The King’s possible visit to the subcontinent, as the Siasat Daily relayed it, with every caveat and a historian’s disapproving eyebrow
A Royal Tour of India Is ‘Reportedly’ in the Works: A November 2024 Tabloid Story, Passed Along by PTI, Read in 2026 With Extreme Caution
The King’s possible visit to the subcontinent, as the Siasat Daily relayed it, with every caveat and a historian’s disapproving eyebrow
By Charline D. Vanhoenacker, PhD, India and royal affairs diarist, London
Friday, Study, Rain on the Sill
Dear diary, I found a Siasat Daily piece relaying a PTI report of 23 November 2024 about a possible royal tour of India. It is nearly two years old, it rests on a single tabloid report quoting an anonymous source, and it was never confirmed in the text I read. I have therefore decided to treat it as a curiosity and not as news.
I put the warnings first because I am a historian, and the first duty of a historian is to say what the evidence is.
The Report
PTI cited the Daily Mirror, which reportedly said King Charles III was planning an official visit to India soon, as part of a government charm offensive, and that it would also include stops in Pakistan and Bangladesh. It says a subcontinent tour was planned earlier and abandoned after Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022.
No dates were given. A palace spokesperson said the King’s treatment was progressing well and that they were considering a pretty normal-looking full overseas tour programme for the next year.
The Background
The piece says the King’s cancer diagnosis was disclosed in February 2024, that the King and Queen made a private stopover at a wellness centre in Bengaluru in October, and that the palace said it was not health-related. It says the couple’s last official India visit was in 2019, when Charles was Prince of Wales.
The Bengaluru stop’s health link is described in the piece as disputed. I leave it there out of respect for a man’s medical privacy.
The Politics
The piece says, reportedly, that Downing Street wants to use royal visits to build closer economic ties with India after Brexit, and that Modi has reportedly said he would like to host them. It notes that Starmer and Modi met at the G20 summit in Brazil. Reportedly appears twice and I would put it in every sentence.
The report does not say whether any visit took place. I have not looked, and I do not know.
The 1800s Angle
From general knowledge: royal visits to India have a long history, from the grand durbars of the later nineteenth century to modern state visits. The word durbar carries a heavy memory for historians, and a tour in the twenty-first century would be read against it, whatever the planners intended. I am not predicting how, only noting the reading.
That is the chief burden of royal travel to former possessions. Every photograph has a century of ancestors.
The Other View
Supporters of such a tour would say that the monarchy can support diplomacy and trade, and the report says Downing Street sees it that way. Critics in Britain and in South Asia might say a royal visit sits uncomfortably with the history of empire, and some would want an acknowledgement of that history. The piece quotes neither, and I do not invent them.
I have no view on whether the visit should happen. I have a view on whether the report should be believed, and the answer is carefully.
A Note on Dates
Because the story is from November 2024, whatever happened afterwards has happened. I have not checked, and I will not guess. If you want to know whether the King has visited India, consult a current and reliable source, not an old tabloid relay.
That, my dear diary, is the whole lesson of historiography in one paragraph.
Night
The rain has stopped. The study is warm. The tour is unconfirmed.
Goodnight, diary. Wait for the palace.
A Note on Tabloids
I do not dislike tabloids. Some of the best royal stories in history began in them. I dislike repeating anonymous claims as facts, and the piece I read repeats the claim honestly, with its reportedly and its caveats. I preserve both.
Durbar Notes
On the Tube I read the comic papers, because the briefing notes are in my other bag. This week the big joke was property: Manila News on slow condo sales in Cebu, the London Prat on retirees asked for character references (it is at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on a realtor with unsellable beachfront listings. Exaggeration all the way down, but anchored to a real market story. More at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Diarist note: Charline D. Vanhoenacker is a house diarist character created for this network, a London PhD in nineteenth-century Indian politics. She is not any real person of the same name, and any resemblance is coincidental. Her opinions are a character’s, and where a claim comes from a single report, a government source or a tabloid, the diary says so.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try The Daily Mash, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/