Gandhi, King and their legacies

IN PERSPECTIVE

A United States Congressional Committee has recently cleared the Gandhi-King Scholarly Exchange Initiative Bill to promote the legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Its aim is to establish an exchange initiative between India and the United States to study the work and legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. The Bill had been sponsored by the late Congressman John Lewis, a champion of civil rights, equality, justice and democracy, and co-sponsored by Ami Bera, the longest-serving Indian-American member of the US Congress.

What is the Gandhi-King Bill all about? The Bill seeks to authorize the US Administration, in cooperation with the Indian government, to establish the following:

Annual Education Forum: It will include scholars from both countries to focus on the legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Professional Development Training Initiative on Conflict Resolution based on the principles of non-violence.

United States-India Gandhi-King Development Foundation: It will oversee grants to private non-governmental entities to address health priorities in India such as Tuberculosis (TB), Pollution, Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH).

Gandhi-King Global Academy: A training initiative for representatives from governments and non-governmental organizations in countries with ongoing political, social or ethnic conflict, on the efficacy of non-violent movements.

The lives and works of Gandhi and King have much to teach us about non-violent resistance to oppression. A comparative analysis of their legacies demonstrates how powerful peace and love can be, in the face of oppression, aggression and violence. No two individuals had a greater impact on the 20th century’s monumental struggles for freedom, justice and peace. Gandhi showed the world that steadfast and non-violent adherence to the truth gave the world a practical alternative to the insanity of war and violence. King used non-violence to realize his dream of a nation “where people are judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”. The two men came from widely divergent cultural, religious, economic, and political backgrounds, yet they both wielded non-violent weapons effectively. This comparison not only demonstrates the broad applicability of non-violent principles in contemporary times but also highlights the importance of merging high ideals with a practical program that produces positive results.

Upon his death, Gandhi was hailed by the London Times as “the most influential figure India has produced for generations”. Gandhi had protested against racism in South Africa and colonial rule in India using non-violent resistance. Gandhi’s approach directly influenced Martin Luther King Jr., who argued that the Gandhian philosophy was “the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom”.

King first employed strategies of non-violent direct action in the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott. In 1959, King travelled to India with his wife, Coretta Scott King, and Lawrence D. Reddick on a visit co-sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee and Gandhi Smarak Nidhi. King met with the Gandhi family, as well as with Indian activists and officials, including Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, during the five-week trip. Back home, King emphasized, among other things, on the significance of Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha and his fast to end discrimination against India’s untouchables. King ultimately believed that the Gandhian approach of non-violent resistance would “bring about a solution to the race problem in America”.

If it was a train ride that ‘created’ Gandhi, it was a bus journey that ‘made’ Martin Luther King. Once, as a child, King was travelling long distance on a bus with his teacher, when the driver ordered them to get up for white passengers. “I decided not to move at all,” King recalled,” but my teacher pointed out that we must obey the law. So we got up and stood in the aisle the whole 90 miles to Atlanta. It was a night I’ll never forget....” And he didn’t.

Deeply influenced by the life and work of Gandhi while studying at the Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, King made the struggle for civil liberty for African-Americans in the USA, his sole motto. His weapons were faith in God and non-violence. He later said, “From my background, I gained my regulating Christian ideals. From Gandhi, I learned my operational technique”.

In December 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Aged 35, he became the youngest man to have received the award. Delivering his Nobel Lecture, King said, “Non-violence is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.” Tragically, four years later, this apostle of peace was shot dead while addressing a gathering in Tennessee.

Today, the race issue in the United States conjures up images of chokeholds, police shootings, violence, and the re-emergence of the racial divide. The Gandhi-King talisman of non-violence and its potential in advancing race relations is largely missing. This is surprising given that King, the Father of Racial Justice in the US, believed fervently in non-violence and used it forcefully to advance racial equality. According to the King Center, “During the less than 13 years of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership of the modern American Civil Rights Movement, from December 1955 until April 1968, African Americans achieved more genuine progress toward racial equality in America than the previous 350 years had produced”.

As the world’s oldest and largest democracies, the United States and India have long traditions of upholding the shared values of peace, justice and non-violent resistance, championed by figures like Gandhi, King and Congressman Lewis. But they are increasingly under threat in both countries. The passage of the Gandhi-King Scholarly Exchange Initiative Bill by the US Congress will, hopefully, help ensure the endurance of those values, and remind us, that by holding true to the legacies of Gandhi and King, we embody and live up to the best of our two nations.

(The writer taught Political Science at Bangalore University. He is currently Hon. Professor at Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University)