Epilogue: A Fitting Statue on College Green

Abstract

In November 1997, the Bristol City Council unveiled a statue of Rammohun Roy to mark the golden anniversary of Indian independence. The eight and a half foot statue stands near Council House on College Green and is aligned with that of Queen Victoria standing in front of a prominent hotel several hundred meters away. When one faces the statue of Rammohun, Bristol Cathedral serves as backdrop (see epilogue figure 1). The sculptor was Niranjan Pradhan of Calcutta, who had previously created a bust of Rammohun that sits inside of Council House. In an interview Pradhan indicated that the design of his statue follows H. P. Brigg’s 1832 portrait (see figure 3.2). He noted that expatriate Indians and British admirers had been pushing for a full-size statue and, because Rammohun died there, Bristol was the “natural place to put it.”¹