Blood Diamonds: How India’s diamond cutting industry conceals conflict gems

Words by Rosa Kumar

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This painting was done by Horace Van Ruith in the 1880s as a documentary record of costume and jewelry of the region of Punjab. The woman is wearing her full set of head, ear, nose, neck, arm, hand, ankle and foot jewelry and a costume richly decorated with 'zardozi' (gold wire/thread) embroidery. She lifts her blue gathered skirt with gold-embroidered border to show her silver anklets and toe rings, and at the same time shows the mirror ring on the thumb of her left hand and gold finger rings attached to her bracelets by gold chains. Her shoes are in front of her bare feet. (Available now as Print)

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Gold Inheritance: the Quiet Feminism of South Asian Women

The Colonial History of Houseplants

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Blood Diamonds: How India’s diamond cutting industry conceals conflict gems

For many centuries, diamonds were synonymous with India. From as early as the 4th century BCE, gathered from rivers and streams, to the 18th century AD, India remained the world's only source of diamonds. The world’s most legendary diamond, the Koh-I-Noor, could’ve very well been found in one of these riverbeds. Diamonds were precious from the very beginning, traveling across the Silk Road into the hands of wealthy traders and royal families.

But as mines in India depleted, purveyors began to look elsewhere for their precious stones. They found some in Brazil, and then eventually South Africa. The 19th century ‘diamond rush,’ specifically in Kimberley, South Africa, became the heart of diamond mining, and then the hotbed of conflict diamonds.

Conflict diamonds (also called blood diamonds), are often defined as rough diamonds mined in conflict-zones by rebel groups or their allies, in order to fund war against legitimate governments, bankroll terrorist activities, or finance local warlords. The process of actually mining a conflict diamond also comes with a human price tag; families forced to leave their lands because of diamond mining potential, child and bonded labor used to mine, and many other human rights abuses.

The De Beers company, founded by Cecil Rhodes in 1888, went on to control much of the global diamond market for over a century. Many of the conflict diamonds mined during the 20th–21st century civil wars in Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau, allegedly still sit in their coffers. Today, Canada and Russia are also part of the diamond mining market, with more transparent mining industries. Russia actually produces 25% of the world’s diamonds. India, however, is no longer a significant source of diamond production.

So why, then, are 90% of all diamonds cut and polished in India?

The Kimberley Process was established to address concerns over rebel groups funding armed conflicts in Africa through the sale of diamonds. Its foundation was laid during a meeting in Kimberley, South Africa, in 2000, and the initiative formally launched in 2003 at a meeting in Interlaken, Switzerland. Focused on curbing the trade in blood diamonds, the Kimberley Process relies on certification, data collection, and peer reviews to enforce compliance.