The monument dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, hero of India’s struggle for independence from Britain, was visited today by G20 leaders meeting in New Delhi, India to pay their respects.

Their host, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he greeted the leaders one by one with either a hug or a warm handshake at the Raj Ghat, the site where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated in January 1948, a day after he was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist.

Each of the leaders bowed their heads before Modi for him to place a white sarpa.

The Indian prime minister was waiting for them in front of a huge color photo of the Sambarmati ashram, where Gandhi lived for years and which is located in the state of Gujarat where Modi himself comes from.

This ashram has been visited by many world leaders during their visit to India, such as Donald Trump accompanied by his wife Melania in 2020 or British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022.

The leaders of the G20, among them the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the French president Emmanuel Macron, then took off their shoes and followed Modi past the large black marble slab, decorated with orange and white flowers. There a = flame that never goes out honors the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.

The American president Joe Biden he was among the leaders who chose to wear felt slippers and not walk barefoot at the memorial, where shoes are prohibited out of respect.

After a Hindu hymn the leaders observed a minute’s silence.

This monument is one of the most sacred places in the Indian capital and many high-ranking officials of India have been cremated there.

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Gonde, a Hindu fanatic who opposed the Indian leader’s policy of appeasement towards the country’s Muslims.

The vast majority of India’s 1.4 billion people are Hindu, but there are many religious minorities, including 200 million Muslims, who have been worried lately that Modi is trying to turn the country into a Hindu state.