Admin | On 09, Jun 2020

Washington, DC Gandhi statue vandalism prompts US apology

Washington, DC: June 9, 2020 — US Ambassador to India Ken Juster apologized on June 3 for the “desecration” of a Gandhi statue outside India’s Embassy in Washington DC after the statue was spray-painted with accusations of “racist” and “rapist” amidst ongoing protests for justice for George Floyd.

As frustrated citizens marched past the Indian Embassy on June 2, they apparently lashed out against what they perceive to be anti-black propaganda by defacing the nearly nine-foot bronze statue which installed by the Indian government in 2000. “So sorry to see the desecration of the Gandhi statue,” stated Ambassador Juster. “Please accept our sincere apologies…. We stand against prejudice and discrimination of any type. We will recover and be better.” President Donald Trump followed up on June 8, stating, “It was a disgrace.”

Gandhi is championed as a symbol of non-violent political resistance after his involvement in resisting Britain’s colonial rule over the Indian subcontinent. The motive behind the vandalism, however, seems to be resistance to Gandhi’s past record of prejudice and discrimination. Gandhi statues around the world have faced protests and legal battles for several years by groups alleging he advanced anti-black racism, promoted the caste system, and engaged in sexual abuse of his teenaged female relatives.

Vandalized Gandhi statue in Washington, DC

“It was a disgrace for Ambassador Juster to apologize to the Indian government after protestors against racism vandalized a statue of a racist,” says Arvin Valmuci of Organization for Minorities of India (OFMI). “While African intellectuals are leading the charge to remove Gandhi statues from their land, Black Lives Matter protestors are toppling statues of slave-owners erected on American soil. This is a moment to stop, take stock, and apologize for promoting people who advanced doctrines of racism and segregation.”

In 2016, a Gandhi statue was removed from the University of Ghana after lecturers and students petitioned the government to remove the “racist symbol,” which was installed without consultation in a space which offers no statues or symbols of African heroes. Law student Nana Adoma Asare Adei told the BBC: “Having his statue means that we stand for everything he stands for and if he stands for these things [his alleged racism], I don’t think we should have his statue on campus.” The petition carefully details his racist identity, as well as citing similar efforts across the globe to remove racist symbols.

At Carleton University in 2018, Kenneth Aliu, president of the Institute of African Studies Student Association (IASSA), led a campaign to remove a statue of Gandhi from his campus. “Gandhi was a racist,” said Aliu. “He utilized anti-Black racism as a weapon to bargain with the British about the subjugation of Indians living in South Africa.” Aliu explained that Gandhi “advocated for further segregation between people of color” and “portrayed Africans as savages.”

Gandhi’s morality has also been the subject of growing controversy over recent years. At a 2016 protest agains a Gandhi statue in Davis, California, The Sacramento Bee reported, “Gandhi was also called a pedophile by many in the crowd for sleeping nude with his teenage grandnieces to test the strength of his vow of chastity.” Speaking bluntly, former Yuba City councillor Tej Man said, “Gandhi was a child molester.”

Four police officers have been charged in the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who was killed on May 25 after an officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The kneeling officer is charged with second-degree murder. Days after the arrests are made, civil unrest continues.

“Though not all of us are participating in riots,” African activist Jada Bernard clarifies, “we do all understand that the catalyst for the riots was not the first rioter, but the last straw.” Although sympathetic, citing the successful removal of Confederate statues as racist symbols, Bernard contends that the statue should not be defaced, but legally removed. “We tend to overlook how softly powerful propaganda is. In New Orleans, I walked past a statue of Robert E. Lee on Jefferson Davis Parkway. It’s like the Confederacy won the war or something. Decolonization includes reevaluating all these people who are propagated as heroes.”

“The Indian government ought to be apologizing to the US for defrauding the African-American community by forcing Gandhi down their throats,” remarks former OFMI director Bhajan Singh. “It’s a double-victimization. First, Gandhi supported apartheid in South Africa. Second, India used propagandhi around the world to whitewash its slaughter of India’s minorities. Where is the apology for passing off a racist, casteist, rapist monster as a global hero of civil rights? The hypocrisy of the Hindu nationalist government in India knows no ends as they extort an apology from the US for the vandalism of a statue of a monster even while they are pushing their own variety of racism by working to strip Muslims of citizenship with the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens.”

University of Ghana Gandhi statue, before and after