When Queen Elizabeth passed away earlier this month, the news made front pages and topped newscasts in India, before people quickly moved on to other things: the progress of the monsoon rains, talks on defusing a stand-off at the border with China, a political row over the siting of a semiconductor plant in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat.
Indians have — by design, policy and the passage of time — moved well clear of the shadow of the British empire, even if many Britons still choose to see India through that prism.
“I have not seen any kind of emotional stirring, even in the English-speaking or middle class,” said Sushant Singh, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. “In fact, there has been a large degree of indifference in much of the population.”