Martin Luther king and Mahatma Gandhi services

Martin Luther king was one of the greatest men of the world. He was like Gandhi in many respects. Both belonged to the 20th century. Both supported the cause of the down-trodden. Martin Luther king championed the rights of American Negroes. Both were peaceful warriors. Non- violence was their only weapon. Both were shot dead.

Martin Luther king was a clergyman. He believed in the equality of man. He felt distressed by the racial discrimination against the Negroes and the denial of their rights. The Negroes did a lot towards the building of modern America. They worked hard in mines, on the docks and in the foundries. They fought bravely to defend America’s honor. But they were not given good treatment by the America Government. According to martin Luther king, they were regarded as half slave and half free.

The Negroes lived economic insecurity although America was prosperous. The Negroes were denied normal education and normal social opportunities. A Negro could not attend a school or a public amusement park meant for whites. They were not served food at the same counter with the whites. A Negro was nobody in his own land. The situation in India for the untouchables was the same as that of Negroes in America. Mahatma Gandhi fought all his life for the betterment of the untouchables. The British rule was another evil in India. It exploited India and blocked her mental and spiritual growth. Gandhi started opposing the British rule in India. He put into the India’s a new spirit by his doctrine of non- violence. He and his men were beaten up but they never offered any resistance. At lasts the British left India.

As a young boy, martin Luther king was deeply influenced by Gandhi’s success in social and political fields, non –violence and the moral strength. From Gandhi he learnt to set right wrongs by love and not by hatred.

For about 350 years, twenty million Negroes sobbed and wept. White Americans did not care their difficulties. Abraham Lincoln and john Kennedy did feel for them. Martin Luther king did not understand why American democracy should crush the rights of the Negroes. He wanted the Negroes to enjoy the same civics facilities as the white Americans. He wanted these rights without any delay. Some people said that martin Luther king was impatient. Martin Luther answered back that those people might never have felt the hurt of racial discrimination.

Martin Luther gained national importance when he led a boycott of the people public buses in Montgomery to protest against separate seats on them. After several boycotts, he met with success. The U.S. Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public transport as unlawful. Martin Luther kin’s movement was non- violent.

The Montgomery victory encouraged the Negroes. Martin Luther awakened the Negroes with fiery speeches. In 1963, he made a historic speech when 250000 Americans of all faiths, races and creeds assembled together to 1March on Washington’. The gist of his speech was that he had a dream of the time when racialism would end.