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Edward VII was, if you go by his official titles, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Defender of the Faith and Emperor of India. His reign was short, spanning just nine years from 1901 to 1910. Unfortunately perhaps for Edward, his mother, Queen Victoria, was a remarkably hale and hearty woman who sat on the throne of the empire for a full 63 years. Poor Edward was 60 years old when they crowned him.
Lawn of fame: Statues at Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai. Photograph: Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint
However, the king’s regal soul may rejoice in the fact that the administrators of the Veermata Jijabai Udyan in Byculla, Mumbai, have given him pride of place among their assorted collection of statuary dotting the city’s museum, zoo and park complex. His illustrious mother must make do with a position inside a gated little lawn tucked away between the Udyan and the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum next door, among other less noble figures.
The lawn is lined with statues on one long side and little stone artefacts on the other; the third side is taken up by a colossal lamp post-fountain that once occupied the junction near Metro Cinema. The Fitzgerald fountain—erected in 1867 in memory of governor Sir Seymour Fitzgerald—however may get a second lease of life. Last year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said it was contemplating returning the fountain to its old home as part of a beautification drive.
Some of the statues at Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum were disfigured four decades ago. Photograph: Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint
“Moving the fountain is easier said than done. I think it’s pretty safe where it is right now. We’ve refurbished it and even restored the lights,” says Vikas Dilawari, a conservation architect who was instrumental in the refurbishment of the museum.
Dilawari explains how the statues congregated at the complex: “In the mid-1960s, on a wave of patriotic fervour, the statues were all removed from locations around town and, very logically, moved to the museum.”
Landmarks such as the Victoria Terminus and Flora Fountain were zealously stripped of figures till finally, in the late 1960s, the kala ghoda at Kala Ghoda, a 12ft bronze statue of a horse-borne King Edward VII, was moved to the Udyan.
This last act killed a delightful myth—locals once said that the statues of King Edward and the one of Shivaji at the Gateway of India came to life after midnight and battled it out on the streets.
Today, a brisk walk is all that is needed to take in decades of colonial celebrity. Tasneem Mehta, managing trustee and honorary director of the museum, points out that much of the damage to the statues happened during the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement (1950s): “Victoria no longer has a nose. But we’ve restored the statues and maintain them carefully now.”