Letter to the Editor

I am appalled by the campaign launched for the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s statues in the UK by misguided and ill-informed few. The statues had been erected by public demand to recognise the immense contribution of Gandhi Ji to the free world. As a result, this protest is unwarranted, uncalled for, unnecessary and above all, counterproductive. If Britain wishes to acknowledge the contribution of a leader who was also the architect for bringing an end to the British rule in India, then it speaks volumes about the vision and values of this great man. I shudder to think what our world would have been today without Mahatma Gandhi’s struggle for racial equality which started in South Africa. To call him a racist is totally out order when he dedicated his entire life fighting racism, imperial rule and shaped the world as we see it today.

Mahatma Gandhi was not only an Indian leader but a universal icon who inspired people across the globe with his ideals. The civil rights movement in America under Dr Martin Luther King was the direct result of Bapuji’s inspiration. The struggle against apartheid in South Africa by Nelson Mandela is yet another example. It is wrong to show disrespect to someone who put the interests of the oppressed above that of his own? How many people do we know in the world who gave up everything for a cause that they believed in?