1961, 1983 and 1997: When Queen Elizabeth II visited India and why 'Her Majesty' took off her sandals at Rajghat

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest serving monarch, passed away at 96. She reigned for 70 years. The Queen had been suffering from age-related mobility issues and had cut down her travels, including appointing new Prime Minister Liz Truss in Scotland earlier this week.

The Queen visited India thrice in 1961, 1983 and 1997, but the first visit that came 15 years after India’s Independence was the most talked-about. 

Queen Elizabeth, along with her husband and Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, visited the national capital in January 1961. It was a visit of multiple firsts. 

It was the maiden visit by the Queen, who ascended the throne on the death of her father and last emperor of India King George VI on this day in 1952, to the country. It was the first visit by a British monarch to India after the country got independence. It was also the first visit by a reigning British monarch to the country. 

The Queen, during the Delhi leg of her 1961 tour, also visited Rajghat and offered a ceremonial wreath at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial. The Queen and her husband took off their footwear and replaced them with velvet slippers before entering the memorial area. 

She also formally opened the institute buildings of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on January 27 at an impressive ceremony attended by the then President Rajendra Prasad.

The Queen was gifted an artistic model of the 12-century minaret, Qutub Minar, while the Duke of Edinburgh was presented a silver candelabra, according to rare archival footage of the royal tour.

During her first visit, the Queen and Prince Philip had also visited Agra, Bombay (now Mumbai), Benares (now Varanasi), Udaipur, Jaipur, Bangalore (now Bengaluru), Madras (now Chennai) and Calcutta (now Kolkata). She also visited Pakistan during her trip to the Indian subcontinent.

In Agra, she visited the Taj Mahal in an open-top car. In Varanasi, she took an elephant ride in a royal procession, enjoying the hospitality of the erstwhile Maharaja of Benares. Wherever she went, countless people lined the streets, many perched on rooftops and in balconies to catch a glimpse of ‘Her Majesty, the Queen of England’, whose grandfather King George V was the last British monarch to visit India before her in 1911.

After 1961, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited India together again in 1983 and 1997, when India marked the 50th year of its Independence. The Duke of Edinburgh had also visited India in 1959. He died last year aged 99. 

In 1983, the Queen and Prince Philip visited the country at the invitation of then-President Giani Zail Singh. This time, the royal couple stayed at the refurbished wing of the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Queen presented Mother Teresa with an honorary Order of Merit.

During her third visit to the country to mark the 50th anniversary of India's Independence, Queen Elizabeth visited the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial at Amritsar. Back then, the Queen had acknowledged, "It is no secret that there have been some difficult episodes in our past. Jallianwala Bagh is a distressing example". She even bowed her head and placed a wreath at the memorial, as per a report in the Independent.