'Racist' Gandhi statue banished from Ghana university campus

[Hamza913]

He actually died because of that
https://mjambhekar.wordpress.com/2006/04/09/partition-and-the-55-crore-issue/

Alright, but that doesn't change my opinion of him.

 

[WhyCry]

Alright, but that doesn't change my opinion of him.

Cool

Just another question, who do you actually thought got the freedom for pakistan?

 

[Hamza913]

Cool

Just another question, who do you actually thought got the freedom for pakistan?

It was spearheaded by Jinnah, but I prefer to credit Iqbal for the idea.

 

[WhyCry]

It was spearheaded by Jinnah, but I prefer to credit Iqbal for the idea.

I didn't ask for creation of pakistan or even the idea of it but freedom.

 

[Mugwop]

????
A vast majority of the subcontinent to this day is racist towards blacks/africans.

Dark skin not Blacks in general

 

[ConcealCarry]

That is an epic insult

 

[Russell]

Dark skin not Blacks in general

No...blacks in general.

This isn't about everyone scrubbing fair & lovely or looking for fair skinned wives. I say this from personal experience having grown up in the US and Australia.

How many guys/girls from the subcontinent do you know with African/black/west indian/aboriginal spouses? But, I bet you know plenty with white, latino, hell even eastern asian.

And that's those that live in the west...I won't even talk about those back home and some of their views on africans.

 

[Kaniska]

'Racist' Gandhi statue banished from Ghana university campus


Accra academics win removal of Mahatma sculpture after petition denouncing Indian leader and saying African heroes ‘come first’

Jason Burke Africa correspondent

Thursday 6 October 2016 12.09 EDTLast modified on Thursday 6 October 201617.00 EDT

A statue of Mahatma Gandhi will be removed from a university campus in Ghana after professors launched a petition claiming the revered Indian independence leader and thinker was racist.

The statue of Gandhi was unveiled in June at the University of Ghana campus in Accra by Pranab Mukherjee, the president of India, as a symbol of close ties between the two countries.

But in September a group of professors started a petition calling for the removal of the statue, saying Gandhi was racist and that the university should put African heroes and heroines “first and foremost”.

The petition states “it is better to stand up for our dignity than to kowtow to the wishes of a burgeoning Eurasian super power”, and quotes passages written by Gandhi which say Indians are “infinitely superior” to black Africans.

More than 1,000 people signed the petition, which claimed that not only was Gandhi racist towards black South Africans when he lived in South Africa as a young man, but that he campaigned for the maintenance of India’s caste system, an ancient social hierarchy that still defines the status in that country of hundreds of millions of people.

Ghana’s foreign ministry said it had followed the controversy with “deep concern” and wanted to relocate the statue.

“The government would therefore want to relocate the statue from the University of Ghana to ensure its safety and to avoid the controversy.” it said. “While acknowledging that, human as he was, Mahatma Gandhi may have had his flaws, we must remember that people evolve.”

Statues on university campuses have recently prompted bitter arguments in Africa as students wrestle with the legacy of colonialism and history of racism on the continent. Last year students in South Africa successfully campaigned for the removal, from the University of Cape Town campus, of a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a notoriously racist mining magnate who died in 1902.

Gandhi, who lived in South Africa for 21 years, has long been a more controversial figure, both in his homeland and elsewhere, than many admirers around the world are aware. A hero for his role in the movement that won independence for India from Britain, Gandhi’s vision of non-violent protest inspired rebels and revolutionaries around the world. His thinking was a key influence on leaders of the African National Congress and others engaged in the struggle against apartheid, and his tolerance for all faiths in his homeland led to his assassination by a Hindu fanatic in 1948. But his more conservative views, and early apparent racism, still anger some.

Opponents of the statue in Ghana quoted several of Gandhi’s early writings in which he referred to black South Africans as “kaffirs” – a highly offensive racist slur – and complained that the South African government wanted to “drag down” Indians to the same level as people he called “half-heathen natives”.

One Gandhi quote was: “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.”

A statue of Gandhi in the centre of Johannesburg not far from the office where he worked as a lawyer, triggered a similar row in 2003.

Gandhi has also been frequently criticised in his homeland. In 2014 the novelistArundhati Roy accused him of perpetuating a discriminatory caste system.

Prof Mridula Mukherjee, an expert in modern Indian history at Jawaharlal University, in Delhi, said at the time that Roy’s criticism was misplaced. “Gandhi devoted much of his life to fighting caste prejudice. He was a reformer not a revivalist within the Hindu religion. His effort was in keeping with his philosophy of nonviolence and bringing social transformation without creating hatred.”


theguardian
[d o t] [c o m]/world/2016/oct/06/ghana-academics-petition-removal-mahatma-gandhi-statue-african-heroes

Good news...Why these guys even put his statue in the first place...

 

[Śakra]

Blacks playing victim card again.

 

[Russell]

@TISSOT the state of your logic, GTFO with that BS

I'm putting you on ignore, you ignoramus.

 

[WhyCry]

No...blacks in general.

This isn't about everyone scrubbing fair & lovely or looking for fair skinned wives. I say this from personal experience having grown up in the US and Australia.

How many guys/girls from the subcontinent do you know with African/black/west indian/aboriginal spouses? But, I bet you know plenty with white, latino, hell even eastern asian.

And that's those that live in the west...I won't even talk about those back home and some of their views on africans.

You have wired logic man... Fair and lovely? Really

It like saying everyone using condom is a killer.

 

[illuminatidinesh]

His 'logic' is that unless we all marry Africans, we are all racists

Lets start from him then?

 

[Water Car Engineer]

In his youth, yes, he even beat his wife. But from his hermit days, no, it's pretty evident he became a humanist at that point. His letter to Hitler, of all people.

DEAR FRIEND,
That I address you as a friend is no formality. I own no foes. My business in life has been for the past 33 years to enlist the friendship of the whole of humanity by befriending mankind, irrespective of race, colour or creed.
http://www.mkgandhi.org/letters/hitler_ltr1.htm

 

[Bitter Melon]

Be careful what you wish for.

Gandhi is synonymous with India and India with Gandhi. Any demonization of Gandhi outside India will inevitably lead to anti India feelings.

During my only visit to South Africa I had once pulled out an Indian currency by mistake to pay the cab driver (a black S.A). He immediately said 'Gandhi" with a huge smile and caught me by surprise. I did not expect him to know the man in the picture or have such a huge smile on his face when he saw that picture.

He asked me why Gandhi's picture was on the currency and I told him that 'Gandhi' was the father of the Nation. That made him so happy that he refused the fare and tip I gave him, but asked instead if he could keep the currency with the Gandhi picture with him.

Do you think he would have recognised George Washington or Abraham Lincoln on a US currency ?


Gandhi is synonym with Integrity, equity, courage, morality, ethics, strength, character and service. Do you really want to change that ? and replace it with who ?



What a load of Crap.

Hindus select their spouse from their own caste or jaathi. why would they select a african spouse ? That would be unnatural and against norms.

That does not make them 'racist', just choosy and rooted to their culture.

White, latinos etc do not share the same culture or transitions or history, so this false equivalence is a logical fallacy.

The only racist I see here is you with blatant racism against South Asians.

Well, you know my view about Gandhi. I do not associate Gandhi with any of those qualities you mention and neither do I care for his name being associated with India. India was known to the world long before Gandhi arrived on the scene and India will be known to the world Gandhi or no Gandhi.

 

[Bitter Melon]

Not in Africa. In Africa, Gandhi is how they know of India and Indians. (and Nehru for his Non Align movement)

Sometimes the man is bigger than his image, sometime the image is bigger than the man. Jesus, muhammed or Buddha all had their moment of weakness, but their image is bigger than their personal life. Same is true for Gandhi.

SO why tear down something that is good for us ? no point in cutting your nose to spite your face.

This is the age of communication. Gandhi's image and Gandhi's truth will not be a secret anymore. The more we hold on to a false image the more we will be reviled in the world. It is better they know we are just as conflicted as the rest of the world regarding him.