An ensemble of eleven statues, ten represent people from diverse sociocultural, religious and economic backgrounds following Gandhi in the lead depicting the Dandi March, the statue has been replicated in other cities in India and was featured on the old 500-rupee currency note.
Devi Prasad Roy Choudhury is credited as the creator of the statue which was commissioned by the Government of India in 1972 as a national monument to commemorate the silver jubilee of Indian independence.
The statue features at its head Mahatma Gandhi who is followed by ten other persons who include a woman with a sari draped over her head, a group of three men – a Hindu, a Sikh and a Muslim, a turbaned man, an emaciated man, a Christian priest, a woman and a young man urging a tired old man to join the group. The statues are bronze cast and have a height of 8 feet, and the entire installation is 26 metres long and 3 metres tall.
It is commonly believed that the statue represents Gandhi’s march to Dandi and that certain figures have been modelled on Matangini Hazra, Sarojini Naidu, Brahmabandhab Upadhyay and Abbas Tyabji. However, both these assumptions have been disputed. It has been contended that the statue is not a representation of the Salt March as were no women among the group of satyagrahis who accompanied Gandhi on this march.
Delhi’s best-known examples of public art, it’s at the T-junction where Sardar Patel Marg meets Mother Teresa Crescent, near Rashtrapati Bhavan. It can easily be reached by public transport.