Tony Blair was sporting a black eye as he accepted an award earlier, after an a "gym-related accident".
The former PM made no mention of it as he accepted a medal for work with India from his old ally Lord Mandelson.
He was presented with the Fenner Brockway medal in London on Friday.
Barry Gardiner, the Labour MP who chairs Labour's Friends of India, said Mr Blair had recognised, on becoming PM, that Britain's relationship with India had become "too comfortable and unproductive".
He said he had changed it from one based on "old sentimentality" to one based on a "shared vision of modern and equal trading partners".