A new postage stamp featuring a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh is being issued by Royal Mail to mark King Charles III’s coronation in Westminster Abbey on Saturday, May 6.

The background shows a mosque, a temple and a gurdwara.

In sharp contrast to the essentially white society that existed back in 1953 when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended the throne, Charles wants to celebrate the fact that Britain is now a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multicultural country. He wants to make the point that during his reign, Muslims will not be marginalised. He has often made speeches in praise of the values of Islam. He is also known to be very pro-Indian.

Compared with the “8,251” dignitaries who squeezed into Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953, Charles has slashed his guest list to 2,000.

But among the peers, he has found room for Narendra Babubhai Patel, who was born in Tanganyika in 1938 and became an obstetrician in the UK, and Indarjit Singh, who was born in Rawalpindi in 1932, became editor of the Sikh Messenger in Britain and often occupied the Thought for the Day slot on BBC Radio 4. The former will present the “coronation ring”, and the latter the “coronation glove”, which are minor roles but of symbolic value.

The papers have been obsessing that Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has chosen not to attend, unlike her husband who will be present despite his deep differences with his father and his elder brother, William.

There is no invitation for Lord Mountbatten’s daughter, Pamela, 94, who accompanied her father, then Viceroy of India, and mother, Edwina, when the country gained independence in 1947.

The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will, of course, be present, with his wife, Akshata Murty, and so will the home secretary, Suella Braverman.