Great-grandson of Edwin Lutyens criticises removal of his bust from Rashtrapati Bhavan

Matt Ridley, the great-grandson of British architect Edwin Lutyens, has criticised the removal of Lutyens’ bust from Rashtrapati Bhavan, according to a report by The Times of India.

President Droupadi Murmu on Monday unveiled a bust of Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, the first and last Indian Governor-General of independent India, replacing the earlier installation of Lutyens at the presidential residence designed by him.

Ridley, a science writer, shared a photograph of himself beside Lutyens’ bust on X and wrote that he was “sad to read” about its removal from the presidential palace in Delhi. He added that he had noticed last year that Lutyens’ name had been removed from the plinth.


In a separate post, Ridley shared an image of a replica of the bust kept on his bookshelf. He wrote that it was sculpted by Sir William Reid-Dick and said he understood India’s wish to remove colonial statues but described Lutyens as “an architect, not a viceroy.”

Responding to a post by X user Oliver Lewis, who criticised the decision, Ridley said Rashtrapati Bhavan was “a more elegant, ingenious and imaginative building” than several other official residences, and noted that it incorporated Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Muslim architectural themes.



Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also commented on X, stating that many countries preserve aspects of their history to learn from them.

Former CBI director Mannem Nageswara Rao posted an apology to Ridley on X, describing the move as “petty vandalism of history.” Another X user criticised Lutyens, referring to him as a racist.

With inputs from TOI