The Unwelcome Gandhi
Gandhi Disturbs Sherborn's Peace of Mind
by Alex Beam The Boston Globe
Sherborn - The effect is quite jarring. I am driving through horse
country, this tranquil land of 3-acre zoning, as the road winds
gently down into the center of town. I pass by Sherborn's dignified
war memorial, a baleful Madonna and child mourning the fallen heroes
of this tiny bedroom community. And then just 50 yards ahead, I
catch sight of ... It.
"It" is clearly visible - indeed, too visible - from the
road: a small, open plaza, with six low walls radiating away from
a central patio. This monument, the recently unveiled Pacifist Memorial,
has a companion statue to the sad-eyed Madonna: An 8-foot-tall bronze
effigy of Mohandas K. Gandhi.
Can you imagine! The effrontery! Needless to say, the town is up
in arms. Vandals have defaced the site with blue paint. The chairman
of the Zoning Board recently resigned his post in order to challenge
the Gandhi statue's building permit. (The statue turned out not
to need a permit.)
"This is a very strong conservative area where people go back
to the Revolutionary War," says Alex Dowse, whose family has
lived in Sherborn since 1775. (The Dowse genealogical table hangs
on a wall in Town Hall, alongside the many recruiting posters from
our nation's foreign entanglements.) The statue "is an affront
to the sacrifices of the people of this town for freedom."
Hear, hear! Where will it all end? What simpering, second-rate peacenik
will they choose to eulogize next? Mother Teresa? Martin Luther
King?
There are, of course, certain ironies attending Mr. G's chilly reception
in this elite suburban enclave. One could argue that there are superficial
similarities between the man whom Winston Churchill dismissed as
a "half-naked fakir" and the storied heroes of our own
glorious revolution. All struggled against British imperialism,
albeit in different eras. And they succeeded. But the comparisons
end there.
Whereas our valiant, whiskey-inflamed yeomen grabbed their muskets
and sniped at many a retreating Redcoat from behind many a sheltering
chestnut tree, Gandhi espoused different tactics entirely. As a
political leader, his tools were nonviolent resistance, boycotts
and hunger strikes. Sure, he freed 100 million people, but at the
end of the day he was just another yellow-belly who never picked
up a gun.
Yes, there are certain ironies. But it seems fair to say they are
lost on the burghers of Sherborn.
The Pacifist Memorial and the offending statue stand on property
belonging to The Peace Abbey, under the direction of Lewis Randa.
Interviewed inside the small 3-acre Strawberry Fields estate that
houses The Peace Abbey and Life Experience School, Randa tells of
the many financial challenges trying to give peace a chance in Sherborn.
Yoko Ono once provided a packet of money to save the Abbey mortgage.
On another occasion, Senate President William Bulger and conservative
Republican David Locke teamed up to restore key operating funds
for the school, which administers some special education programs.
Randa is somewhat paranoid, but, to be fair, he does have enemies.
Had he been required to obtain a building permit for his statue,
"there's no way the town would have allowed it," he admits.
Even though Randa unveiled his plans for a Pacifist Memorial at
a groundbreaking ceremony in February attended by poet Maya Angelou,
"nobody took the plans seriously," he says. "People
thought we were installing a new septic system."
Randa professes to see the brighter side of human nature: "My
neighbors are good and decent people. They will come to love this
statue." And if they don't? "Sherborn will be known either
as the town that has a Gandhi statue, or as the town that took one
down."
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