On 26th January 2021, some anti-social elements broke the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the city of Davis, California USA. This petition is for requesting Davis City Council and the police department to take immediate action to find the culprits and also reinstall the statue. We have already started getting threats on social media by the offenders to destroy all Gandhi statues in the USA and if the Davis statue is re-erected they are threatening to take it down again! It is surely an instance of hate crime. Requesting local law enforcement and FBI to consider it as a hate crime and investigate. Here is some background:

In 2016, the Indian American community in Davis and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, New Delhi, India, gifted a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, at the donor’s expense, installed at the Davis Central Park. The Davis City Council unanimously accepted the gift. This was welcomed widely by residents of Davis & greater Sacramento. However, a section of people spreading hate against India and Mahatma Gandhi, with their own political agenda, tried to stop the statue by spreading misinformation about Mahatma Gandhi. Finally, the truth prevailed and the statue was unveiled on October 2, 2016.

The same people came back in the summer of 2020, trying to piggyback on Black Lives Matter movement and tried to influence Davis City Council to remove the statue. Inspired by this, some aggressors also even vandalized the statue. The peace-loving people from all over the world stood together against these efforts and convinced Davis City council to keep the statue and all the wasted efforts to remove the statue failed. 

It appears a set of anti-socials, taking the opportunity of extremely bad weather around 26th January decided to go to the extreme and damaged the statue to a level beyond a possibility of repair. The whole Indian and other peaceful, non-violence loving communities are very sad and angry at this event, strongly condemn such a shameful act and request Davis City Council and police department to find the culprit and also reinstall the statue as soon as possible.

Let's understand that Mahatma Gandhi is not only a symbol of non-violence and tolerance, but he is also a pride of the entire world. He inspired many societies to achieve their rights thru nonviolent means. Though he is the "Father of the Nation" in India, he is a leader for all. Opposite to the misinformation, these people are spreading, the fact is that Gandhi protested against racism in South Africa and colonial rule in India using nonviolent resistance. A testament to the revolutionary power of nonviolence, Gandhi’s approach directly influenced Martin Luther King, Jr., who argued that the Gandhian philosophy was “the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom” (Papers 4:478).

In 1955 Dr. King and his wife went to India and lived in Gandhi’s house for over a week and termed this as ‘pilgrimage’.  It is also well known that Nelson Mandela was also inspired by Gandhi and ended apartheid by non-violent and peaceful means.
Go to https://progressive.org/dispatches/mandela-took-inspiration-gandhi/ for more information on this.

Please sign the petition and forward it to as many people as you possibly can.