In search of the missing Kala Ghoda

The festival is here, but where is the Kala Ghoda? The black horse after which the area is known is sitting six kilometres away at Byculla.

The black stone statue of King Edward VII (as the then Prince of Wales) mounted on a horse was originally placed in Fort near the parking lot opposite the place where the Jehangir Art Gallery stands today. It was installed there a century ago and was in place till the 1960s. Today, it can be found in the gardens of the Bhau Daji Lad Museum at Byculla.

The road is now Mahatma Gandhi Road, but the citizens of Mumbai still refer to the area as Kala Ghoda. “The statue is in the gardens of the Bhau Daji Lad Museum and can be seen as soon as you enter the premises. Though the statue has been shifted, the area in Fort where it had once been is still known as Kala Ghoda. So the festival is still called that,” said city historian Deepak Rao.

City archives state that the statue was placed in the first decade of the 20th century when Albert Edward or Edward VII became the Emperor of India. The statue was put there by the rich Sassoon family and stayed there till after independence.

“It would be a nice idea to invite artists to create sculptures based on the idea of Kala Ghoda,” said Tasneem Mehta, honorary director of the Bhau Daji Lad Museum.