Sparked to action in the wake of the 50th anniversary of Indian independence in 1947, the US Congress passed a bill in 1998 authorising the Government of India to establish a memorial to Gandhi on US federal land in the District of Columbia.
The 8 ft 8 in (2.64 m) bronze statue depicts Mahatma Gandhi in ascetic garb, in reference to his 1930 march against the salt tax in India. It was designed by Gautam Pal, a sculptor from Kolkata. The statue is mounted on a 16 ton plinth of ruby granite from Ilkal, Karnataka, standing in a circular plaza of gray granite pavers. Behind it are three slabs of Karnataka red granite with inscriptions honoring Gandhi's memory, and in front of it is a seat also of red granite. The statue bears an inscription with Gandhi's answer to a journalist who asked for his message to the world: "My life is my message."
The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial unveiled in Milwaukee in 2002 includes a similar statue by Gautam Pal, also mounted on a red granite plinth.
Vandalization
In June 2020, during the George Floyd protests, the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial in Washington, D.C. was vandalized by unknown individuals on the intervening night of June 2 and 3. The incident prompted the Indian Embassy to register a complaint with law enforcement agencies. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the Indian Ambassador to the United States called the vandalism "a crime against humanity".[2][3] U.S. President Donald Trump called the defacement of Mahatma Gandhi's statue a "disgrace".[4]
The statue was defaced and vandalized during a Khalistani separatist rally on 12 December 2020.[5][6]
