Mahatma Gandhi Memorial: A tribute to a true man of peace
Few can argue that Mahatma Gandhi was one of the world’s most influential and honorable leaders. Naturally, in the city of memorials and statues paying tribute to great leaders, one of Gandhi stands is clothed simply and bears a walking stick. He is actually in stride, as if walking, which he did often in his lifetime as a leader of many great marches to bring India’s back to the people of India.
Gandhi was famous as a political and spiritual leader, who believed in mass disobedience as a way to resist tyranny. His strategy was a non-violent one. ‘He organized peasants and farmers to resist excessive land tax and discrimination. As the leader of the Indian National Congress, he continued to lead campaigns against poverty, for women’s rights, against “untouchability” as a social class, created religious and ethnic tolerance and also increased economic stability and self-reliance for India. He also worked hard to free India from foreign control, particularly the British. His most famous protest was the Salt March, against the British tax on salt. He marched to the sea to make the salt himself, and thousands joined him on the march.
It is from the Salt March that inspired the sculpture of Gandhi which rests in a triangular plaza by the Indian Embassy, north of Dupont Circle. The design was created by Gautam Pal. The statue itself is bronze and stands nearly nine feet tall. The pedestal upon which he stands is a granite block of Imperial Red and purposefully left rough in most areas except where inscriptions were placed. This natural earth-like surface reflects Gandhi’s own personality. Several other inscriptions are situated around the statue, and a weeping willow and seating area allow people to sit quietly and continue to be inspired by him.
On the statue, Gandhi wears his signature round glasses on his bald head and his cotton (or bronze) dhoti over his thin body. Anyone merely passing by will instantly recognize this leader in his passionate determination to shun material possessions, an ironic stance given the statue's proximity to the country’s leaders of money and power. One side of the granite block gives a brief history of Gandhi with a quote from Albert Einstein, written on Gandhi’s 70th birthday, “Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.”
Posted by Rin-rin Yu
