• 23 Sep, 2023

Gandhi’s Statue Destroyed in front of NY Mandir

Gandhi’s Statue Destroyed in front of NY Mandir

Gandhi’s Statue Destroyed in front of NY Mandir

A five foot statue of Mahatma Gandhi was destroyed in front of a New York Indo-Caribbean mandir. The statue  stood in front of the Tulsi Mandir in Little Guyana for six years. It was destroyed  early Tuesday morning by unknown assailants. The same statue suffered some damages two weeks ago  in a separate attack . CCTV footage showed it was vandalized by three Hispanics during night time. Politicians came out in their numbers to condemn the attack that was carried as news by mainstream media.
 
Tuesday’s attack broke the statue into pieces. A sledgehammer was used to destroy it. The remaining standing piece was knocked to the ground.  The attackers did not hide their faces and seem proud to carry out the attack. Police were called to the scene. 
 

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The Tulsi mandir, 111 St in the heart of Richmond Hill , was built by Berbician P andit Lakhram Maraj  at over a million American dollars from public donations and his own enormous contributions . It is patronized primarily by Guyanese and Trinidadians.
 
Police visited the scene and secured footage from several cameras in front the mandir, businesses, and homes. They have described it as a hate crime.
 
The pandit told reporters that he can’t understand how anyone would want to hurt Gandhi or the mandir. He said it would be a challenge to raise $5000 to build a new statue.

Dr Vishnu Bisram

Dr Vishnu Bisram is Guyanese born who received his primary and secondary education in Guyana and tertiary education in the US and India. He is a fourth generation Indian. His great grandparents from both his mother and father’s sides were born in India -- Gurbatore from Ghaizpur, Amru from Azamgarh, Sau from Chapra, Mangri from Mau, Bhuri and Bhura Singh from Bharatpur, among others. They all came at different times to then British Guiana (1880s and 1890s) to work on sugar plantations as indentured laborers. After serving ten years, they were freed laborers. They remained on the colony rather than returned to India, married and had children. They used the savings from indentureship to purchase landholdings to cement their ties to their adopted land. They were not given free land. Vishnu Bisram is ninth of twelve children of Gladys and Baldat, rural farmers, she also was a seamstress and he a taylor and they attended to a kitchen garden as well. Vishnu attended the St Joseph Anglican (called English) primary school from 1966 to 1972. In 1972, he passed the annual nationwide Common Entrance exam winning a scholarship place to attend the government Berbice High School in New Amsterdam, some 17 miles from his home village of Ankerville, Port Mourant. He declined the placement scholarship and opted instead for the private Chandisingh High School to which his family pad to pay a tuition. He entered for eight subjects at the Cambridge University Exam in 1977. Vishnu migrated to the USA in 1977 to further his studies. He enrolled at the City College of City University of New York September that year at age 17, studying Bio-Chemistry and also completing a major in Political Science. After his BSc in Bio-Chem, he pursued graduate studies in International Relations earning a MA. He went on to complete multiple post graduate degrees including doctorates in Economics, Sociology, History, Political Science and Educational Administration. Dr Bisram taught for over forty years in various subjects in the US. He also served as a newspaper reporter and columnist for over four decades and is a well-known pollster in the Caribbean region. He is a specialist on the Indian diaspora traveling extensively around the globe to research and write about Indian communities. He published countless articles on various subjects in the mass media, journals, and books. He also organized international conferences on the Indian diaspora and presented papers at many conferences. He was a guest lecturer at universities in Mauritius, India, Fiji, South Africa, Guyana, Trinidad, Suriname, USA, and other countries. He is a well regarded political analyst on American and Caribbean politics. He makes him home in Guyana, Trinidad, and America and travels frequently to India.