Gandhi in NY: Peace, Social Activist, and World Leader

The first time I came across a mention of Mahatma Gandhi and a visual was in the sculpture garden of Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in the Fall of 2005. The sculptures were created by school children. I was actually pleasantly surprised. It (the surprised reaction) might have been because of the stereotype about Americans who have no general knowledge and no interest in the history, politics and happenings in the rest of the world. I try not to have such generalized notions of people. But this one is hard to get rid of. It also came from a feeling (at that time) of being culturally invisible. I was equally surprised for the same reason when I saw a picture of Indira Gandhi on a book cover about Women leaders in the classroom library of a Harlem school.

Anyway, continuing about Gandhi....I was so surprised that I decided to come back to take a photo, almost to prove to myself that 'these people know about our Gandhi'. hahaha.

This photo of the sculpture was recently taken when I visited the sculpture garden again with my sister. (She was not suitably surprised to see Gandhi etched in a Cathedral garden. What a disappointment.) The sculpture is created by a school aged kid. It is a message of peace from Mahatma Gandhi.

In the same week we came across the sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi tucked away in a corner of Union square park. Wikipedia says that the newer addition of Gandhi's sculpture in 1986 was to mark Union Square's history of social activism.




















The statue is quite well made. You can see the detail of his watch tucked in his Dhoti. Though I was quite disappointed to see him tucked in a corner like that.


The following photo is from Madam Tussad's on 42nd street. I thought the placement was very interesting - social leader, religious leader, spiritual leader.