Sign the Petition – Black Gwinnett Magazine

We are concerned citizen of the United States and native of Atlanta, Georgia. We are demanding the immediate removal of the statue of Mohandas Gandhi located on the Promenade at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta, Georgia. We are further demanding that the Promenade at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park name be changed to omit “Gandhi” from the current title.

This demand is being made because of documented evidence that Gandhi was a racist against natives of Africa – Black people. Yes, Gandhi led a noteworthy non-violent campaign for Indians, but it was for his people to be treated more like the Europeans, and not Black people that he clearly demonstrated disdain. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. only knew of Gandhi’s non-violent work of liberation of Indian people, but not of his racist views of Black Africans. To have his statue at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta, Georgia that honors the historical anti-racist leader of the Black community is beyond insulting. It is blasphemy.

There is overwhelming documented evidence that Gandhi was a racist against Black people. Gandhi routinely expressed “disdain for Africans,” while in South Africa, says S. Anand, founder of Navayana, the publisher of the book titled “The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire.”

The book details the fact that Gandhi described black Africans as “savage,” “raw” and living a life of “indolence and nakedness,” and he campaigned relentlessly to prove to the British rulers that the Indian community in South Africa was superior to native black Africans. The book – as well as many others – brings light to Gandhi’s own writings between 1893-1914 and government archives, and paints a narrative that is totally different from how the world regards him today.

“Much of the halo that surrounds Gandhi today is a result of clever repackaging,” write the authors, Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, professors at the University of Johannesburg and the University of KwaZulu Natal.

“As we examined Gandhi’s actions and contemporary writings during his South African stay, and compared these with what he wrote in his autobiography and ‘Satyagraha in South Africa,’ it was apparent that he indulged in some ‘tidying up.’ He was effectively rewriting his own history.”

—————————–

Removal Demand of the Mohandas Gandhi Statue at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta, GA

Mark Foust

We are concerned citizens of the United States and native of Atlanta, Georgia. We are demanding the immediate removal of the statue of Mohandas Gandhi located on the Promenade at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta, Georgia. I am further demanding that the Promenade at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park name be changed to omit “Gandhi” from the current title.

The book details the fact that Gandhi described black Africans  as “savage,” “raw” and living a life of “indolence and nakedness,” and he campaigned relentlessly to prove to the British rulers that the Indian community in South Africa was superior to native black Africans. The book – as well as many others – brings light to Gandhi’s own writings between 1893-1914 and government archives, and paints a narrative that is totally different from how the world regards him today.

“As we examined Gandhi’s actions and contemporary writings during his South African stay, and compared these with what he wrote in his autobiography and \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'Satyagraha in South Africa, it was apparent that he indulged in some ‘tidying up.\\\' He was effectively rewriting his own history.”

According to the Washington Post, here are examples of what Gandhi said about black South Africans.

One of the first battles Gandhi fought after coming to South Africa was over the separate entrances for whites and blacks at the Durban post office. Gandhi objected that Indians were “classed with the natives of South Africa,” who he called the kaffirs, and demanded a separate entrance for Indians.

“We felt the indignity too much and … petitioned the authorities to do away with the invidious distinction, and they have now provided three separate entrances for natives, Asiatics and Europeans.”

In a petition letter in 1895, Gandhi also expressed concern that a lower legal standing for Indians would result in degenerating\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" so much so that from their civilized habits, they would be degraded to the habits of the aboriginal Natives, and a generation hence, between the progeny of the Indians and the Natives, there will be very little difference in habits, and customs and thought.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"

In an open letter to the Natal Parliament in 1893, Gandhi wrote:

“I venture to point out that both the English and the Indians spring from a common stock, called the Indo-Aryan. … A general belief seems to prevail in the Colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than savages or the Natives of Africa. Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw Kaffir.”

At a speech in Mumbai in 1896, Gandhi said that the Europeans in Natal wished “to degrade us to the level of the raw kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness.”

Protesting the decision of Johannesburg municipal authorities to allow Africans to live alongside Indians, Gandhi wrote in 1904 that the council “must withdraw the Kaffirs from the Location. About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians, I must confess I feel most strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population and it is an undue tax on even the proverbial patience of my countrymen.”

In response to the White League’s agitation against Indian immigration and the proposed importation of Chinese labor, Gandhi wrote in 1903: “We believe also that the white race in South Africa should be the predominating race.”

Gandhi wrote in 1908 about his prison experience: “We were marched off to a prison intended for Kaffirs. There, our garments were stamped with the letter “N”, which meant that we were being classed with the Natives. We were all prepared for hardships, but not quite for this experience. We could understand not being classed with the whites, but to be placed on the same level with the Natives seemed too much to put up with.”

In 1939, Gandhi justified his counsel to the Indian community in South Africa against forming a non-European front: “I have no doubt about the soundness of my advice. However much one may sympathize with the Bantus, Indians cannot make common cause with them.”

A rewriting of history for Gandhi has been occurring around the world led by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, India, in collaboration with The National Federation of Indian American Associations and The Embassy of India, USA donating Gandhi statues in spaces concentrated by Blacks across the world. This rewriting of history resembles the work of the Daughters of the Confederacy placing statues of confederate officers across the country, and endorsing history books that misrepresented the Civil War.

Today, confederate statues are being removed, and so are Gandhi statues in public places. A statue of Mahatma Gandhi was removed from a university campus in Ghana\\\\\\\'s capital, Accra in 2018 because Gandhi was \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"racist.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" Placement of the Gandhi statue at the California State Capitol in 2010 was rejected. An attempt to place a Gandhi statue in Gwinnett County, Georgia was stopped in 2019 by a coalition of activists against anti-Blackness. In 2022, a lawsuit was filed to remove a Gandhi statue placed on the county grounds of Clarksdale, Mississippi and is currently in litigation.

In closing, we are demanding the immediate removal of the statue of Mohandas Gandhi located on the Promenade at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta, Georgia. As stated earlier, we are further demanding that the Promenade at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park name be changed to omit “Gandhi” from the current title.

You can add formatting using markdown syntax - read more

Peace and blessings, Cheryle Renee Moses

BCC yourself

Hide name from public

18 signatures

Removal Demand of the Mohandas Gandhi Statue at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta, GA

Contact to Listing Owner