The prime minister, David Cameron, and India’s finance minister, Arun Jaitley, were joined on Saturday by Gandhi’s grandson, the former governor of West Bengal, Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi, and Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan for the inauguration ceremony.

Cameron described Gandhi as “one of the most towering figures” in political history.

“By putting Gandhi in this famous square we are giving him an eternal home in our country. This statue celebrates the incredibly special friendship between the world’s oldest democracy and its largest, as well as the universal power of Gandhi’s message,” he added.

Jaitley unveiled the 9ft statue opposite the Palace of Westminster, near statues of former US president Abraham Lincoln, South African leader Nelson Mandela and prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, who opposed Indian independence and Gandhi’s aims.

“It ... marks an important, historic moment celebrating the strong bond between our two nations,” said Jaitley.

“India and the UK share the same values and we are a partnership of equals. This lasting friendship is just one of many legacies left by Gandhi.”

The statue is lower than others on the square, a deliberate decision made by the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust, which raised money for the monument, to reflect the fact that Gandhi considered himself a man of the people.

The sculpture was created by Philip Jackson, inspired by a 1931 photo of Gandhi at No 10 Downing Street, where he met the then prime minister Ramsay MacDonald.

Cameron said about Gandhi’s trip to London: “On that same visit, he also went to see King George V. Arriving bare-chested in his dhoti, and marching ahead with his stick, he was asked if he felt under-dressed. He replied: ‘The King is dressed for both of us’.

“It was in London as a young man that Gandhi first learned to petition, to draft letters, to make speeches. It was here where he was treated fairly by his colleagues at the Inner Temple; that the foundations were laid for his battles against segregation and discrimination,” the prime minister continued.

“And even years later, when he was striving for Indian independence, his respect for the people of this country shone through. If Gandhi could have lived anywhere in the world outside India, he said it would have been here in London. We should be proud of that and we should be proud of him.”

Cameron said that many of Gandhi’s teachings remain as potent today as when he first made them.

“‘The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others’ and: ‘Be the change that you want to see in the world’ remain timeless, profound and inspiring words of wisdom,” he said.

(theguardian.com)