NEW DELHI (AP) — India on Sunday observed a day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II with flags lowered to half-staff on all government buildings.
Official entertainment events were also canceled “as a mark of respect to the departed dignitary,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said.
Flags atop Indian Parliament, President House, Red Fort and other government offices in New Delhi were lowered.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called Elizabeth “a stalwart of our times.”
Britain ended two centuries of colonial rule of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. Elizabeth and her late husband, Prince Phillip, had visited India three times — in 1961, 1983 and 1997.
King Charles III, who was officially proclaimed Britain’s monarch on Saturday, has visited India on a number of occasions.
Students at a drawing institute in India’s financial capital Mumbai on Sunday congratulated the new king by drawing his portraits. A message on one drawing read: “King vows to follow in queen’s footsteps.”
“We are very happy so that’s why we are congratulating him in the way of our drawing,” said Neeti Jaywant Bhalerak, 13.
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