On October 31, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the world’s tallest statue, depicting Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a leader of the Indian independence movement. At 182 metres tall – nearly twice the height of the Statue of Liberty – the Statue of Unity easily tops the previous record holder, the Spring Temple Buddha in China, at 128 metres.
In a celebration which featured fireworks, helicopters and an abundance of orange, white and green balloons and rose petals falling from the sky, Modi declared the statue to be ‘an answer to all those who question the existence of India’. Its height will ‘remind the youth that the future of the country will be as huge as this… it is a symbol of our engineering and technical prowess’.
