Gandhi statue in New York's Hindu temple smashed, toppled

In a possible hate crime, unidentified persons have destroyed a handcrafted statue of Mahatma Gandhi with a sledgehammer at a Hindu temple in New York after vandalizing it earlier in August, media reports said on Friday (August 19).

Surveillance video shows a person thrashing a statue of Gandhi with a sledgehammer on Tuesday (August 16) before smashing the head off and toppling it over, according to cbsnews.com.

Minutes later, a group of six stomp on it and take turns hammering the statue before taking off, the report said. “To see them coming after us like this is very painful,” Lakhram Maharaj the founder of Shri Tulsi Mandir situated in South Richmond Hill was quoted as saying in the report.

Maharaj discovered the Gandhi statue was reduced to rubble on Wednesday (August 17) morning. The word “dog” was spray painted both in front of the temple and down the block, it said.

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The same Gandhi statue was vandalized two weeks ago, investigating officials said. “When the Gandhi statue was vandalized, that really flew in the face of our beliefs and it is very disturbing for the community,” Assembly member Jenifer Rajkumar said in the report.

The New York Police Department is investigating both incidents as possible hate crimes, media reports said. Maharaj says many in the community are now afraid to go to the temple. “I cannot show the congregation that I am worried because if I show them that I am worrying and I am not strong, how will they be strong?” the report quoted him saying.

The temple authorities cannot afford to replace the Gandhi statue because it was handcrafted and cost about USD 4,000, the report said. “I want to know why they did it,” Maharaj said.

This is not the first time that a statue of Gandhi was desecrated in the US. In February 2022, an 8-foot-high Gandhi statue located in Manhattan’s Union Square was defaced by unknown persons.

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In December 2020, Khalistan-supporters had desecrated a Gandhi statue in Washington, DC in front of the Indian Embassy. The then White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany had termed the incident as terrible.

(With inputs from agencies)