LONDON: Anti-racist activists in Britain have called on the British government to remove the statues of Mahatma Gandhi from two major sites in London and Leicester, while the Black Lives Matter movement is gathering support across the country to dismantle images and statues of historical figures who have expressed hatred and racism towards blacks.
Thousands of people are calling for the removal of controversial monuments and statues across the UK, which activists describe as “racist and inappropriate” and this campaign has focused on Gandhi, who is seen as racist and has publicly expressed racist views against the blacks.
Last week during widespread protests against racism in the UK, Black Lives Matter protesters smashed the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, London, describing the statue’s “racist” steps and throwing white on polished bronze. Authorities fear the Gandhi statue will come under constant attack from protesters in the coming days. It was before Sikh protesters made fun of India during the protests in the square, but the Black Life Movement encouraged anti-Gandhi opponents to start their campaign again.
The British Sikh Federation commented on Twitter: Are the statues of Mahatma Gandhi threatened worldwide during the #BLM protests because of their well-documented views against racism against blacks? He referred to Africans as “savages”, “uncivilized”, “dirty” and “like animals”. Your comments are bad.
The Gandhi statues, which was installed in 2015, is one of 12 in the courtyard of British politics, the Commonwealth, and prominent foreign figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela. The Winston Churchill statue was also attacked, with the words sprayed: “He was a racist.”
Since the tragic death of George Floyd in the United States, there have been a series of petitions circulating on the internet inspired by an anti-racist rally in Bristol, which saw protesters topple the statue of slave trader Edward Coulston before removing the bronze statue and lift it in a port. The petitions demand that British government authorities remove the controversial monuments in the United Kingdom.
Most of these petitions demand the elimination of the English who were involved in the slave trade, anti-blacks, racists, or traces of black racism.
Thousands of people signed a petition from British Indian activists calling on the Leicester City Council to remove the Gandhi statue from the city, just hours after its publication. The petition said: “Gandhi is a fascist, racist and sexual predator.
For years he was loved and studied in the curriculum. For many people in my community, he bought unbearable suffering against my people. As a result, I do not want to see a statue. and praise this personality type. ” So I want to take steps to remove it. I suggest doing your own research on Gandhi and aligning it with your beliefs before signing this protest.
Finally, I believe that the following three attributes in any one, despite what has been accomplished in your life, should not be considered a “Symbol” or an inspiration to others. Plus, with your help, we can all come together to reflect the change we want to see in the world. “
Historians unanimously declared that Gandhi was racist in his opinion and looked at blacks.
South African academics Ashwin Desai and Ghulam Fahd spent seven years writing a book on Gandhi spanning from 1893 to 1914 when Gandhi lived in South Africa and campaigned for Indian rights there.
Desai and Vahed wrote that during his stay in Africa, Gandhi kept the Indian struggle “separate from the African conflict and color, although the latter are denied political rights on the basis of color and can also claim to be British subjects.”
They said that Gandhi was indifferent to the plight of those in need, and believed that state power should remain in the hands of whites, and called African black cavers a derogatory term for most of their stay in the country.
In 1893, Gandhi wrote to the Natal Parliament that “there seems to be a general belief in the colony that Indians are a little better, if at all, than savages or indigenous Africans.”
In 1904, he wrote to a Johannesburg health official that the council “must remove Kaffirs” from an unhealthy slum called “Coolie Site”, where many Africans live alongside the Indians.
“As for mixing the infidels with the Indians, I must admit that I feel more powerful.”
The biographer of Gandhi’s grandson and his grandson Rajmohan Gandhi said in a transcript that Gandhi was undoubtedly “sometimes ign
