The statue of Mahatma Gandhi, who used non-violent resistance tactics to successfully lead the campaign for Indian independence from British rule, was unveiled on Tuesday in Sevastopol Park near the Boris Georgiev City Art Gallery in the Black Sea city of Varna.
There is a minor connection between Gandhi, who lived from 1869 to 1948, and Varna, the third largest city in Bulgaria.
The location was chosen because Varna-born painter Boris Georgiev (1888-1962), after whom the gallery is named, met and befriended Gandhi in the 1930s.
Georgiev did a portrait of Gandhi in 1935 and it’s claimed that he was the only artist that had such an access to the Indian leader.
The creator of the statue is acclaimed Indian sculptor Ram V. Sutar, still artistically active at 95 and also known as the creator of the Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue, in Gujarat in India.
A large part of his work is devoted to preserving the memory of Gandhi and so far he has created more than 370 statues of him, not only in India, but also in Spain, Germany and Sri Lanka.
The Gandhi statue in Varna, a donation from India, has an inscription that says: “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.”
The opening on Tuesday morning was attended by Varna mayor Ivan Portnih and Pooja Kapur, India’s ambassador to Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
“Our goal is for the goodness of Mahatma Gandhi to reach the people in Bulgaria as well,” said Kapur.
“As the leader of India’s non-violent freedom movement, he made politically inevitable what was considered politically unthinkable at the time,” she added.
She also shared one of Gandhi’s well-known wisdoms: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
The donation and the installing of the statue marks the final part of a two-year global campaign marking the 150th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, which saw a total of 85 monuments unveiled in various cities, but also awareness events, conferences and workshops on political issues and ecology.
There is also a Gandhi monument in South Park in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, created by sculptor Ivan Rusev.
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