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Riverside residents drop opposition to Gandhi statue

Suleman Din

Gandhi hadn't even arrived at a small suburban town in southern California last year when he faced opposition from some local Muslims who didn't want him there.

Over a year later and Gandhi still hasn't arrived in Riverside. But in a fashion that best suits his legacy, his opponents have been silenced by nothing other than words.

Lalit Acharya, founder of the Riverside Mahatma Gandhi Peace Foundation, felt that a monument dedicated to Gandhi would be a good symbol of peace in his city, which saw a build-up of racial tension in 1998 when police shot a black woman.

Acharya approached Riverside's city hall with his proposal and was met with enthusiasm. The city was looking for ways to reflect the city's diverse population, which includes the strong presence of South Asian technology professionals.

What caught Acharya off-guard was the communal tension brewing in some elements of his own neighbourhood's Muslim community.

"Gandhi was not a hero to everybody," Jamil Dada, an investment banker, told the Associated Press last March when asked about the proposal. "It's just going to open a whole can of worms."

Dada was part of a group of Pakistanis who blamed Gandhi for failing to prevent the deaths of Muslims during Partition.

"I always viewed Gandhi as a person who wouldn't provoke such deep resentment," Acharya told rediff.com

"And the ultimate irony," he continued, "is that it was a Hindu extremist who assassinated Gandhi, because he blamed Gandhi for being on the side of Muslims."

Mayor Ron Loveridge, who is one of the key supporters for the monument, decided that he would get Hindus and Muslims to sit down and talk about the issue.

"Southern California is an extremely diverse place," Loveridge told rediff.com "No one should be prejudging people here, and the best way to understand each other is by taking the time to listen to each other."

Loveridge, Acharya, Dada's group and the local mosque had meetings to discuss a suitable compromise. Over six months, all the parties got together to express their concerns.

In the end, everyone came away either satisfied or chastened. Loveridge said that among the concessions the city was willing to make were naming a street beside the local mosque after a Muslim leader, and considering a sister-city relationship with a Pakistani city. Currently, the city has a sister relationship with Hyderabad, India.

The compromise was reminiscent of one reached in Chicago a few years ago, when some Pakistanis protested against the city's decision to rename a street near its central South Asian business area on Devon Street after Gandhi. The city named another street in the area after Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.

"The Indian community and its business is very important to Riverside," Loveridge said. "We have Tata Consulting offices here, there is a Silicon Mission here to attract Indian businessmen, and we have Hindu and Sikh temples here as well.

"This statue will be an example of the life and times of southern California in the 21st century."

Dada and his associates would not return calls, though Acharya said that in his talks with local Muslims, he felt there was never a serious problem in the first place.

While relieved that the protest against the statue has subsided, Acharya, a journalism professor at California State University, said the task of building the monument was still at hand.

He hoped the project, which is still in the design stage, would be completed by 2003, in time for that year's celebration of Gandhi's birthday. The cost, Acharya said, would be $300,000. He is still short of that money right now.

Incidentally, the Gandhi monument will share space on Riverside's main mall with another figure for non-violence, Martin Luther King.

When the monument is ready, Acharya said everyone in the community would be invited to its unveiling; including, with the true intent of ahimsa, its opponents.

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