Coronation Park in New Delhi

In the 1960s, two decades after India’s independence from colonial rule, certain sections of
the society demanded the removal of specific memorial markers of the colonial past. Th
included the statues in the Coronation Park in the capital of the country, New Delhi. The
Coronation Park harks back to the times of coronation and celebrations through a pageant
held in the park by the imperial powers to display the prowess of the colonial throne. This
was seen as a widely celebrated affair attended by the rulers then. However, after the
independence, sites such as Coronation Park embody the dilemma and contestation around
the legacy of preservation and heritage of the imperial past. This case study then discusses
the approaches the governments may take to deal with the varied systems of meaning that
such memorial markers impose on their history and present.