“Why is that statue missing its nose?” I hear you ask. Today we stand before the statue of King Emperor George V. It resides within Delhi’s Coronation Park, a place of significant colonial history. The Coronation Park gets its name from the coronation of three British monarchs. These monarchs are Queen Victoria in 1877, King Edward VII in 1903, and King George V in 1911. They were all coronated as rulers of India here.
King George V’s statue is just one of several marble statues here. They represent George V and the crown’s viceroys. These men headed the British administration in colonial India. All the statues were moved here in the 1960s. Before that, they stood in other parts of New Delhi.
In the 1960s, India was eager to remove colonial symbols. The statue of King Emperor George V once stood near India Gate. It stood under a canopy. Eventually, authorities moved it here to Coronation Park.
The park itself has an interesting story. It was conceived about 15 years before it was built. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage or INTACH helped design it. Part of the park was completed in 1911. This marked 100 years of King George V’s coronation.
Today, the park looks sadly neglected. Some statues are disfigured. Some are damaged. Our George V statue is missing its nose. The black plaques on the statues are often blank. Graffiti mars the central pillar in the park.
INTACH suggested the Delhi government conserve the statues. They wanted a park developed around them. They also proposed an interpretation center. This center would help visitors understand the site’s history. Sadly, the interpretation center was never built.
This park was once a paramilitary camp. Before that, people called this area “chabutra”. This refers to the obelisk shape. It had bushes all over. The statues were in ruins.
The statue of King Emperor George V that you see was designed by British sculptor Charles Sargeant Jagger. Models of it were exhibited in 1933 and 1935 at the Royal Academy. Jagger died in 1934. Other artists completed his work. The statue was unveiled on November 14, 1939, by the then Viceroy Lord Linlithgow.
King George V was born in London in 1865. He became king in 1910. The next year, he came to India with Queen Mary. They attended the Delhi Durbar. There, he announced that the capital would move from Calcutta to Delhi. King George V ruled until his death in 1936. Memorials and statues went up across the British Empire. New Delhi, the jewel in the crown, was one of the most notable.
The King Emperor George V Memorial was planned to be erected next to India Gate. Edwin Lutyens, the chief architect of New Delhi, designed the canopy and layout. In 1968, King George V’s statue was moved to Coronation Park. A statue of Subhas Chandra Bose, or Netaji, replaced it.
The park’s neglect shows India’s ambivalence toward its colonial past. Some feel conserving colonial artifacts celebrates colonialism. Others believe it helps us understand that period in history. They want to know who these people were and what happened in India then.
As we leave the statue of King Emperor George V, consider this. What should a nation do with the symbols of a complicated past? Should they be destroyed, preserved, or simply left to fade away? The answer is up to you.