Stop the press: Prince William and Kate Middleton are in India. Yesterday the royal couple embarked on a seven-day tour of the country, prompting a predictable British media frenzy.

In hour-by-hour accounts, the Daily Mirror is tracking the young couples’ every move. Kate and Wills meet Mumbai’s “slumdogs…some of the poorest people on Earth”, proudly proclaims the Mail; referencing box office hit Slumdog Millionaire. Because a royal visit to India would be nothing without citing a patronising, reductive British film about poverty in India, where all we see is innocent children, surrounded by squalor and corruption, systematically abused by adults. The two will follow in the footsteps of William’s mother and visit the Taj Mahal, the BBC tells us.

But amid coverage of Kate’s outfits and shots of the two playing cricket (of course as a reminder that India has British colonialists to thank for that) there is a painful silence on the history between these two countries: one of exploitation, violence and systematic resource extraction. And while all of our attention is focused on Kate and William’s every movement and word, India fades into the background as little more than a piece of stereotypical scenery.

William & Kate meet survivors

Absent from these detailed accounts, which have no problem remembering Princess Diana’s 1992 trip to world-famous mausoleum in Agra, is the royal family’s long history with the country. The £100m Koh-i-Noor that sits in the Tower of London, set into the Queen Mother’s crown, will surely get no mention. No matter then that Queen Victoria’s forces looted it from the country after colonialists brutally conquered Punjab in 1849. Even less important is that India has asked for it back, a request that looks like it’s about to be rebuffed.

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Show all 32 1 /32 Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, paint an elephant statue at Kaziranga Discovery Park in Panbari village, in Kaziranga, some 250 km from Guwahati, the capital of the north-eastern state of Assam Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Britain's Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, feeds a baby elephant at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) at Panbari reserve forest in Kaziranga in the northeastern state of Assam, during the royal visit in India Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge, meet a rhino calf at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) at Panbari reserve forest in Kaziranga in the northeastern state of Assam Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Catherine and Prince William take a Game drive at Kaziranga National Park at Kaziranga National Park in Guwahati Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William visit a contact centre run by the charity Salaam Baalak, which provides emergency help and long term support to homeless children at New Delhi railway station Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge meet a young dancer as they watch dancing by the fireside during a Bihu Festival Celebration at Diphlu River Lodge Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge meet Prime Minister of India Narenda Mod in New Delhi's Hyderabad House during day three of the royal tour to India and Bhutan Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Catherine and William visited the Banganga Water Tank. They were given a traditional welcome at Bangana Water Tank and met representatives from SMILE, an organisation working in an economically deprived urban area to support local enterprise Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Duchess Of Cambridge enjoys a game of cricket during a visit to meet children from Magic Bus, Childline and Doorstep, at Mumbai's iconic recreation ground, the Oval Maidan Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge at India Gate in New Delhi Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and his wife Catherine take part in an event at the Gandhi Smriti, a museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, in New Delhi Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge meet young entrepreneurs during a visit to Mumbai Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge prepare to lay a wreath at the Inida Gate in New Delhi Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge remove their shoes at Gandhi Smriti in New Dehli, India before paying their respects at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India ​The Duke and Duchess toured the museum housed in the Old Birla House and paid their respects at the place where Mahatma Gandhi's life ended on 30 January 1948 Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William pose for a picture at India Gate Memorial Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Catherine pay their respects at the place where Mahatma Gandhi's life ended on 30 January 1948, at Gandhi Smriti, the Old Birla House museum Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge poses with local school children as they tour Old Birla Hous in Gandhi Smriti in New Dehli Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India The Duke Duchess of Cambridge meet children from local charities Magic Bus, Childline and Doorstep, and join game of cricketwith boys from the Dilip Vengsarkar Academyat the Oval Maidan recreation ground Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are garlanded as they arrive at the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Catherine, Duchess Of Cambridge plays football during a visit to meet children from Magic Bus, Childline and Doorstep Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge react after playing football during a visit to the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William play football games during a visit to the Banganga Water tank, where they met representatives of SMILE Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive at a Bollywood Charity Gala hosted by the British High Commission and the British Asian Trust at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge arrives for a Bollywood Inspired Charity Gala at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge speak with Boman Kohinoor during a meeting in Mumbai Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to India The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stand after laying a wreath on the martyrs memorial at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai

Missing from the couple’s visit will be remembrance or even utterance of the Bengal Famine, where three million people starved to death in part because the British government under Churchill’s stewardship decided to divert food away from the region and send it to British troops instead. Neither will they talk about the violent partition orchestrated by imperialists that continues to haunt the country’s politics.

These omissions perhaps wouldn’t matter so much if Britain’s bloody colonial project was properly taught in our schools; its absence from the curriculum means an astonishing 44 per cent of people are proud of the British Empire, including our very own Prime Minister.

The history matters because we can’t understand Britain’s relationship with India – or even William and Kate’s foray – without knowing about this colonial past. It matters because modern racism was born of colonialism: to justify the oppression of people across the world, they had to be thought of as morally and intellectually inferior. The same racism that led to the death of fourteen women in forced sterilisation camps in Chhattisgarh, part of an active family planning policy that the British government was said to have supported.