‘BLACK LIVES MATTER CAMPAIGN’ AND GANDHI STATUE
Petition to remove the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Leicester UK is a clear attempt to divert, divide, demoralise and destroy the ‘black lives matter’ (BLM) campaign in the USA and many other countries in Europe. Gandhi, who is respected as an apostle of Ahimsa, nonviolence, peace and harmony among humanity, devoted his entire life for freedom, equality and justice.
The statue of Gandhi, who was from Gujarat India, has a symbolic meaning as a large number of Indian Gujarati community, who were expelled by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, live in Leicester.
However, demand to remove Gandhi’s statue at a time the similar movement, BLM, has gained momentum is clear distraction to discourage people and divert their attention from the main issue of equality and justice for black people, who have been facing inequality and injustice for centuries from slavery to second class citizens.
Martin Luther King, the American Civil Rights leader argued that the Gandhian philosophy was “the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.” In this context, the petition to remove Gandhi’s statue is a clear sign to undermine black community who are inspire by the principle of King, who is the inspiration for a peaceful movement for equal rights.
Gandhi, who studied in London and practiced his law in South Africa, rigorously campaigned for self-rule of the black natives in South Africa before moving to India to campaign the independence of India from the British colony. Despite the atrocities of the British rules, Gandhi always advocated for non-violence, harmony and peaceful resolution of the issue.
He succeeded to remove British colony from India without raising arms. India has more than a billion population at present and a small island nation Britain with a population of less than 60 million ruled for centuries. Gandhi could bring massive movement against the British colony and end the colonial rule within a few hours, weeks or months if he had wished to fight at that time but he campaigned it through peaceful and nonviolence means. He became an icon of nonviolence, peace and harmony and inspired many freedom and democratic movement all over the world.
Leaders like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King among others followed the principles of Gandhi for peaceful means of campaign for freedom, justice and fairness in many countries and societies across the globe.
With the success of India’s independence movement through non-violence means, Mandela was also inspired by Gandhi’s approach and followed in the same footpath. “While Nelson Mandela is the father of South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi is our grandfather,” Harris Majeke, South Africa’s ambassador to India, said at a programme in India in 2013.
“Mandela was inspired by the Satyagraha campaign led by Gandhi. It was a compelling act of passive protest against oppression. This would later inspire the formation of the African National Congress and strengthen Mandela’s belief in our shared humanity,’’ the Progressive quotes him as saying.
Historians know well and it is well documented that Gandhi campaigned massively to end the discriminatory apartheid rules in South Africa after he was thrown out of the train by white ticket collectors while he was travelling in the first class so it is ‘true that there is a direct connection between Gandhi’s campaign against discrimination in South Africa and the anti-apartheid movement there.’ “The African National Congress, which in 1952 launched the first mass movement against apartheid under the leadership of Dr Albert Luthuli, had been founded in 1912 on the model of the Natal Indian Congress, with which Gandhi had been closely associated,” writes Claude Markovits in “The Un-Gandhian Gandhi: The Life and the Afterlife of the Mahatma.
Mandela, who was inspired with Gandhi’s principles and followed the same footpath to free South Africa from the apartheid rule had joined top leaders, Nobel laureates and elder statesmen calling on ‘the world to reinvent Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent approach to solving conflicts.’ “His philosophy contributed in no small measure to bringing about a peaceful transformation in South Africa and in healing the destructive human divisions that had been spawned by the abhorrent practice of apartheid,” Reuters quoted Mandela as saying.
When Barack Obama, former US president visited Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison to free South Africa from apartheid rules of white, with his family, he was looking back at the legacy of others. He was heard telling his daughters, Sasha and Malia, about ‘’Mahatma Gandhi’s early work in South Africa as a lawyer. “When he went back to India, the principles ultimately led to Indian independence, and what Gandhi inspired Martin Luther King,” he said.
As Gandhi once said, “I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both, on as vast a scale as I could,” he said. If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought, and acted, inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore him at our own risk.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ said in the UN assembly last year ‘perhaps Gandhi’s most important legacy was in creating a culture of peace, in proving the effectiveness of non-violent non-cooperation, and drawing the world’s attention to the gap between what we do and what we are capable of doing. Gandhi’s ideas drive the work of the United Nations for equality, empowerment and global citizenship every day. I know they also drive the thinking of many global leaders.’
Gandhi may be weak as all other human being in many issues, but his determination to establish his principles of freedom, equality and justice for all irrespective of their community, country or colour through non-violence means, is lauded throughout the world. There is no an iota of doubt about Gandhi’s philosophy, dream and works for equality of all humanity. He devoted his entire life for the welfare of all general public- democracy, freedom, fairness and justice. His own campaign started from South Africa where the black people were suffering under the rule of Whites. And now the demand to bring down his statue in the UK is a premeditated, premature and prejudicial act which will not do justice to this man of apostle of peace and non-violence.
The demand to remove his statue is certainly to divert the attention from ‘black lives matter’ and divide the people supporting this cause, damage and destroy their agenda for equal rights and justice.
