Between a Daily Thread and an Adidas store sits a Gandhi museum at the Jersey Shore
Atlantic City may be known for its casinos, Boardwalk, and outlet shops. But a new museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi is adding to its growing cultural scene.
Like every other shopper on this summer Friday, retired chef Ralph Romano was looking for bargains at the Tanger Outlets in Atlantic City. As he left the J. Crew store with his 70%-off find, he did a double take.
There on North Arkansas Avenue, sandwiched between Daily Thread and Adidas, was the fledgling Eternal Gandhi Peace Centre.
“This is a completely unusual find in Atlantic City,” said Romano, a cheesemonger these days, who lives in Asbury Park and was on vacation with his family.
As he toured the exhibits, he examined archival footage and photographs in a timeline of Mohandas K. Gandhi’s life, covering his days as an attorney in South Africa, his nonviolent fight for India’s independence through noncooperation, and his search for spiritual enlightenment. “It’s a really beautiful museum.”
True, America’s Playground is more known for its casinos, Boardwalk, and outlet shops. But A.C. also has a “vibrant and energetic” cultural scene, said Julie Hain, executive director of the South Jersey Cultural Alliance based in Galloway, and this Gandhi museum is one of the latest examples.
“There are so many layers,” she said, noting Atlantic City’s many murals, its Noyes Arts Garage of Stockton University that houses the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey, its Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation that offers jazz camps, and more. The Gandhi center “is a little unexpected when you’re headed to the outlets,” she allowed. “But it is really nice to see some cultural element added to the commercialism of the Tanger Outlets.”
The center is the long-in-the-works vision of 80-year-old Bhadra Butala of Woodbridge, N.J., the retired owner of Butala Emporium stores in New Jersey and New York, and the organizer of the North Jersey-based Gandhian Society, which promotes its namesake’s philosophy. “I am a small person,” he said, “1% of Mahatma Gandhi’s life. Even though, whatever I am doing is to spread his life in the community. They can see Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals.”
With significant support from the multinational conglomerate Aditya Birla Group based in Mumbai, the Gandhian Society opened the 3,500-square-foot center last fall. Since then, interest has slowly built, and the free museum has attracted a few hundred visitors in recent months, according to organizers.
Touted as the first of its kind in the United States, it replicates exhibits in the original Birla-developed Eternal Gandhi Peace Centre in New Delhi. The Atlantic City venue, the Birla Group’s fourth museum, also gives a nod to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was influenced by Gandhi’s teachings in his civil rights campaign, with more in-depth exhibits expected. (The Birla Group’s founding father, Ghanshyam Das Birla, was a confidant and follower of Gandhi, and he often hosted the freedom fighter in his New Delhi bungalow. On Jan. 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated at the Birla House, which now houses the peace center.)
While Butala said he saw the paradox in a Gandhi museum among name brands, especially given the Mahatma’s simple, nonmaterialistic lifestyle, he also appreciated the location’s selling points, and that included a good deal on the lease.
“First choice was New York City,” Butala said. “It was not working out. Next best option was Atlantic City.”
He pointed to the heavy foot traffic — about 27 million people visit A.C. each year, according to the city. “This is a big plus point for us.”
Added Gandhian Society secretary Mahesh Wani of Edison, N.J.: “On one side, millions of dollars are transacted in those casinos and hotels and the entertainment industry. On the other side of town, thousands of people don’t have enough food to eat. We thought we would be a bridge of the gap.”
Shalini Basu, a hospice social worker in the area, is the volunteer director of development for the museum. The diversity of Atlantic City — 32% Black, 26% white, 16% Asian, according to the American Community Survey — makes it the perfect proving ground for Gandhi’s and King’s beliefs, she said, perhaps even an antidote to gangs and violent conflict. “Both these leaders are big on bringing people together,” Basu said. “By bringing Gandhiji’s and Dr. King’s messages of nonviolence, we’re hoping to show kids other ways to resolve issues.”
To that end, the museum is integrating itself into the fabric of the local community step by step. The center recently sponsored a food drive for the Atlantic City Rescue Mission and a peace-themed art contest. It plans to offer anti-bullying workshops and other outreach, Basu said. “We want to be a working museum,” she said.
The center, flanked by American and Indian flags, opens onto a life-size sculpture of a dhoti-clad Gandhi spinning cotton thread at a wooden wheel, or charkha, symbolic of his freedom fight and movement to favor locally spun khadi over British East India Co. textiles.
The 11 exhibits that line the walls represent the 11 values (nonviolence, equal respect for all religions, non-materialism, etc.) that Gandhi espoused. In one exhibit, visitors strike a xylophone tuned to “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram,” a devotional song. Each note triggers a digital mosaic depicting figures from different religions holding hands in unity. In another, visitors spin a charkha to play clips related to Gandhi’s fight for economic independence from the British.
According to Nitin Mathuria, president of the Birla Group’s Eternal Gandhi Project, the goal is to rediscover the truths by which Gandhi lived and share them with the world. “Mahatma Gandhi created a complete upheaval and change in the mentality of people with his message of peace, of nonviolence, of the universality of mankind,” he said. “So much so, that the colonizers of India had to leave.”
For Amullya Chowdhury of Mays Landing, the museum was eye-opening. In May, he was one of 30 from the Golden Heart Adult Day Care in Somers Point who visited. The retiree, who worked as a revenue officer in his native Bangladesh, said he didn’t know much about Gandhi before his visit. “I learned so many things … about freedom and the Indian nation. I’m inspired by his life history.”
Eternal Gandhi Peace Centre and Museum, 109 N. Arkansas Avenue in Atlantic City (Tanger Outlets Mall), free, noon to 6 p.m. daily, Gandhiinatlanticcity.org, 609-431-6316