In order to create the world's tallest large sculpture, India did not hesitate to spend 34 billion yuan and spent five years to build the "Statue of Unity".
After the completion of the statue, the whole of India cheered, and the provincial governor Modi personally unveiled the statue, which once became the pride of India. However, it didn't take long for the Indian people to be happy, and it was revealed that the Statue of Unity was made in China.
You must know that in order to build this statue, 700,000 villages in India were "looted", and the local people even contributed iron pots for cooking at home. After learning of this inside story, the local people couldn't sit still at all and scolded Modi!
India is passionate about making large-scale sculptures
As one of the four ancient civilizations, India has a rich cultural heritage and tourism resources. There is a cultural hobby in India from ancient times to the present day, and that is to make statues. They will make sculptures of the founding fathers and national heroes for commemoration and tourism.
India is not only keen on making statues, but also on making large statues, and comparing them on a case-by-case basis.
In 2013, state chief minister Narendra Modi planned to build a statue of the Narmada River, India's second-largest river after the Holy River, in a bid to make the region famous and allow tourism to flourish.
Gujarat, which is mainly based on agriculture and animal husbandry, is home to 75% of the population in the countryside, and its proximity to the coastline has also led to the development of the salt industry, which is the birthplace of Modi.
It also flows through the second largest river in India, the Narmada River. With a total length of 1,287 kilometers, it is considered by the local people to be sacred because it originates from Lord Shiva. The river spreads for thousands of miles, with up to 41 large and small tributaries, forming a fan shape from top to bottom.
Modi then plans to build a statue on the Narmada River in Gujarat that will amaze the world, and once completed, the statue will not only make him famous for the ages, but also boost local tourism.
Thinking about it, he intended to use Sardar Vallabhai Patel as a memorial figure for the sculpture, their great leader and famous statesman. It was under his leadership that Jean pushed forward the independence movement.
He is also a person Modi admires very much, and if he can build a world-famous statue of Patel, it will be a significant part of Modi's political career. It is equivalent to doing a great project for idols, which can be regarded as "chasing stars" in disguise.
So, in 2013, he saw the construction of the statue as the most important project and began to prepare funds for it.
"Looted" 700,000 villages for the construction of sculptures
However, the local people are really not well-off, and they can only rely on agriculture to survive, and the local financial income is naturally a little shy of money.
In order to raise funds, Modi relied on his incorruptible tongue to travel from village to village to speak. He spoke passionately about the great plan and encouraged everyone to donate money to build a statue for Patel.
From the end of October 13 to the end of January of the following year, 700,000 villages were simultaneously raised for start-up funds in just three months. The local people were deeply encouraged by this, and everyone took out the pots and farm tools at the bottom of the box at home and donated them to "contribute" to the construction of the sculpture.
Most of the funds for the whole statue are raised by the people, and the remaining part is allocated by the government, the so-called people gather firewood and the flame is high, and the population of India is already large, and the total donation of one person is also a large amount of money, and soon India raised a large amount of money, and did it in a big way.
Modi naturally thinks he is doing something great, but many people on the ground don't think so. They thought that instead of spending money on statues, it would be better to invest that money in infrastructure, such as a clean toilet for every household.
If you don't have money, you have to let the people raise it, which is tantamount to slapping a swollen face and becoming fat.
Indian toilets
Statue of Unity, Made in China?
In Modi's purpose, to build the biggest, so that it can be doubly faceted and meaningful. However, it is easy to say that it is easy to make the tallest statue in the world, but it is very difficult to implement.
When the local designers in India heard that the tallest statue was to be built, they frowned and began to shake their heads. This is a big project, and if you don't have the strength, you naturally don't dare to take it head-on.
In order to be able to build the world-famous statue, they brought in the country's most famous designer, Sutar. In order to meet the "first" requirements, the designer raised the height to an unprecedented 182 meters (equivalent to the height of more than 70 floors), and in order to show the grandeur, the height of the base reached 58 meters.
Once the design was complete, the local construction company began to work on it. But during the construction process, the workers encountered problems. This statue is indeed large, and it is easy to draw the design, but it is not easy to build. It is necessary to integrate a number of processes such as casting, pouring, and cutting, and the technical difficulty is quite large.
But if you want to make the biggest statue, it has already been released, and the people have donated money, if it ends before it starts, it won't be a slap in the face!
Not long after the project began, the Indian company secretly contacted a company in Jiangxi, China, and outsourced the project.
According to the design drawings, the Chinese company soon used more than 1,700 tons of bronze to create the "shell" of the statue. Once the parts were shipped across the ocean to India, they simply built the internal brackets and assembled the housing.
It is precisely because of the bronze shell that the whole statue looks like a layer of "gold", rather than looking gray.
Except for the shell, the rest of the building was built by India itself.
In order to be shockproof, a tuned mass damper is also installed at the bottom under the base. After the foundation was constructed, 210,000 cubic meters of cement concrete were poured with two concrete cores standing upright as support, of which 6,500 tons of structural steel and 18,000 tons of steel bars were used.
The entire statue used more than 4,000 workers, 250 engineers, and finally cost 34 billion, and finally it took 5 years to build.
Paper can't hold the fire, and it didn't take long for India to secretly use Chinese-made materials to build statues around the world. The local people were furious when they heard this, knowing that Modi had told them that it was purely made in India.
India loses face and dumps the pot on China?
After this statue was built, it really made India beautiful, and it once floated to the sky, making the already confident Indians feel that they have stood at the forefront of the world. However, with the completion of the statue, trouble came one after another.
Modi promised to compensate the local people for the land they had expropriated when the statue was first built, but they did not receive government subsidies when it was built. Modi's approach of employing people forward, not backwards, has provoked a revolt among the local people.
What's more, Modi only cares about his "prestige", but does not properly resettle the local people. How can they not be angry when they lost their land and did not receive due compensation, and they made a "wedding dress" for him completely?
Not long after it was built, the local people heard that the statue was made in China, and they were even more angry.
As the saying goes, there is great hope, as great is disappointment. The reason why the people of India are so angry is because the expectations given to them in the early stage are too high.
Before construction began, it was advertised that it would become the world's first statue, all of which were made in India. In order to build the construction, everyone donated money and materials, and the whole country was able to complete the construction.
In addition, at the beginning of the construction, many people objected, thinking that this was a waste of land and money. The result also disappointed everyone, and it was revealed that this was made in China, and it was reasonable not to accept it.
Originally, I thought that the Statue of Unity would make them stand out, but they didn't expect the result to be unsatisfactory. In addition, many people complained that the statue was not good-looking, and the gap in the splicing was large, which made them lose face. Some Indian netizens even began to dump the pot on China, saying that the big gap is because the quality of the products is not good.
India's Statue of Unity has been on the cusp from its construction to its completion, and then to its dislike of "Made in China" in a few years after its completion. Black and red may not be another way to "get out of the circle", and many people go to check in every year for today's statues, which can be regarded as money not spent in vain.
If you go to India, will you want to see the tallest statue in the world?