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.”
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