Queen Elizabeth will formally begin a week-long state visit today, at the imposing presidential palace whose first occupant was Prince Philip's uncle, Lord Mountbatten. She and Prince Philip arrived in New Delhi from Pakistan yesterday. Her itinerary includes the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in northern Punjab and the southern port cities of Madras and Cochin.
At Amritsar the queen will visit the Golden Temple, the Sikhs' holiest shrine, and will lay a wreath at a nearby memorial dedicated to nearly 400 people shot dead by British troops at a peaceful political rally in 1919. "This is the first time a British monarch is going to Punjab and the Sikhs who have a special relationship with the English will ensure the visit is a success," an official said.
The Amritsar trip has been plagued by controversy after the Golden Temple Committee excused the royal couple from walking inside it barefoot - wearing white socks "untouched by leather" instead - and demanded a royal apology for the massacre 78 years ago.
Officials said anticipation was highest in Madras, where the British East India Company developed its first port in the 1700s, and Cochin, a bustling spice and trade centre and the only place in India with a small but thriving Jewish community.
Prince Philip will visit the western naval fleet at Bombay, lay a wreath at Gandhi's ashram in Ahemdabad, from where he began the fight for independence, and view an Indian Air Force display near Hyderabad.
In southern India Queen Elizabeth will visit the Hindu Ekambaraswara temple near Madras, where a mango tree is dedicated to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction and virility. Under this tree he wooed and married Parvati.
For centuries, the tree has been a pilgrimage spot for unmarried people and childless couples. Locals swear the mangoes from various branches of the huge tree taste significantly differently.
