Malawi Court Stays Installation of Gandhi's Bust After Petition Claims He Was 'Racist'

New Delhi: Just five days before India’s vice president was supposed to unveil a bust of M.K. Gandhi, the high court in the east African nation of Malawi has stayed its installation after a petition was filed protesting that the Indian leader was a “racist”.

Following media reports, Malawi government came out strongly in support of the installation of the statue on Thursday.

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu left on Wednesday for a three nation African tour of Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

A press release issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs noted that Naidu is scheduled to inaugurate a Business Incubation Centre, India-Africa Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development and unveil a Gandhi bust during his visit to Malawi on November 4 to 5.

Also Read: Some of Gandhi's Early Views on Africans Were Racist. But That Was Before He Became Mahatma

In fact, Gandhi is a common running theme of Naidu’s sojourn in Malawi. He will inaugurate a Jaipur Foot camp, which is being organised under the “India for Humanity” initiative launched to mark Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary.

One of the agreements to be signed during the visit will to be to set up a ‘Mahatma Gandhi convention centre’, MEA’s secretary (economic relations), T.S. Tirumurti said at a press conference on October 29.

He pointed out that Malawi’s financial capital, Blantyre City, where the bust would be inaugurated has a road named after Mahatma Gandhi since the 1970s.

The stay order issued by the high court on Tuesday (October 30) stops all work on installing a bust of Gandhi “at a public land” until the next hearing, which has been scheduled for November 12.

The petition was filed by Pemphero Mphande and Mkotama Katenga-Kaunda, against Blantyre City Council (BCC), the attorney general (on behalf of Ministry of Information and Communications Technology) and contractor, Plem Construction.

Vice president M. Venkaiah Naidu's visit to Malawi was set to have Gandhi as the common theme. Credit: PTI

“In his sworn affidavit, Mphande argued that Gandhi made remarks that Indians were superior to black people, among others,” said an article in Malawi’s The Nation.

After obtaining the stay order, Mphande insisted that “Gandhi does not deserve to be honoured in Malawi because he was a racist”.

Two weeks ago, over 5,000 signatures were gathered petitioning the Indian government and BCC to stop the construction of the Gandhi bust.

A report published on October 12 quoted Malawi’s foreign ministry spokesperson Rejoice Shumba justifying the installation of the bust as it would promote “Gandhi’s values of simplicity, social uplifting and the fight against social evils”.

The group, calling themselves #GhandiMustFall (sic) cited previous instances in Ghana and South Africa where similar petitions demanded removal of Gandhi's statues.

“Malawi Government accepted a request from the Indian Government to construct the Mahatma Gandhi Square in recognition of his contribution to the fight against colonialism and promotion of human rights and social development for the underprivileged,” said the spokesperson in reply to a questionnaire from the Malawian newspaper.

She stated that the Indian government had provided a grant of $10 million for the construction of Mahatma Gandhi Convention Centre. In return, India had asked for a location to install a statue of Gandhi, said BCC spokesperson Anthony Kasunda in a report dated September 13.

The group, calling themselves “#GhandiMustFall (sic)”, as per The Nation report, cited previous instances in Ghana and South Africa where similar petitions demanded removal of Gandhi's statues.

A member of this group, Mpambira Aubrey Kambewa claimed that “Malawi government has long overlooked the views and needs of the public in return of promoting agendas that might have direct benefits to a few elites”.

An article written in the same newspaper on October 12 said that “Indians should stop blackmailing sovereign African governments to erect statues of racists in exchange for infrastructure”.

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In 2016, there had been a movement for removal of a Gandhi statue in the University of Legon in Ghana.

Both the Ghana and Malawi petitions are based on use of derogatory terms used by Gandhi when he first landed in South Africa as published in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi.

E.S. Reddy, a former assistant secretary-general of the UN and director of the UN Centre against Apartheid, had written for The Wire in October 2016 that Gandhi’s remarks had been misconstrued and “completely distort what his life represents”.

He pointed out that Nelson Mandela had been well aware of Gandhi’s racist views during his early years in South Africa. Mandela wrote in an article in 1995 that “those prejudices” were in a “young Gandhi, still to become Mahatma, when he was without any human prejudice save that in favour of truth and justice”.

In New Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on Thursday that reports of the high court stay were “incorrect”. “There was a section of people who made an argument which has been dismissed very strongly by the government of Malawi. They have highlighted the important role played by Gandhi and India in Africa. The statue erection will go ahead,” he added.

The secretary to the Malawian foreign affairs ministry issued a detailed statement on November 1 expressing support for the ongoing construction of Gandhi’s statue and the Mahatma Gandhi Convention Centre.

It clarified that there were “no pre-conditions” in India’s $10 million grant for the convention centre and the construction of the statue.

It is important for Malawians to note that the Government of India will soon be constructing Mahatma Gandhi Convention/Conference Centre opposite the Golden Peacock Five Star Hotel and International Convention Centre at Chichiri, Blantyre, with a grant financing of USD10million without pre-conditions. Similarly, it should be noted that the acceptance for the ongoing construction of Mahatma Gandhi Statue was granted without pre-conditions. In addition, the Government of the Republic of Malawi is not spending any money on the construction of the Statue. With the same purpose of promoting values of Mahatma Gandhi, the Government of India will be constructing Mahatma Gandhi Convention Centres in eight (8) other African countries. All this is happening at a time when India will soon be celebrating 150 years of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.

The Convention Centre in Blantyre would provide an opportunity for Malawi to create jobs and generate revenues for the much needed socio-economic development of this country, asserted the foreign ministry official.

On the petition against the Gandhi statue, the statement said, “This negative stance against the Mahatma Gandhi Statue has come as a great surprise to the Government of Malawi because there has not been a query against naming of the avenue after Mahatma Gandhi since this was done many years back.”

It was pointed out that relations between India and Malawi have been strengthened ever since relations were established after latter’s independence in 1994.

India has not only given grants and technical assistance, but soft loans have led to the construction of Likhubula-Blantyre Water Project, sugar processing plant in Salima, fuel storage reservoirs in Lilongwe and Mzuzu, and purchase of agricultural equipment, the statement said.

The statue, a senior Malawian diplomat explained, was “aimed at recognizing the outstanding role that Mahatma Gandhi played in the struggle against colonialism in Africa and India. It should be recognized that Mahatma Gandhi promoted values of simplicity, fight against social evils, promoting human and civil rights as well as uplifting of social wellbeing of people.”

Noting that Gandhi inspired African freedom fighters against colonialism and independence, the statement described the Indian leader as a “a role model of a human rights campaigner for both Africa and India”.

(This article was updated with statements from the spokesperson of the Indian foreign ministry and the secretary of the Malawian foreign affairs ministry.)

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