Admin | On 01, Aug 2020

New Video: “Seas of Emotion: Tsunami of Truth Submerges Gandhi”

August 1, 2020: Irving, TX — Global anti-racism protests and gender equality marches are finding common ground in the African call to cancel Indian icon Mohandas Gandhi as “racist” and rapist” allegations are repeatedly spray-painted on Gandhi statues in countries all around the world.

Gandhi has long been championed as the “Mahatma,” or “Great Soul,” and he is celebrated for his victories with “Satyagraha,” a method peaceful resistance which he originated in South Africa while it was under British colonial rule. Yet his Satyagraha victories uplifted upper-caste Indians only as they further degraded the native South Africans. “From published propaganda to helping construct Apartheid to participation in war, Gandhi did everything he could to make sure white supremacy flourished,” says narrator Jada Bernard in a new video produced by Organization for Minorities of India.

“Much like a hurricane, racial tensions have stirred again,” says Bernard, who draws on his perspective as a Black man and native of New Orleans who lived through Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “The last season for this type of storm was the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s…. In this storm, it is expected that racist symbols would be defaced and torn down. What may surprise some is along with statues of English slavers and Confederate soldiers, is damage to statues all around the world of Mahatma Gandhi.”

“Statues are kind of a big deal,” All Def comedian Patrick Cloud remarks. Because he is best known for producing and directing comedy segments, his seriousness on the issue garners attention. He, along with other black comedians such as Godfrey and Tahir Moore, find it necessary to start conversations about Gandhi’s dark past. Their voices, as well as those of other Black activists, fill this video to give clarity to this confusing controversy.

As referenced in the video, a statue of Gandhi at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center in Atlanta still stands despite the raging controversy. Those calling for its removal, such as Bernard, declare it as an “affront to African dignity.” Gandhi has been famously associated with the American Civil Rights Movement, which Bernard describes as a result of successful propaganda. “Gandhi wasn’t from here,” he says. “He never came here. And he wouldn’t have marched with us. He marched and even went to war against us in South Africa. And now he’s the model of peace and racial harmony? How loudly do we have to cry out before his statue is torn down at the Dr. King Center?”