auctioned today.

At one of their several meetings during the days that followed Indian Independence, Lord Mountbatten, then the Governor-General of India, informed Gandhiji about the marriage. He requested the Mahatma to write a few words of blessings to the couple.

In his child-like simplicity, the Mahatma voiced his desire to send a wedding gift to the young couple, a decision welcomed by Lord Mountbatten. But soon the Mahatma found himself in a quandary. In the words of his secretary, Pyarelal, he mused, “What can I send? I have no worldly possessions!”

Finally On November 9, 1947, he decided to send a shawl woven out of yarn spun by himself. He packed the shawl with a note to Lord Mountbatten: “This little thing is made of doubled yarn of my own spinning. The knitting was done by a Punjabi girl. Please give this to the bride and groom with my wish that they will have a long and happy life of service to humanity.” He handed over the package to Mountbatten who promised to hand it over to the couple in London.

Later while handing over the gift to the young princess, he told her that this was the most precious gift she would be receiving for the grandest event in her life. In the Collected Works of Gandhi, the Mahatma mentions that Mountbatten, on his return after the royal marriage, informed him (Gandhi) that the princess was touched by his kind gesture and said she would preserve it as a precious souvenir.

Talking to the press in July 2007, Mary Morton of the Buckingham Palace Royal Collection stated: “It came in a box, which we still have, in time for the wedding.” Morton said the gift was never used by the newly-wed royal couple, because it was always unclear what it was meant for! She said its ‘almost-crocheted’ look and humble appeal always appeared to suggest that the Mahatma was gifting a piece of his own philosophy of austerity to a royal bride, who would one day ascend to the throne of the country, that formerly ruled India.

Sixty years earlier, it was among the 1500 most valuable presents displayed for public viewing in Buckingham Palace and as more and more gifts poured in, the British Royal family would occasionally take a round to view the gifts. As for the presents, the best from India were the ‘priceless’ rose-tinted diamond necklace given by the Nizam of Hyderabad from India, an exquisite 19th-century carved ivory table from the Maharaja of Patiala and an antique Rajastani diamond necklace from the Government of India, in addition to the gift by the Mahatma.

As for the Mahatma’s gift, well, the countess of Airlie, a Lady in Waiting to queen Mary (wife of late king George V and grand mother to the present queen) says that as the royal party came to the table where the ‘shawl’ was displayed, queen Mary became very angry to see the yellowish piece of hand-woven cloth. She said, “What is this loin cloth doing here? What does Gandhi mean by presenting this? This is an insult.”  Initially, none of the royal party dared to contradict the grande dame. But Prince Philip, boldly disagreed with her and told her, “I do not agree. Mr Gandhi is a very great man.” Queen Mary frostily moved on.

The next day again, as the royal party headed by queen Mary visited the display, princess Margaret decided not to chance another outburst from the former Empress of India. Darting ahead of the party, the princess took the ‘loin cloth’ and hid it behind some other gift, so that queen Mary would not notice it.

But thanks to the Mountbattens, queen Elizabeth has no such allergy towards the gift. The priceless diamond necklace given by another Indian notable, the Nizam of Hyderabad – having been made a part of a tiara some years ago – is no longer an individual piece in her vaults. But even decades after her marriage, when some newspaper reporters questioned her as to the whereabouts of the shawl, the queen knew the exact location of the Mahatma’s gift amongst her fabulous treasures.