The Hindu Sena, a right-wing group, Tuesday paid tributes to Queen Victoria on her 118th death anniversary here and said she "freed India from the autocratic rule of the Mughals".
The organisers of the event at Jantar Mantar here said it was the first time they paid tributes to the Empress and credited her with "uniting the princely states of India in 1857".
Surjeet Yadav, the national spokesperson and vice-president of the Hindu Sena, claimed, "India would have disintegrated into thousands of pieces had it not been the Britishers, who under the Queen, united a large number of princely states into one entity in 1857."
He also claimed that "the Britishers gave what we have today, be it the law, railways, roads, communication networks, schools, buildings, etc."