A Norwich sculptor is one of about 40 artists chosen from around the world to play a part in creating a memorial commemorating a key event in India's history.

Gavin Fulcher has joined sculptors from India, America, Japan, Sri Lanka, Austria and other countries to craft a memorial for the 1930 Salt March led by Mahatma Gandhi to protest against British rule in India.

The huge work of art is a project of India's Ministry of Culture and incorporates 80 life-size figures.

Mr Fulcher, 31, sculpted two of the figures when he visited India for about three weeks in December.

Mr Fulcher, who lives in Unthank Road, said: 'It is a memorial for the people who marched alongside Gandhi in protest at the salt tax which the British imposed.

'For 26 days Gandhi marched from one side of India to the other and he picked 80 people to march alongside him.'

Mr Fulcher found out about the project via Florence Academy, in Italy, where he finished studying in July last year.

He said it was an honour to be involved, and that during his visit to India he met Gandhi's great grandson when he visited the project's studios.

The two figures Mr Fulcher created represent marcher 69, 25-year-old Bhairav Dutt from United Provinces, and marcher 45, 25-year-old Krishna Nair from Kerala.

The clay figures are now being cast in bronze ready for the whole art installation to be put in place in Dandi later in the year.

Mr Fulcher, who also studied at Wimbledon School of Art, said: 'There will be 80 life-size bronze figures and a 15ft-high Gandhi sculpture with a glass prism with a huge salt crystal. It's going to be along the route they marched in Dandi.'

The memorial will be built over 15 acres opposite Saifee Villa, the house at Dandi in Gujarat where Gandhi stayed on April 5, 1930, at the end of the march protesting about the imposition of tax on salt.

Mr Fulcher said he was now looking to get involved in projects closer to home.

'I would love to do some public commissions in Norfolk. It would be a real honour to do something on my home soil.

'Being a football fan it would be great to do something about Norwich City.'

Do you have a story about an art project in Norwich? Email arts correspondent Emma Knights at emma.knights@archant.co.uk