Richard South well Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo commonly known as Lord Mayo served as the Viceroy of India from 1869 until his assassination in the Andaman Islands in 1872. He is remembered for his contributions to administrative reforms, education policies, and public works.
 |
| Lord Mayo's large Marblr state at Mayo college, Ajmer, |
As a tribute to his legacy, Maharaja Ram Singh of Jaipur commissioned a nine-foot-tall cast-iron statue of Lord Mayo, sculpted by J. Forsyth and R. Monti, and cast by R. Masefield & Co. in London. This imposing statue, weighing approximately three tons, was shipped to Jaipur and originally installed at the Mayo Hospital premises, now known as the Mahila Chikitsalaya. The statue symbolized the ties between the princely state of Jaipur and British governance.
However, after India gained independence in 1947, attitudes toward colonial-era symbols shifted dramatically. Many such statues were removed from public spaces as the country sought to establish a new national identity. The statue of Lord Mayo was removed and eventually buried on the premises of the Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur. This decision reflected a desire to distance the newly independent nation from its colonial past while preserving the statue as a historical artifact rather than destroying it.
