Gandhi Statue

Never knew this statue existed here at the Ferry Building, but thought it was a great find in the rear plaza along the water, a bit randomly placed, but it does stand out from a distance. The statue is a beautiful piece of art in great condition, honoring such an influential historical figure.

There are a couple plaques attached to the structure, with quotes by Gandhi (and Albert Einstein's words about Gandhi, as he was inspired by Gandhi's teachings). A cool statue to have in SF, displaying and promoting words of peace and freedom.

Another one of Alana's San Francisco bookmarks... (gee, she did so much research! I'm just her chauffeur!)

Located behind The Ferry Building, in the parking lot, this statue of Gandhi faces the Pacific Ocean with a peaceful demeanor. His walking stick has been repaired and he looks dignified to me.

I read the reviews and about the controversy. The main thing is that a great leader has been remembered forever by this Art Installation and I appreciate the work that was involved in creating this tribute.

There is a similar statue in Honolulu, in front of the zoo. Gandhi also faces the Pacific Ocean which is across the street.

Isn't that cool?

Remember this famous quote: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

RIP Mohandas Gandhi
10-2-1869 to 1-30-48

As I have mentioned in my review of the Ferry Building Marketplace, I used to come here on weekends but my most recent visit was on a weekday which allowed me to freely roam around and explore the entire area at a more relaxed pace.

It was on this day that I stumbled upon the bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi at a plaza behind the Ferry Building. I was in disbelief how could I have missed its presence during the multiple visits I had in the past. It's maybe due to the fact that it is not in a very prominent location. I have read reviewers stating how difficult it was to find the statue.

What should have been a commemoration of Gandhi's approach to nonviolence, civil rights and freedom, the statue sadly has its own share of controversies which are unbeknownst to me. Regardless, I was happy that a statue of such a noble man is here for us to remember his good deeds.

Mahatma which means "Great Soul", or Mohandas K. Gandhi! A huge figure in India's history! Why was San Francisco given a statue of Gandhi? I have no idea. All I know is that I spent 6 years of my youth in India and I wanted to see this statue of him!

Gandhi was the leader of the Indian independence movement who led India to its' Independence from the British British. He believed in non-violence. Mohandas earned his law degree in London and spent over twenty years in South Africa. He faced racial discrimination there. He didn't accept the injustices in South Africa, instead, he defended his dignity as an Indian and as a man. He did spend many years in prison on various occasions in South Africa and India.

Upon a pedestal, this 8-foot tall sculpture stands. It was a gift from the Gandhi Memorial International Foundation. When I visited the statue, he was complete with the glasses and a full staff. From what I read, the glasses are the #1 item stolen and it costs about $1,100 to replace them each time. Supposedly, they are going to be welded on more completely so they stay put. Besides the glasses being stolen, his staff has been broken often. So much disrespect and vandalism!

Facts: He was married when he was 13 by prearranged marriage. His wife stood by his side and supported him. They were married for 62 years, she died four years before he was assassinated. They had four children.

My friend, Cris, had seen this statue and showed us where to find him. So, Nadine and I walked the long way to get to where he was. It seemed like an odd placement for such a historic fellow! He's basically hidden in the back of the Ferry Building out on the parking lot. If he were alive, I really doubt that he would care for any statue of himself and he certainly wouldn't mind it being in a secluded spot. He never seemed to want to be in the spotlight, although his efforts for civil rights, independence and freedom were in the forefront.

Regardless of the placement, when you visit the statue, you also get a nice view of the Bay Bridge over the Pacific Ocean!

This statue and it's controversy was recently brought to my attention by my Spanish teacher. He was part of a group that was protesting it's horrible location in San Francisco as an insult to the memory of Gandhi.

Said location is: the parking lot behind the Ferry Building - surrounded by the Ferry loading dock (so the commuters can enjoy/ignore it daily), the really really ugly brown wood building next to that, and Sinbad's! (that tourist trap restaurant on the Embarcadero that gets all of 2 stars from Yelpers!)

http://www.yelp.com/biz/KML10NrYL6BFDg65OKRxZA

I was like, "Damn! I've taken the ferry, I've been to the ferry building to eat and to the farmers market (even last week!), and I've never even seen this statue." I guess I took an interest because I just made my first trip to India, including his house. I'm far from Mr. Political Activist. The only things I ever protest are withholding of sex or dessert. But snooper that I am, I thought "I'm going to look into it."

I went and checked it out. The statue looks nice in person, but he's right, it's pretty embarrassing. On farmers market days you could walk right through there and not even see the statue because it's surrounded by tents. And check out the photo I uploaded, Cort furniture truck and all!

But it gets worse!

The statue was given to the city in 1988 by the Gandhi Memorial International Foundation, "a controversial non-profit organization run by Yogesh K. Gandhi," who Gandhi family members claim was a "scam artist" and the White House called "clearly disreputable" when he asked to visit. Then in the 1990's Yogesh then was the subject of an investigation, and the US Dept of Justice charged him with tax evasion, mail and wire fraud and perjury. The Foundation continued for a few years but then ran into more legal troubles as they found out Yogesh still had his hands in things.

So sadly, this statue that is supposed to remind us of a great man and his message of resistance through non-violence, is tainted by the greed of individuals, and our gullible city government that accepted this in the first place.

Wow, what a dilemma.

What would be best is we get a legitimate Gandhi statue (or even the existing one and just replace the plaque) moved to a nicer spot in the city where it can be enjoyed.

I've complained about this statue's placement for years, but christoph s. explains it far better than I could. Indeed, this likeness of Gandhi was donated by a man noted for his various frauds (for further reading on the subject: http://www.sfweekly.com/1998-04-08/news/here-today-gandhi-tomorrow/).

Rather than put it in a prominent spot, Gandhi's centered in a parking lot behind the Ferry Building. He's very easy to miss. There may be benches around it, facing away from the statue at that, but the middle of a parking lot isn't exactly the most contemplative spot walking distance from there.

When I went to see the Gandhi statue this weekend, I noticed his staff was broken, giving it the appearance he's holding a wand and off to cast a spell on the Bay Bridge. Chances are, with the foundation supposedly going inactive a little more than a decade ago, and the city outright ignoring it, the staff will never get repaired.

Anyway, controversy or not regarding who gave the thing, Mohandas Gandhi was a great man who taught the world about triumphing through peaceful protest. The statue, though hidden away still conjures up mental images of his famous Salt March, when he walked toward the sea in protest of the British's oppressive taxation on salt. Gathering followers along the way, they would make their own salt by evaporating sea water as a form of civil disobedience.

I agree with christoph on this one. Find a way to change the plaque and move it or perhaps put another statue without a sordid past in a better place to be admired.

What an ODD location to place one of the most influential and powerful historical figures in man's history. He and his work and his life will transcend time, place and all peoples.

I stumbled upon him in a concrete parking. Facing an odd direction. The statue too small for the location. Somewhere behind the ferry building.

This Indian man led his people and their land to freedom and autonomy. Gandhi and his people's struggle grinded the British empire in India to a halt. The British were ousted from India.

All this was achieved peacefully.

He life is his legacy.

He influenced the Dalai Lama, MLK, Mandela, and many, many more.

Needs a more fitting place where his lessons can be heard in a so called Modern America.

This is a cool statue of Ghandi and serves as a reminder of nonviolence. Controversy or not, the statue is neat and the message and symbol of Ghandi is exhibited.

Nonviolence isn't the absence of violence. So the next time someone talks about a "nonviolent" criminal offense, explain to them that the only nonviolent criminal offense is an act of civil disobedience that the perpetrator has committed intentionally and without any intention of resisting arrest--and usually with the express aim of being arrested.

Nonviolence can be powerful. It has changed the world. It has also been commodified, abused, mislabeled, misunderstood, co-opted, and drained of meaning for and by many people. More than anything else, it involves mindfulness. One can use nonviolence tactically, but if you really believe in what Gandhi stood for, you know that nonviolence is a strategy, not merely a tactic. One of its aims is to resist, obviously, but its ultimate goal is to change the enemy, to show him (it's usually a he) that you are so willing to maintain your discipline, to allow yourself to be harmed (and this can include being seriously injured or killed) that your enemy has a change of heart.

So if you've ever been at a protest where people weren't doing anything, the police got heavy-handed (as they almost always do), and people in the crowd started throwing things at the police, even if these things were simply empty plastic water bottles, you weren't at a nonviolent protest. It may have started out without violence, but like I said, nonviolence is a conscious decision not to meet violence with violence. It's literally impossible for nonviolent protesters to become violent; if they become violent for any reason, then they weren't nonviolent in the first place. It's like celibacy; you're not celibate between the times you're having sex. You either have sex or you don't.

What does all of this have to do with the Gandhi statute at the Ferry Building? Well, everything. Gandhi, like most dead people society looks up to, wasn't just the blase things we think we know about him. He wasn't just about being skinny, saying nice things, and testing himself by sleeping in the same bed with naked women but not doing anything to or with these women. (Yes, you read that right.) As is the case with many visionaries, the great majority of what he thought about, practiced, and preached is lost on most people. Just as we glorify Martin Luther King, Jr., but don't actually see how ridiculous it is to ignore his life after the March on Washington--as if he never did or said anything important after 1963--we ignore Gandhi at our own risk.

So nonviolence is hard. It's not something you can pick up at a weekend training. It definitely was not something practiced at any of the Oakland Occupy events. It requires discipline, and discipline requires selflessness. Not just being other-directed, but true selflessness. And it requires truly loving your enemy. Because when you love your enemy, you put his needs before yours. That's why a nonviolent person would never throw something at someone else. Or organize a weekly FTP march. Or basically take advantage of a poor city's lack of money and preparedness. If you want to practice nonviolence, you need to think long and hard about it beforehand.

So three stars for the Gandhi statue. I love the guy, but he wouldn't have approved of a statue of himself. And it's in such a strange place. And it inspires more tourist moments than it does actual nonviolent satyagraha. And people keep stealing his glasses.

I had to find Gandhi.

The end of my first week at Square started with a bang. I assume it was a bang, I mean what else does "Police activity at West Oakland and we are waiting here on the tracks for your safety" mean?

Police activity or no, i had to find Gandhi and this delay wasn't helping.

I am hyper-phobic of arriving late to anything. I was supposed to be at the Gandhi statue by 8 AM and I had purposely taken a BART train that should arrive at least 45 minutes before I needed to be there. I figured 45 minutes was plenty of time to walk from Embarcadero BART to the Ferry Building, grab some coffee and fruit, find the parking lot and then on to find Gandhi.

When I arrived at Embarcadero BART, I was 15 minutes behind schedule (which was still 30 minutes early, but like I said...) I felt like I was a wet rag being rung out. I headed for the Ferry Building in one of those walk sprints you see so many well dressed people use to get from their place of employment to a BART station. I had to find Gandhi.

When I got to the Ferry Buidling, I went into the only entrance I have ever used, the one at the north end of the building, facing the Embarcadero. I walked around, eschewing my urge for a cup of Blue Bottle coffee (though the smell was tantalizing) in my haste to find Gandhi. I walked straight through to the back of the building, past the book store, and watched the ferries come in, but I still saw no parking lot with a Gandhi statue and I was getting frantic... I needed to find Gandhi!

I walked back to the front of the building and started walking north... No parking lot, just pristine views that i would love to stare at, but I needed to find Gandhi! I texted my brother and asked "Do you know where the Gandhi statue at the Ferry Building is?" He didn't... I was starting to freak out a bit, where is Gandhi?

I headed south on Embarcadero, I knew I could at least grab a cup of less than stellar mud at Sinbad's and ask the hostess where Gandhi might be, and then it happened. As I was jostled about by a just released boatload of commuters, I saw the object of my quest through the open glass doors. Through one set of doors, down a hallway, and through another set of doors the statue sat.

I ran for that sucker... Only to get there and realize I had 20 minutes to spare... I decided to sit and stare at the Bay rather than get coffee. I had found Gandhi.

I could see the AT-AT's, across the bridge and through a delightful sunrise, stoically hulking at the Port of Oakland. I could hear the squawk of the various birds circling the parking lot as they enjoyed the same breeze i was enjoying. I could smell the salt, not quite sea and not quite river, of nature's grand air conditioner: the San Francisco Bay. It was a great place to clear my mind and think of nothing. I had really found Gandhi.