Gandhi statue in San Francisco protested
Saturday, 02 Oct 2010
(NEWSCORE) – A group of protesters in San Francisco Saturday planned to demand the removal of a statue of Mohandas Gandhi, hoping to expose the “racism and sham nonviolence” of the famously nonviolent Indian leader, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The Organization for Minorities of India will ask for the removal of a bronze statue of Gandhi that has sat in a plaza behind the prominent San Francisco Ferry Building since 1988. And the group — which seeks to publicize the oppression of Christians, Buddhists, Dalits, Muslims, Sikhs, and other Indian minorities — claimed Gandhi was a racist with violent urges, the paper said.
“The popular image of Gandhi as an egalitarian pacifist is a myth,” Bhajan Singh, one of the organizers, reportedly said in a statement. “We plan to challenge that myth by disseminating Gandhi’s own words to expose his racism and sham nonviolence.”
The protesters planned to direct their demands at the Ferry Building management, but the statue is actually under the supervision of the San Francisco Arts Commission, which doubted the statue would be taken down, the Chronicle said.
“I suppose Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela must have their critics as well,” Arts Commission President P.J. Johnston told the Chronicle in response to the planned demonstration. “These folks are free to lodge their protest, but I doubt that our commission will move to take down the statue.”
Source: San Francisco Gate
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Anti-Gandhi Rally in San Francisco
Gandhism.net
Contact: Peter Flanigan, Webmaster
webmaster@gandhism.net
OCT 2ND PROTEST RALLY AT SAN FRANCISCO GANDHI STATUE
San Francsico, CA – Sept. 20, 2007 – Gandhism.net will host an anti-Gandhi rally at 11am on Oct. 2nd at the statue of Mohandas Gandhi outside the San Francisco Ferry Terminal. The rally is a response to the United Nations declaration of Oct. 2nd as an “International Day of Non-Violence.” This date is the birthday of Mohandas Gandhi, and was chosen to honor a man most consider an icon of nonviolence.
The rally will emphasize Gandhi’s virulent anti-black racism, participation in a 1906 British war on blacks, and his attempt to coverup the murder of an American citizen by his followers.
While living in South Africa, Gandhi said of the black natives: “Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire 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.”
“The popular image of Gandhi as an egalitarian pacifist is a myth,” said Peter Flanigan, the site’s webmaster. “Our rally is intended to challenge that myth by disseminating Gandhi’s own words revealing his racism and sham nonviolence.”
At the rally, Gandhism.net will circulate similar Gandhi quotes and highlight his anti-black activism in South Africa. Gandhism.net will also assert that Gandhi’s promotion of institutionalized racism in South Africa may have facilitated the rise of Apartheid.
About Gandhism.net – Gandhism.net was founded by Americans concerned about the negative effects of Mohandas Gandhi’s philosophy on international politics and the daily lives of Indian minorities. The website is dedicated to factually debunking the myth of “Mahatma” Gandhi, primarily through the use of his own writings.
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For more information please call Peter Flanigan at webmaster@gandhism.net.
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