Gandhiji on the Central Vista: A Postcolonial Refiguring

Abstract

Monuments, memorials and statues, so commonplace in squares and parks of late twentieth-century cities, have interesting histories and convey particular historiographies. In public arenas planned and maintained by state administrations, symbolic representations situated for the purpose of communicating messages to passersby, visitors, and residents often mark the state's attempt to control space, history and popular memory. By extension, changes in statuary or monumental architecture over time may reflect shifts in rulers and their representations of rule. As Hung (1991) demonstrates, the ‘war of monuments’ in Tiananmen Square reflected struggles for power and demands by those excluded from power for rights and access. The ‘statumania’ of post-revolutionary France personalized contests for power and representation (Agulhon 1985). On the other hand, monuments that remain fixed on landscapes can be variously interpreted over time, forming, as Young (1989:70) has noted, ‘a kind of screen across which the projected shadows of a world's preoccupations continue to flicker and dance.’