VILNIUS, October 2, BNS–A statue portraying Indian independence hero Mohandas Gandhi and his friend Jewish architect Hermann Kallenbach was unveiled Friday in Kallenbach’s hometown, Rusnė, located in the Šilutė region of Lithuania.

Lithuanian prime minister Algirdas Butkevičius was at the ceremony and called the bronze statue a monument to Lithuanian-Indian friendship and a testimony to the achievements of Litvaks. “Today is unveiled a monument to friendship, between two people and two peoples,” he said, standing next to the almost two-meter-tall statue of the two men on the banks of the Atmata River on the border with Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast. Gandhi and Kallenbach, who left Rusnė in his youth, became friends in South Africa at the beginning of the 20th century.

Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi attended the ceremony and said non-violent resistance unite India and Lithuania. He said Kallenbach was an important spiritual influence on his ancestor.

“Lithuania is still a little-known country in India,” Lithuanian ambassador to India Laimonas Talat-Kelpša told BNS. “This is a good opportunity to bring the attention of Indian society to Kallenbach and Lithuania.”