Chapter 131: The Reaction of British India
The inventory sheet detailed that, after various estimations, the total value of the treasure exceeded forty million pounds—not even including the value of the gems and ornaments.
If those were included, the entire treasure might be worth as much as fifty million pounds, four times Australia's current annual budget.
What did that mean? This treasure alone could sustain Australia's development for four full years, including all construction and industrial projects.
If used solely to develop the navy, this massive sum could fund the creation of a fleet on par with major powers—potentially even a top-tier navy like Germany or Britain.
Even if the cost of future dreadnoughts increased due to comprehensive upgrades, this money could still fund nearly twenty of them.
And what does twenty dreadnoughts mean? That would place Australia among the world's top three naval powers, with the capability to challenge the German Empire and the British Empire.
To maintain secrecy, all Guards soldiers and servants involved in the inventory process had to sign a confidentiality agreement, strictly forbidding them from disclosing the exact value of the treasure by any means.
After all, the origins of this treasure were questionable. India remained a colony of the British Empire, which meant this operation essentially amounted to robbing the British.
It was predictable that after the theft of this temple, the treasures of many other Indian temples would become targets for British exploration, triggering a wave of excavation and investigation.
Whether the treasures of Indian temples would survive into the modern age, as they had in recorded history, would now depend on whether British authorities were tempted by what had been exposed.
Arthur never imagined the shockwaves the temple theft would send through India—or how much it would alarm the British.
Just one day after the theft, when numerous devotees visited the temple for worship, they discovered the devastation inside and out—damaged buildings, dismantled gates, and scenes of ruin.
As one of India's largest temples, the Padmanabhaswamy Temple held an esteemed and sacred place in the hearts of locals and the surrounding princely states.
The desecration of such a temple sparked widespread anger and discontent among many Indians in the region, and it also drew serious concern from the British rulers.
If mishandled, this incident could pose a significant threat to British colonial rule.
With the intervention of the colonial government, large numbers of British soldiers were dispatched to the temple, scouring the area for clues and questioning every nearby Indian.
After days of investigation, the colonial authorities uncovered a critical lead: a few groups of three to four people had been spotted passing through the area days before the theft and disappeared without a trace afterward.
But this clue only led to more confusion among the investigators and soldiers.
The individuals in question had come from a wide range of locations—Australia, British New Zealand, British India, British Southeast Asia, British South Africa, and French Indochina—and had arrived in India at varying times, some a week apart.
More importantly, although their presence near the temple coincided with the timeframe of the theft, there was no definitive evidence of motive or even where they had gone afterward.
Even if it could be confirmed that they were the culprits, what then? Neither the Indian princely states nor British India had any means of continuing the investigation without apprehending the individuals involved.
As the investigation stalled, the remaining contents of the temple were tallied.
Although most of what remained consisted of less valuable silver items, their sheer volume still amounted to nearly 300,000 pounds.
This stunned the British. If this was what was left behind, then the value of the full treasure must have been staggering.
According to the British India colonial government's assessment of the six now-empty chambers, it was estimated that they originally held dozens of tons of treasure.
Due to long-term storage, even the floors had become coated in a layer of gold dust, proving that it wasn't just silver—the chambers had once housed substantial quantities of gold.
This led many colonial officials to speculate: if this had been a complete treasury, could it have been worth over ten million pounds?
These thoughts made some British officials green with envy. Not knowing where the treasure thieves had gone, their jealousy turned toward the other temples of India.
If this temple had such wealth, might not others be similarly endowed?
Even if they couldn't match this one's scale, it wouldn't be hard to find temples holding a few hundred thousand pounds worth of treasure—gathered together, that was still a fortune.
It might have been difficult to catch the current thieves, but organizing a new looting operation against other Indian temples seemed very doable.
But could the Indian people endure a second temple theft?
The current incident had already enraged and frustrated many Indians, sparking resistance against British rule.
If British officials were caught planning or executing another temple robbery, wouldn't that just be pouring fuel on the fire?
Worse still, if Indians discovered that the temple theft had been orchestrated by British India's colonial authorities, a surge in pro-independence and anti-colonial movements would be inevitable.
Realizing this, many more rational British officials abandoned such reckless thoughts. For the British Empire, maintaining stable rule in India was paramount.
A stable India could generate far greater revenue for the empire—returns that couldn't be matched by a mere few hundred million pounds.
Still, some remained covetous of the wealth hidden in other temples, though for now, they held back due to the circumstances.
Thanks to the British Empire's swift lockdown, news of the theft was mostly contained within the area surrounding the temple, confined to the local princely state.
To prevent word from spreading to more Indians or foreign powers, the British stationed troops near the temple and executed several particularly outspoken Indians, restoring temporary calm.
Meanwhile, the colonial government began clearing and repairing the temple—removing signs of the theft and repairing nearby structures.
This was all the British India government could do. With no idea which power had looted the treasure, their only course was to suppress the news and erase the traces—buying time to maintain stability in India.
(End of Chapter)
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