The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr remains resonant
- The civil rights leader led a Gandhian movement of non-violent dissent with lasting influence.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday is celebrated on 15 January every year to honour the life and legacy of the civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39 in Memphis, Tennessee. King’s dream of freedom and rights for African-Americans was closely linked with the Swaraj dream of Gandhi for Indians. King often referred to Gandhi as “one of the half-dozen greatest men in world history." He read Gandhi in the mirror of Sermon on the Mount and other teachings of Jesus, and approached non-violence through the doctrine of love, while Mahatma Gandhi found his path to the philosophy of non-violence through the idea of Truth. King affirmed: “Non-violent resistance does call for love, but it is not sentimental love. It is a very stern love that would organize itself into collective action to right a wrong by taking on itself suffering." As such, King remained first and last a Christian thinker and his view of suffering was inspired by the Gospels. He argued: “Like the Apostle Paul, I can now humbly yet proudly say, ‘I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.’"
King was aware of the fact that violent struggle, even if briefly victorious, can never permanently be successful. Thinking of the future of American society and the world, he observed: “The aftermath of non-violence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness." In King’s eyes, the faith that kept the non-violent resister going through all the humiliation and suffering was fuelled by the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice. For King, justice meant an improvement of the social order by the enforcement of goodness and love among humankind.
So, though King often referred to non-violence as a pragmatic tactic, he realized that it cannot last long without love and justice. King went to great lengths to make it clear that the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice. It was King’s great hope that African-Americans would transform their condition of powerlessness into creative power. As he underlined in his book, Where Do We Go From Here?: “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love."
In his struggle for non-violence, King was radically engaged with the process of self-examination and self-realization of African-Americans. He combined ideas: love, justice, beloved community, a worldwide fellowship and revolution of values. But the central idea behind all was the concept of interconnectedness. He wrote: “All men are interdependent. Every nation is an heir of a vast treasury of ideas and labor to which both the living and the dead of all nations have contributed… We are everlasting debtors to known and unknown men and women. When we arise in the morning, we go into the bathroom where we reach for a sponge which is provided for us by a Pacific Islander. We reach for soap that is created for us by a European. Then at the table we drink coffee which is provided for us by a South American, or tea by a Chinese or cocoa by a West African. Before we leave for our jobs we are already beholden to more than half of the world. In a real sense, all life is interrelated."
King showed America the moral force of a non-violent struggle. He saw non-violence as a community creating force which shaped the balance between means and ends. Hence, King’s idea of democracy included all races, classes and religions. He knew well that the American dream was central to US democracy. So, unlike Malcolm X and radicals of the Black Panthers, he insisted on “inalienable rights" in the 1776 Declaration of Independence as the point of distinction between American democracy and totalitarian regimes. In an interview, King affirmed: “People cannot devote themselves to a great cause without finding someone who becomes the personification of the cause. People cannot become devoted to Christianity until they find Christ, to democracy until they find Lincoln and Jefferson and Roosevelt, to Communism until they find Marx and Lenin…"
King never lost faith in democracy, even though he and his companions had to endure deep injustices. Democracy could be democratized, he held: “History has thrust upon our generation an indescribably important destiny—to complete a process of democratization which our nation has too long developed too slowly, but which is our most powerful weapon for world respect and emulation. How we deal with this crucial situation will determine our moral health as individuals, our cultural health as a region, our political health as a nation, and our prestige as a leader of the free world. The future of America is bound up with the solution of the present crisis. The shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of a faltering democracy."
For King, a moral leader was one who knew how to love others and listen to and learn from them. It was his way of stating that a beloved community was a real Christian brotherhood in action, where a spirit of interconnected and solidarity replaced exclusion, segregation and enmity. King’s vocation as a drum major not only helped him take many risks in his struggle for civil rights, but also examine in a Socratic way his role as the leader of a mass movement.
King is the only leader of non-violence in the 20th century who strengthened “Black Consciousness" by turning it into a massive Gandhian dissent movement in the US.
