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The Woman Behind the Diamond: Nur Jahan, Hollywood & the Politics of Visibility | EP 23 | Dear Body
19 Plays20 days ago
What happens when a Mughal heirloom appears on a Hollywood red carpet, but the woman who once owned it is left unnamed?
In this episode of Dear Body, Sarosh Ibrahim examines the resurfacing of the Taj Mahal Diamond necklace, worn by Margot Robbie in 2026, and traces its journey back to Nur Jahan, the 17th-century Mughal empress whose authority shaped empire.
This episode explores:
• Epistemic violence and historical erasure
• Why colonialism governs memory, not just land
• How women from the Global South are turned into symbols instead of subjects
This is a conversation about power, naming, and why reclaiming women’s histories is not nostalgia, it’s political.
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Transcript
00:00:05
Speaker
Actor Margot Robbie, which you saw last time in the movie, a new movie Woodring Heights for a few premieres and interviews.
00:00:17
Speaker
But in Los Angeles, the premier was not in that, but in that, their jewelry became a hot topic online. When they took interview at the premiere, they mentioned the Taj Mahal diamond, which they had put on.
00:00:31
Speaker
This was followed by a statement that Elizabeth Taylor Gourj's husband Richard Burton had gifted them. The reality is, this piece of jewelry is steeped in Mughal history. Empress Noor Jahan's legendary Taj Mahal diamond necklace.
00:00:46
Speaker
This is heart-shaped pendant which in Farsi is written, Love is Everlasting. Margot Robbie has worn the gown on this premiere. It's not the most important detail in the evening. It's necklace.
00:01:00
Speaker
This necklace say you originally was gifted. The Mughal Emperor Changi had her baby's gift. This is basically her devotion symbol. This has been long time for years. Finally, red carpet
00:01:18
Speaker
But how did this come to Margot Robbie? Basically, this is a hardship pendant and it's written in Farsi in the book. Love is everlasting. mu gay ismay no jeha of nampi engraved her She was actually the first woman who got this jewelry mil as a gift from her husband, Mughal Baadshah Shah Jahangir.
00:01:47
Speaker
as a gift. page geara Then four years later, the emperor has a tribute to him as a tribute. The monument has a new name for diamond and we know it as a diamond.
00:02:05
Speaker
After that, Cartier has acquired this one. Originally, was traditional Indian silk court. But Cartier's designer Alfred has designed this one for gold ruby chain, which has tassels.
00:02:21
Speaker
Then in 1972, President Michael Thomas showed Richard Burton's necklace and Elizabeth Taylor also. Richard Burton said that he had une Valentine's Day on his wife's birthday, which was before her birthday was actually on February 27th, for that reason, he needed some gift ideas.
00:02:55
Speaker
Decades later, this Tarsimahal Diamond resurface was a museum, but an American actor Margot Robbie had to wear it. This is the time again the public.
00:03:12
Speaker
Taylor, that was not a new one.
00:03:26
Speaker
it's about being reminded once again cu south asian women thbyexist ktir jabui filter kajata western ownership western memory or western validation getth through This story is the Indian scholar Gayathri Chakravarti Spivak, where he said that colonialism only lands conquered.
00:03:47
Speaker
colonialism has been constructed that knowledge will be done by the way. Colonialism has decided that it will subject, object, and will disappear. This process has been epistemic violence. It is a violence that guns are not used to utilize the knowledge.
00:04:10
Speaker
Language, caseerria law, training, historical writing. area Spivak has argued that colonial rule This two-handed engine. The European knowledge systems can be re-write. What is the reason? What is the sanity? What is the science? What is science? What is the other?
00:04:36
Speaker
those three hearts are produce here jatahi colonized person co as the other ic ea sharks chiskibari mebula jataher leak in kabi uskead milernibulajata Someone who's spoken about,
00:04:51
Speaker
not someone who speaks to ja nojahaku name nehikiaga poor disappearance with historical facty of wi de rika A way where women can't understand someone who can own, who commissions, who shapes, tastes, who power exercises and who can't leave their traces. These traces are sentimental or symbolic, but deliberate. Which are material value. huti
00:05:24
Speaker
So, this silence around her name is just ignorance. This comes from a very old tradition.
00:05:35
Speaker
Women from this part of the world, meaning South Asian women, go as a background treat carniciada as aesthetic rather than as authors. authors who themselves, who don't understand the origins of even when objects have been so far away. This process where accident are is it's systemic.
00:06:00
Speaker
Colonial have not been done the colonized society. They actively of knowing.
00:06:07
Speaker
particularly unkives of noenko He replaced the Western framework which is superior, dickcte hair scientific, dicte hair neutral, decter Spivak نے British colonial education or law کے حوالے سے بھی بات کی.
00:06:24
Speaker
انہوں نے Macaulay کے ایک بہت infamous statement کا ذکر کیا اپنے argument establish کرنے کے لیے. Macaulay نے کہا تھا, We must create a class of people who are Indian by blood, but English in taste, opinion, morals and intellect.
00:06:41
Speaker
This means that the colonists trained people to do that they translate knowledge their knowledge. Number 2, the indigenous knowledge systems were downgrade. kyaga Primitive, emotional, unscientific. So when Nourjahah's name is made, there is no oversight. It's a structure of a continuation. huir This is a solution created British only by our traditions. But in reality, they were reshaping it.
00:07:16
Speaker
that they could suit their colonial control.
00:07:23
Speaker
is seusion create gigaica british se harmari tradition sco preserv karehi but in reality they were reshaping it takivo onque colonial control ho sukari So colonized people number one legally produced the, number two educationally disciplined, number three intellectually filtered.
00:07:47
Speaker
Now the problem that colonial historians, British rulers, who credit de te hair for shaping India and Pakistan the way we see it today. Nationalist historians, a ne elites co credit for their elites, that they have shaped their respective countries. But ordinary people, especially the women, are completely erased from the narratives.
00:08:12
Speaker
So when we talk about we are talking about what we are talking about. The question remains. A very dangerous illusion created that someone one has been represented.
00:08:26
Speaker
But reality, may they have been overwritten. This is why the arguments are telling us that in colonial societies, two areas have erased. perli colonial pa nu neisia pinunia ani society nejani pet de shahi niammni unit dobareri ecaria isli a ja spvak subortan kibat curnihe oppressed sachiibbat curtihem to uski hisri mewi awaz himojudnehuti
00:08:58
Speaker
or suboran orit or bizar are deeply silenced ruthtiir she's not just unheard conditions him mojud neyoti jinke zaia uski awa sunnijaakki They don't even exist.
00:09:13
Speaker
ara researcher ha up the literature parahe to opening his statement zru sunihugi white men saving brown women from brown men spwane aline introduced keithhi not as a slon but as the diagnosis This is c described as colonial power which can justify itself.
00:09:34
Speaker
British men are present kttihe as rescuers of oppressed native women. And simultaneously, they ignore their own role. They create key instability. create key South Asian women for this framing is very heavily land because it is a familiar pattern mirror. Our women are always reminded when they are tragic figures as a result of the present or domesticated figures. But when they are powerful, oti he politically strategic, hohihe aesthetically authoritative, they are not convenient them.
00:10:21
Speaker
Noor Jahan global imagination may neatly fit not to do this image. Why does the woman to be woman? Because she was not a baby, a muse, a beautiful a powerful a a a ruler.
00:10:44
Speaker
A person who had taste to the empire. ku shekea His authority has not only been patriarchal laws but also been also unsettled This framing is indigenous women's agency. They make symbol banna de tie instead of subject. or Empire gives them the opportunity to present ke as moral, as progressive. Spivak also gives warning. viditi Simply stories recover or add to the women's history problem is not fixed.
00:11:22
Speaker
Why? Because the act of speaking for someone can repeat the same power imbalance. I repeat again. The act of speaking for someone can repeat the same power imbalance.
00:11:36
Speaker
Very well-meaning scholars have imposed their frameworks. in bocardi they translate cardite into acceptable academic language.
00:11:48
Speaker
When this happens, the way. present krdilla jataher If I say simple words, Spivak is not saying that you should represent the conventional
00:12:15
Speaker
This process can be understood intellectuals, historians, cultural producers, everyone will learn how to interpret their position of authority. here And the silences can be understood by them.
00:12:32
Speaker
Rather than rushing to fill them in. This recognize is necessary that the absences are not gaps. ne ye which are waiting for the film.
00:12:44
Speaker
No, they are only mistakes that correct them. They are wounds that the centuries of epistemic control has been deliberately. produce ki him So what task is not its and reasonable and reasonable.
00:13:18
Speaker
It is a very good substitution. It is very polite and progressive, but reality is very violent. Here we have seen Elizabeth Taylor ku name. kyaga Hollywood has remembered.
00:13:33
Speaker
Western ownership co central position. But the original woman was absorbed in silence. Like her presence is very distant, very complex. It is so impossible that she can hold sentence in the same sentence.
00:13:52
Speaker
So this is not a failure. neara This is a failure. This is a failure. A failure which has shaped over many centuries.
00:14:03
Speaker
Where we have learned which history deserves specificity. And which history will vague. Elizabeth Taylor کو mentionn'da natural lagtathe.
00:14:15
Speaker
Is liye naihi ki wou zyada relevant hai. Bulkhi is liye ki western woman ko allow kiya jata hai ki wou subjects hoon history ke andar. Unhye yad rukha jata hai desire ke saath, context ke saath, emotional weight ke saath.
00:14:30
Speaker
ornujahajai Or nude raha jaisi orto ko treat kiya jata hai as background conditions. which is necessary for the is not so important. The global reaction you saw online from South Asian was not about the jewelry, not about the celebrity moment. kebarrimi It was about recognition.
00:14:54
Speaker
It was about seeing once again, which is so easy to aestheticize our histories.
00:15:02
Speaker
and export is made without our women being acknowledged as owners rather than origins. The necklace can travel carsakica safely, freely, across time, across geography. But those women who have put it, commissioned, and the name of her,
00:15:20
Speaker
uemi ka uskanam inscribed keogia That woman, she remains unnamed. jesse a guzkaam leajai totoriki smooth ne disruptoja This is a is a story of powerful men. Even when they are brutal, who contradictory, they or morally uncomfortable. But powerful men can remember when they are softened out. When they are moral structure. Or when they are strong
00:15:58
Speaker
Noor Jahaan's power does not lend itself to easy storytelling. In fact, he resisted this idea that the woman's influence should be indirect, should be emotional, should be ornamental.
00:16:12
Speaker
So to name Noor Jahaan would be to acknowledge that the woman's region was not decorative. nati who govern curtiti who strategize curtiti whocon co shape pertiti what me authority to understand ktiti And so, when her name is omitted, e older pattern a
00:16:36
Speaker
cp present onee i bava juu unacknowledged rehi foundational but unnamed important butunkoa an option treat kyajahae It comes not from wanting validation from the West.
00:17:10
Speaker
but this is our exhaustion. Our failure of seeing the same erasure which in different shapes and forms and morphed.
00:17:21
Speaker
The moment especially painful is that the global cultural space which proudly presents you when it comes to being a aware, when it comes to feminism, inclusivity, the importance of silence here around you This habits forgetting have disappeared. They are now more subtle, more polished.
00:17:46
Speaker
jku allowed takivo complex hoaktiyongi authority u satti orruneyjara kajaseta yeahya the lata heki colonial habits of forgetting aitak disappeared nihu wobs are subtle hoians are the polish to And we can say that maybe it was an oversight. No, it was a systemic continuation.
00:18:11
Speaker
This is exactly what happens when a necklace with a new jahat, a global conversation becomes part of object. The object exists within fashion discourse, western fashion discourse, but its meaning rearranged. when the man and Robbie are saying, the are not saying that the Empress political authority, South Asian sovereignty, the headlines are saying Elizabeth Taylor. The necklace survives, but one is.
00:18:45
Speaker
This is the work mimicry, where the object almost same, but now its own shape is not the same. This theory Homie Baba has introduced it when he not quite.
00:19:12
Speaker
Colonized subject to allow for the dominant culture. But the distorted partial form. me The same way of the colonial discourse is the same way of the colonial discourse.
00:19:29
Speaker
This difference doesn't erase entirely, but it keeps visible until the point of control. This result is camouflage, not blending in, instead being modeled against a background which is not yours. Baba argues that colonial power depends its partial presence. This produces projects are recognizable but are from origins.
00:19:56
Speaker
Necklace is only legible when translated through a western body, western archive, western woman. The power is reduced only to a ornament.
00:20:07
Speaker
Elizabeth Taylor is a narrative. perip yaal li yevahi had je see babaed the ambivalence of colonial discourse ex system juattae other visible who lincolning ka be authoritative now listen to this statement theory is elitist vestron
00:20:32
Speaker
Now, Homey Baba insists that this is a false division. Theory politics is not separate from In fact, this is one place where politics actually is happening.
00:20:46
Speaker
Meaning's, which are just protest or policies. may produce theotte Representation in which are told. In-house stories are told. Which are the names attached or detached. Which you think is already politics.
00:21:03
Speaker
It is already politics. When a man is traveling across time, across geography, has no उसका meaning negotiate हो रहा है हर point of circulation पे तो जब Margot Robbie ये Nicholas पहनती है जो नूर जहां से associated है और narrative Elizabeth Taylor के around center हो रहा है तो हम जो witness कर रहे हैं to hamjuu witness curing him वो ये है जो बाबा ने describe किया है as the politics of representation ये कोई neutral re-delling नहीं है ये discursive intervention है थेरी in fact मदद करती है हमें ये दिखाने में कि power सिर्फ force के थूदू डॉमिनेट नहीं होती it is also dominated through naming
00:21:49
Speaker
it is also dominated through naming isinia meichi is mentioned curri who q k boylogis works soriunge It is just a necklace. It is just a premiere. It is just a Hollywood actor.
00:22:03
Speaker
In fact, the reality is, this is not about Margot Robbie. In fact, it is a much bigger conversation. Western institutions, media, fashion houses, archives, all of them function as judges of meaning.
00:22:19
Speaker
They decide which story is legible. Baba has given himself examples in cinema and culture where the third world's reality is recognized when it is the western platform. The same logic is applied here.
00:22:34
Speaker
Noor Jahan's history doesn't disappear because it is unknown. It disappears because the global culture Elizabeth Taylor recognizes as a valid reference point. To intervene politically is
00:22:56
Speaker
instead of mistaking it for coincidence to intervene politically is not to oppose power from the outside bart to disrupt how meaning is stailized So, yekenaki ye eli taylorka necklace hair yaurf description ne yeah ya act of authority yakena ki this necklace belongs to
00:23:21
Speaker
yea ake counterclaim him terri hamil language detiah kiham samma sakiki representation itself excite of struggle Baba here insist that political meaning is pure or original. leota In fact, it is produced through repetition, through difference.
00:23:41
Speaker
Every time when the necklace describes it, no one else mentioned, ki bahe उनकी absence को repeat किया जा रहा है over time ये absence common sense बनने लगती है इसी तरह colonial knowledge अपने आपको sustain करती है not by loud declaration बलकि by quiet consistencies ये stories reasonable sound कर रही हैं क्योंकि इससे पहले भी इसी तरह
00:24:09
Speaker
rate kiya gya tha. Jis ko bhabha third space kehate hai, wahaan per is repetition ko interrupt kiya jata hai. Ye wo space hai, johan meaning unsettled ho. Johan na to dominant narrative ho, na ek simple reversal fully apni position form kar raha ho.
00:24:29
Speaker
When we insist on the name of Elizabeth Taylor, create a inclusion. We destabilize the hierarchy which decides which history ornamental and which is authoritative. here Baba हमें warn करते हैं against cultural diversity narratives, जो इस difference को celebrate करते हैं without addressing power. ये कहना कि many cultures exist, कुछ नहीं करता.
00:25:03
Speaker
जहां अगर एक culture continuously authorize करता है एक meaning को, और जो दूसरे हैं, वो सिर्फ background को cite करते हैं, नूर जहां is often allowed to exist as cultural diversity,
00:25:17
Speaker
a exotic footnote has become a cultural difference, nor a historical force. The problem is not that the Nour Jahaan story has forgotten. The problem is that forgetting is structured. It is built-in that which way the global culture circulates symbols, bodies, objects, Necklace ko admire kiya jata hai, jis aurat ne usse pehna as an empress, ruler, political strategist, usko negotiable, optionable aur erasable bina diya gya.
00:25:52
Speaker
Bhabha mein sikhatayin ki political commitment lies in easy narratives, refusal. This lies in slowing down the story and in asking who authorized this, who is being translated out.
00:26:06
Speaker
When they do their work, they don't give moral comfort. They reach us discomfort. They show us that glamour is not neutral. lay Archives innocent. name Beauty often travels only after its origins have been disciplined. empire language. Which way history becomes wearable only after it is stripped of sovereignty.
00:26:37
Speaker
kitara nam koji claim kna symbolic neoha It is political. quietly. It doesn't arrive quietly. People are a tree. They are cut by hand. it's about a book lakeageja a pounch the e colonial india kandder early eighteen hundreds may it doesn't arrive quietly log ache drkinniu jamahoe de likabaher who say a cartabary uu wo copy by hand They copy it by hand. They call it the book of God.
00:27:07
Speaker
They believe it came from an angel at a fair in Haridwar. When a missionary tells them, they printed it and gave it to you. People pause at that They hesitate. Then they ask a question which unsettles everything.
00:27:25
Speaker
This question is the heart of this entire narrative. This was an English book. It was supposed to be miracle, sign of truth, a civilizing force. this question is the heart of this entire narrative kkipose karake kitherha quico colonial power kittiosshhishkati chopniki key authority depends on belief nor truth on repetition nor origin this was an english book it was supposed to be a miracle a sign of truth a civilizing force But in the moment when it was translated, copied, questioned or handed over, people differently responded.
00:28:04
Speaker
It was meant to rule. It stopped being pure. It became stranger. It became ambivalent. It became powerful one in one way and hollow in another.
00:28:15
Speaker
The book itself was quite visible, its meaning that began to slip. isitterra nuja and alatic travel geara until It important, valuable, historic.
00:28:27
Speaker
it functions exactly like that english book it arrived already framed as important valuable historic But the authority attached kire doesn't come from Jahan. It comes from a system that recognizes it. Western fashion, Western archives, Western celebrity.
00:28:46
Speaker
It was detached from the woman who made it political exactly like that book. Objects authoritative بن جاتے ہیں not because they are original hair but because they are made to look inevitable, natural, self-evident. Both cases میں system چاہتا ہے کہ آپ بھول جائیں violence کو, negotiation کو, translation کو جس نے اس کی appearance کو possible بنایا.
00:29:11
Speaker
yejo english book the appears as truth itself the necklace it appears as timeless beauty Both cases want to forget violence, school negotiation, co translation, which has made its appearance go possible. The most fascinating thing is that the people outside of Delhi were not passive.
00:29:32
Speaker
They didn't reject the outright book. They studied. They gave him his praise. But they asked questions. They refused to refuse. They said, they will accept baptism. except karringi Communion will accept. Because they mentioned that Europeans ate beef. They said, they will convert. But in that case, when they will convert. In other words, they didn't break the object. But they broke the authority. quo thdia And when you ask where it came, who translated it, who named it, who archived it, who profits from it, then the transparency starts to crack. So the transparency starts to crack. One thing is that is what is painfully familiar, which is what is in reality.
00:30:29
Speaker
Colonial power outright rejection. It needs disciplined admiration. They want to show the object to affection, or question the story that is attached to it.
00:30:42
Speaker
So when you see the necklace circulated without her name, object is again disciplined, stabilizing, render u se stbiise kiajare ue safe friend at giajare What threatens authority is not rebellion, it's a re-interpretation.
00:31:00
Speaker
u zrachchiniche ju lo ti ononius kittacu jelaonei They made it strange. This turned it into something hybrid, is partly sacred, hair local, hair obedient, hair resistant. And this hybridity has terrorized the missionaries, coterize cadia more than disbelief ever could.
00:31:20
Speaker
In that same manner, me insisting on Noor Jahan's presence unsettles the comfort of the global narrative. It forces to see power, Muslim womanhood, South Asian sovereignty, not background but as source.
00:31:34
Speaker
it forces us to see mual pa muslim womanhood south asian sovereignty not as background but as source That's why their name is not in the background. Because once you restore Noor Jahan to the story, the necklace stops being neutral. It stops being just fashion.
00:31:55
Speaker
It becomes evidence. Evidence of what? Empire ka, erasure ka. Kis tarha history is worn but it is not always remembered. Remember that Margot Robbie is not the villain of this whole situation. It's a system.
00:32:12
Speaker
Hollywood teaches people that Western provenance equals legitimate history. Non-Western provenance equals optional trivia. the mission not personal, it's structural. But the need is not the impact. queries nehinkati Socially, it's been framed as custodians of culture. South Asian women framed as origins. You can easily skip out. ksakim So colonial continuity, which you are seeing here, which is now going on, how do you survive? Our storytelling is in harmless gaps.
00:32:50
Speaker
Inverted commas, I'm putting harmless. So maybe point yeh nahi hai ke aap poochhe ke Margot Robbie ne e necklace kiyo pehna. Maybe real sawaal yeh hai, jo loogunne bohat saal pehle poochna shuru kar diya tha.
00:33:06
Speaker
How can this belong to you when it came from us? And what does it mean that this question still makes power uncomfortable? My name is Sorosh and you were listening to Dear Body.