The Statues of Church Gate - Mumbai

Not many of the current generation might know that Mumbai was once a walled city. The wall had three gates, and one of them was Church Gate. It was named after the centuries-old St. Thomas Church located near the gate. The area where the gate stood once is a prominent locality of South Mumbai. It is called a Church Gate and connects the Nariman Point and Marine Lines.

At the junction of Madame Cama Road and Jamsetji Tata Road in the Church Gate area, the statue of Shri Jamsetji Tata is found. It is supposed to be an important landmark of the city, but it remains an unknown monument today.

Jamsetji Tata is considered the Father of Indian Industry. He was the founder of the Tata group of companies. He died in 1904. His statue was erected by public subscription and was unveiled on 11th April 1912 by Sir George Clarke, the then Governor of Bombay. Tataji is found seated wearing his trademark cap and his regular attire. The area where this statue is located is called Tata Park. There are three other statues found in the park. On either side of Tata, a statue depicting a male and another statue depicting a female are found. Above Tataji, the figure of a male winged angle is found.

Around 200 to 300 meters from Tata's statue stands a tall statue of majestically looking Jawaharlal Nehru. The park where this statue stands is called Nehru Park. Much of this park is badly encroached.

There is another bigger public park on the proper left side of Tata's park. In the middle of the park, a beautiful bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhiji is found on a vast and tall pedestal. It was unveiled by Zail Singh, the then President of India, in 1984.

All these three beautiful statues should have ideally been treated as heritage landmarks of Mumbai, but it is unfortunate that hardly anyone visits these sites.

Happy travelling.