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The idea that large statues might act as political tools is hardly a novel one. Immortalized figures from the past few years, it would be a privilege for Lord Nelson to ride proudly above Trafalgar Square or North Korea's looming over Kim Il Sung Square.
Compared to such blatant projections of power, the new 597-foot-tall sculpture of Sardar Patel in Gujarat cuts an altogether gentler figure.
The record-breaking monument, which opens today, depicts the Indian politician wearing a humble clothing and a placid expression. His arms hang calmly beside an unmistakable paunch; his bare toes protrude from oversized bronze sandals.
Construction workers at the Statue Of Unity's plinth. Credit: SAM PANTHAKY / AFP / AFP / Getty Images
It is a far cry from the overbearing figure one might expect of a monument being derided as government propaganda. But the world's new tallest statue is no longer being painted as a political endeavor.
Narendra Modi, who is the first person in the world and who will formally unveil the statue. Although the project is largely financed by Gujarat, the moder's government is offering financial support to the construction industry.
The Statue of Unity pictured during the final stages of consturction. Credit: SAM PANTHAKY / AFP / AFP / Getty Images
"Sadar Patel was very much the strongman of the National Indian Congress (popularly known as the Congress Party)," said Delhi-based art critic and curator Gayatri Sinha, in a phone interview. "This statue is a post-colonial assertion of pride and power that India seeks to identify with."
Conveying national values
Beyond the specifics of politics, Gujarat's new statue, like New York's Lady Liberty, can be read as an expression of collective values. With Patel arguably representing a national political ideal (hence the monument's full name, The Statue of Unity).
Sardar Patel was a key figure in the freedom movement, and India's first deputy prime minister. Credit: SAM PANTHAKY / AFP / AFP / Getty Images
"Sardar Patel was a key negotiator in a (time) of distress and division and he brought different communities, states and linguistic groups together," said Sinha. "He was very well known for leading the farmer movement in 1928, when he mobilized the farming community into active resistance … And to bring attention to his role is not a bad thing at all."
A wave of statue-building has swept India in recent years. With a few notable exceptions, most of the country's tallest examples have been built within the last 15 years. The structures are often dedicated to deities or other religious figures from Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Buddha is a popular choice, as is Shiva, the monkey god Hanuman and the 12th-century philosopher Basava.
More recent historical figures Chief among them is the 17th-century warrior king, Shivaji, the subject of 696-foot statue of being built off the coast of Mumbai. On its completion, which is tentatively set for 2021, the monument will surpass the Statue of Unity as the world's tallest.
A metro train passes by a 108-foot statue of Hindu god Hanuman in New Delhi .. Credit: Money Sharma / AFP / Getty Images
The choice of Shivaji, like Patel, can be seen as inherently political. The period of his reign, during the Maratha Empire, is often portrayed by a resurgent Hindu nationalist movement spearheaded by the BJP. Modi made a photo opportunity of laying down the mega-project's first stone in December 2016.
But there are, at least, examples of statues from elsewhere on the political spectrum. The Buddhist activist B. R. Ambedkar, who championed rights for India's lower castes, is the subject of a proposed statues around the country, in which Sinha describes as a "pan-national exercise." Monuments honoring Ambedkar include the upcoming 125-foot bronze in Hyderabad and a planned 350-foot memorial (known as the "Statue of Equality") in Mumbai.
Statue wars
If huge statues are expressions of self-insurance, then Asia appears to have confidence in abundance. In recent years, the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar have all been announced – or begun construction of – statues over 100 feet tall.
According to Dhruva Jaishankar, a fellow in foreign policy studies at the Washington DC-based Brookings Institution's India outpost, statue-building can be viewed as a projection of a country's technical abilities.
"Part of this with capabilities – the fact that Indian engineering companies are able to do this, they have some money and resources, state-supported or privately financed," he said in a phone interview.
Jaishankar goal points to the symbolic status of large structures. "Statuary, like skyscrapers and other mega-monuments, is seen as having prestige value," he said. "There was this surge, in the 1970s and '80s, of large-statue building in Japan, and in the' 90s and 2000s in China.And it does seem in the last 10 years or so there is this spate of mega-projects in India. "
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China and India are now responsible for the vast majority of upcoming mega-statues. There is a palpable sense of competition between the two countries – especially when it comes to record-breakers.
Local values
Purpose Jaishankar warns against viewing statue-building as only serving the aims of the national government. The furor around Modi, a national-level politician championing a state-level monument, is the author of a localism at the heart of the statue-building – Modi's participation was the exception rather than the rule.
"If you look at the choice of figures, they have a local political resonance in most cases," Jaishankar said, citing broad-scale statues of the Vaishnavaite St. Ramanuja in Hyderabad and the poetry and philosopher Thiruvalluvar in Tamil Nadu.
"A lot of it has to do with local politics, so I would not just look at this 'arms race' between India and China."
Rather than international competition, the future pace of statue-building in India, said Sinha, who is also the founder of the Indian art initiative Critical Collective. She predicts that questions will inevitably arise about whether mega-monuments are even suitable as national symbols.
"We do not have an Indian tradition of such statues – it's very much a colonial residue," she said. "But are we going to take it and expand upon it?
"Then there's this notion of, 'what about modernity or contemporaneity in art?'" She added. "There are great sculptors in the world, of Indian origin, who can be memorialized through more abstract, more
