Queen’s India visits and rare admission on Jallianwala Bagh massacre

Queen Elizabeth II was the first British monarch to accede to the throne after India's Independence from colonial rule in 1952 and cherished the "warmth and hospitality” she received during her three State Visits to the country over the course of her reign – in 1961, 1983 and 1997.

In 1961, the Queen and her husband, the late Prince Phillip – Duke of Edinburgh, toured Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and also visited the Taj Mahal in Agra and paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat in New Delhi.

They were Guests of Honour at the Republic Day Parade on the invitation of the then President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, and an enduring image from the tour shows the Queen addressing a massive crowd of several thousand people packed into Ramlila Grounds in Delhi for her address, dressed in a fur coat and hat.

In 1983, her visit was in time for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and she famously presented Mother Teresa with an honorary Order of the Merit. Her final visit to India was to mark the 50th anniversary celebrations of India's Independence and for the first time she made a reference to "difficult episodes" of colonial history.

The monarch had noted in her banquet address that it is no secret that there have been some difficult episodes in India’s and Britain’s joint past and Jallianwala Bagh is a distressing example.

She and her husband later paid a visit to the scene of the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar to place a wreath at the memorial, amid widespread calls for an apology for the thousands killed at the orders of a British General during the Raj era.

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