Is The Statue of Unity Worth Visiting?

As a quick two day trip from Surat, I went to visit the Statue of Unity with my girlfriend, as well as my aunt, uncle, and their families. Six adults along with three kids (one, three, and five). So, there’s the lens through which I experienced this whole experience. 

The Statue of Unity is a 600ft tall statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, an important figure in the unification of India. Upon its completion in 2018, it took the throne as the world’s largest statue. As humans tend to love both building statues and one-upping each other, taking this throne is quite an impressive feat. Given that, is it worth visiting?

My Experience

I saw depictions of the statue comparing it to the size of the Statue of Liberty and was frankly blown away. So I decided I wanted to see it. Was it worth it? I would say yes, but it’s definitely not something I’ll be going back to.

We first arrived at one of the tent cities. The tents themselves were basically rooms that were made to look like tents on the inside, so they didn’t really feel exactly like tents, but they were quite lovely nonetheless, and the vibe was definitely a tent one. The rooms also included breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all of which had at least a few things that were great. 

Cars aren’t allowed to go anywhere near the statue, so we had to get a bus from the tent city to the statue itself. Once we got there, we weren’t allowed to bring any food past security, so we waited outside for a while to let the kids eat a bit. At security, they took from my girlfriend a credit card sized collapsible fork and knife that I got her for this trip. I am absolutely enraged by this. They took it because “you can’t bring in a knife,” which would be fair if the knife was actually a knife and not just a bit of metal incapable of cutting anything harder than butter. The thing they took was literally TSA approved (I know TSA is an American thing, but point is that if it’s safe enough for TSA, it’s safe enough for any reasonable person, as TSA goes way beyond reasonable in the things they consider unsafe), and is DULLER THAN A FUCKING KEY, which they of course have no issues with anyone bringing in. 

It may seem like I dedicated a disproportionate amount of space to describing the utter stupidity of the Statue of Unity security guards, but you must remember, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and I have no other recourse for this injustice besides complaining about it on a blog that 5-10 people might one day read. But I digress; back to the story of the day after January 15th. 

As we approached the statue, it was evident that it was, in fact, extremely big. Standing at the base, it felt much taller than the Eiffel Tower, although in reality, it was not. It was close though, and it was about four times as massive. We took the lift up to the chest (not the head, for whatever reason), and looked out to see the beautiful view—out of two small viewing windows through a meshwork of iron that blocked more than half of it. It was extremely poorly done. You could barely see anything, there was no 360° view, what you did have was mostly blocked, and it wasn’t even at the top of the statue. This is what it looked like from the “top”

Under the statue was a museum that showed the history of the statue and the guy the statue depicted, Saddar Patel. Patel united a bunch of different kingdoms in India, some of which were happy to join, others not so much. The history told by the museum was extremely one sided. I won’t get into too many details, but I’ll describe one telling example. There was a long paragraph giving an overview of how Patel went to all the rulers and convinced them to join India. It described his great efforts in negotiating, compromising, and overall being a good, understanding dude while he convinced everyone. Then when they were forced to touch on those who resisted his best efforts to peacefully have them join India, instead of talking about how he used threats, violence, and threats of violence, they just squeezed the following sentence in at the end of the paragraph: “Those [who resisted], he handled with a firm hand.”

We then went to see a laser light show, which was basically a little propaganda movie projected onto the statue and narrated in Hindi. Seeing everything projected on the statue was very cool. The idea of the show was great, but the execution was, as I said, basically Narendra Modi and Indian nationalism propaganda. Well, to be honest, this whole experience gave off a very propaganda-like vibe. Don’t take my word for it though, both my aunt and uncle, who both grew up in India, understand Hindi, and know far more Indian history than me, confirmed this. They most certainly understood the messages being broadcast by the entire Statue of Unity experience, and they also said it felt very much like propaganda.

The next and final day of our two day trip, we went on a jungle safari. Said “jungle safari” was literally just a zoo; no more, no less. It was a solid zoo, don’t get me wrong, but the fact that they called it a jungle safari instead of just a zoo is fairly representative of the whole experience. They had stuff, no doubt, but the stuff was not nearly as cool as they would like you to think. 

Should You Visit the Statue of Unity?

Short answer: only if you happen to be in Surat or another nearby city and have a few extra days where you don’t have anything better to do. 

Long answer:

The statue is very big. That much I can confirm. So, my original purpose of visiting—see a very big statue—was fulfilled. We also only had to drive 3 or 4 hours in both directions, so it only had to be a two day, one night trip. So, in this context, I say it was worth it for me. However, mine was a fairly unique situation, so for most people, it’s probably not worth it. 

The bus system to get from the sleeping areas (various tent cities, hotels, etc.) to the statue itself, as well as to the other “attractions” like the jungle safari or butterfly gardens, was quite poorly done. The buses were confusing, and ended up taking way more time than they should have. This would be bad on its own, but you also have to remember that after a fairly long day of traveling, including must walking, to then culminate in a pretty mediocre tourist experience, the frustration of figuring out the bus system is way worse. It was fine for me, because my aunt and uncle, the Hindi speakers, did most of the figuring out, but without them, I think the whole thing would have left a very bad taste in my mouth. 

In sum, the Statue of Unity is not convenient to get to from pretty much anywhere one is likely to find themselves in India, and the whole experience of visiting it isn’t necessarily bad, but it is mediocre at best. It is very propaganda-y, which I think actually makes it quite interesting, but I don’t think that’s enough to make it worth visiting for the vast majority of people. It is, however, as I’ve said before, very big.