Cathedral Church of the Redemption

The Cathedral Church of the Redemption has been just behind the parliamentary houses in Delhi since the 1930s.
It was the Viceroy Church, built near to the Rashtrapati Bhavan for the British Viceroy and other officers.

It was decided that a church was needed in the Raisina Hill area and Sir Edwin Luyten oversaw a competition for it's design.  

Henry Medd's design was chosen and construction begun. 
 Even King George donated toward its construction.

The walls were built thick and heavy with the intent of keeping out the heat and creating a cool interior.

The church can still keep a person cool on a Sunday morning during one of it's three services in English, Tamil or Hindi.

The sculptor

See that glove in his hand?  That's some sculpting skill.

The sculptor of the statue of King George in Coronation Park was commissioned to make some other statues of British dignitaries as well.
Right now they are unlabeled and I don't know who this guy was. 

But he is very detailed.

And I see he was balding and had a mustache. 

What I could find was the name of the sculptor:  C.S. Jagger.
A search revealed a video of Jagger actually creating the statue of King George.
It seems he died before the statue was finished.  So not only did he never see it stand near India Gate, but he would have had no idea that it was removed to occupy empty, under-construction coronation park.
Sculptor for a king who was exiled to an abandoned park.  Ah, the twists of history.

King George's legacy

A friend and I wandered through an old hotel in Delhi and I found this photograph on the wall--evidence that the statue of King George V used to inhabit the chatri near India Gate.
It reminded me that I wanted to go visit the statue and see how the park was coming along.

In some ways, I was not surprised by what I found:  the park was still under construction, though it had been over a year.

But I was surprised by other things.
King George was all wrapped up and bound in black plastic.

As were some of the other statues.
It's disturbing, isn't it?

The construction workers and their families had "moved in" and were slowly improving the surroundings.  The scrub brush was all gone, replaced by granite and marble walkways.  But there was a long way to go yet.
Before they are through there will be an amphitheater and a 31 meter flag pole to tower over the coronation pillar left behind by the British.

The only news I could find said the park might be ready in a year's time.  The authorities were also hard at work trying to come up with a name to replace "coronation park", something to be proud of.

I understand the love/hate tension with King George.  And I admire the efforts of the park committee--they could just throw out all the old, unwanted statues and erase this part of their history. 
Instead, they're going to turn it into a nice place to play cricket--admirable.

Coronation Park part II: Found you, King George V

King George V of England is the whole entire reason I wanted to go see Coronation Park.

It's where the biggest statue in the world of King George V lives.
In a very obscure, out of the way place.
Irony.

You see, he started out under the canopy near India Gate. But at the time of independence, he was removed to Coronation Park.

The Coronation Park that is now a construction zone and a mess of mud and brick.
Out north of nowhere, no less.
More irony.

But King George V, we found you. Don't be embarrassed by being in the graveyard of statues. Someday this will be a nice park and maybe someone will come to visit you.
We did.
Have hope.