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On Oct. 30, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the world's largest statue, the "Statue of Unity" in Gujarat. At 182 meters or 598 feet tall, it is twice the height of the Statue of Liberty and deputes India's first deputy prime minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
The statue overlooks the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River. Patel is often thought of as the inspiration for the dam, which came to international attention when the World Bank with its support of the project in 1993 after a decade of environmental and humanitarian protests. It was not until 2013 that the World Bank also funded a large project.
Like the dam, the statue has been condemned for its lack of environmental oversight and its displacement of local Adivasi or Indigenous people. The land on which the statue was built is an Adivasi sacred site that was forcibly taken from them.
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The "Statue of Unity" is part of a broader push by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to promote Patel as a symbol of Indian nationalism and free-market development. The statue's website praised him for bringing the 'princely states' into the Union of India and for being an early advocate of Indian free enterprise.
The BJP's promotion of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru's descendants head India's most influential opposition party, the Indian National Congress.
The statue is designed to be private, but it attracts little private investment. In the end, the government of Gujarat paid for much of the $ 416.67 million price tag.
The Gujarat government claims its investment in the statue will promote tourism, and that tourism is "sustainable development". The United Nations says that sustainable tourism increases environmental outcomes and promotes local cultures. But given the status of local populations, it is hard to see how to achieve this goal.
The structure is not exactly a model of sustainable design. Some 5,000 tons of steel, 75,000 cubic meters of concrete, 5,700 tons of steel, and 22,500 tons of bronze sheets were used in its construction.
Criticism of the statue notes that this emblem of Indian nationalism was designed by a Chinese architect and the bronze sheeting was put in place by Chinese labor.
The statue's position next to the controversial Sardar Sarovar Dam is also telling. While chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, Modi pushed for the dam's construction despite the World Bank's condemnation. He praised the dam's completion in 2017 as a monument to India's progress.
Both the completion of the BJP government and the fact that it is BJP government is backing economic development over human rights and environmental protections.
The statue's inauguration comes only in the aftermath of the country in the first half of the world, and has since become part of the world's history of conservation. weakened minority land rights.
India was recently ranked 177 out of 180 countries in the world for its environmental protection efforts.
Despite this record, the United Nations' Environmental Program (UNEP) recently awarded the highest environmental award. It made him a Champion of the Earth for his work on solar energy development and plastic reduction.
The decision prompted a backlash in India, where many commentators are concerned by the BJP's environmental record.
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Visitors to the statue will access it via a 5-kilometer boat ride. At the statue's base, they can buy souvenirs and fast food, before taking a high-speed elevator to the observation deck.
The observation deck will be located in Patel's head. From it, tourists will look out over the Sardar Sarovar Dam, as the accompanying commentary praises "united" India's national development successes.
But let's not forget the environmental and minority protections that have been sacrificed to achieve these goals.
Ruth Gamble is a David Myers research fellow at The Trobe University and Alexander E. Davis is a New Generation Network Fellow at La Trobe University.
This article is republished from the Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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