NON-VIOLENCE NEWS

May 2015 Issue 2.3 www.nonviolence.org.au ISSN: 2202-9648

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 1 The Non-Violence News and Events

Pax Christi Justice and Peace Conference: The Many Faces of Justice

(30 May 2015, Loyola Marymount university, Los Angeles, USA)

Pax Christi Southern California organises Justice and Peace Conference and co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare. During each of fourteen trips to Afghanistan, since 2010, Kathy Kelly, a peace activist has lived alongside ordinary Afghan people in a working class neighborhood in Kabul. The other speakers include: Terrence J. Rynne of the Sally and Terry Rynne Foundation dedicated to peacemaking and the empowerment of women, and Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking. He is the author of Gandhi and Jesus: The Saving Power of Nonviolence and Jesus Christ, Peacemaker: A New Theology of Peace. Another speaker Linda Marsa, an award- winning investigative journalist.

Hawaii’s Mauna Kea Protectors aim to Halt Construction on Sacred Mountain

Native Hawaiian Mauna Kea Protectors heard that construction of the world’s largest optical telescope had begun atop the Hawaiian sacred mountain Mauna Kea. They immediately spread the word to the community, who had been keeping vigilant watch, and ran up the

Resistance against the project has been ongoing for years, but the recent onset of development hassummit ignited to stop a movement the desecration that is unitingof this wahi the people pana, a of place Hawaii of cultural on all islands significance and abroad. and practice.

The protectors say they’re not against science itself, but that they just don’t want it built

Maunaon Mauna Kea Kea. is not Hawaiians the appropriate are known place for for their it. scientific knowledge, particularly ancient star navigation. Native Hawaiian groups support many scientific efforts, but they understand that Promoting the Spirituality and Practice of Active Nonviolence

Pace e Bene Australia invites you to join people on a journey, exploring nonviolent living. Through the provision of educational materials and community workshop facilitators, they provide a study and action program that explores nonviolence as a creative, powerful and world. Drawing on the vision of Jesus, Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Shelley Douglass,effective process John Dear for andaddressing many others, and resolving these programs the conflicts offer inyour our church, lives and school, in the community, life of the or group resources to deepen the journey from fear to freedom, from despair to hope, from violence to wholeness.

2 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 Pace e Bene Australia facilitates workshops in three related programs:

From Violence to Wholeness

Engage: Exploring Nonviolent Living

Travelling with the Turtle: Women’s Spirituality and Peacemaking

Peace and Non-Violence

The Australian Greens are deeply committed to the principle of nonviolence, as essential naturalto the prevention justice and and disarmament, reduction ofas conflict. per the PeaceUnited can Nations only Charter.be achieved The byAustralian addressing Greens the believeunderlying that causes United of Nations conflict mandated and basing military conflict action resolution should on be cooperation, a last resort human and can rights, only genocide, or to counter the military invasion of a country. be justified if it is necessary either to avert a major violation of human rights or attempted Nonviolence Film Festival 2015

(4 – 8 May 2015, Oorala Centre, University of New England, Sydney)

Apart from showing Nonviolence protest by just involving holding of placards and candles in peaceful demonstrations, there are hundreds of nonviolent techniques, from strikes to

Festivalblockades 2015 to boycotts at UNE’s to Oorala film-making. Centre Theshows sixth movies: annual ‘Blood Nonviolence Brothers: Film Freedom Festival Ride’, is five about days of free lunchtime films which explore diverse nonviolent campaigns. The Nonviolence Film end the discrimination that Aboriginal people suffered. the bus trip made fifty years ago by Sydney university students, including Charles Perkins, to

Bil’in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. ‘Five Broken Cameras’ is a deeply-personal, first-hand account of nonviolent resistance in travelled‘Aim High there in Creation’ to learn is froma surprisingly the masters humorous of propaganda film about cinema. the contentious topic of coal seam gas. It is modelled on the propaganda films of North Korea, after film-maker Anna Broinowski The movie ‘Rocking the Foundations’ shows how some middle-class women and the Builders Labourers Foundation worked together to create the ‘Green Bans’ and become a powerful force for conservation.

The save Our Sons’ movement emerged from a group of Melbourne women who thought that conscription, particularly to fight in a foreign war (Vietnam), was wrong.

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 3 President Page Dr Martin Luther King, Jr’s Contribution to Nonviolence

social change. Gandhi’s stress on love and nonviolence gave King ‘‘the method for social reform that I had been seeking’’.

While intellectually committed to nonviolence, King did not experience the power of nonviolent direct action first-hand until the start of the Montgomery bus boycott As a theologian, Martin Luther King in 1955. During the boycott, King reflected often on his understanding personally enacted Gandhian principles. of nonviolence. He described his own With guidance from black pacifist Bayard ‘‘pilgrimage to nonviolence’’ in his first Rustin and Glenn Smiley of the Fellowship book, Stride Toward Freedom, and in of Reconciliation, King eventually decided subsequent books and articles. ‘‘True not to use armed bodyguards despite pacifism,’’ or ‘‘nonviolent resistance,’’ King threats on his life, and reacted to violent wrote, is ‘‘a courageous confrontation of experiences, such as the bombing of his evil by the power of love’’ (King, Stride, home, with compassion. Through the 80). Both ‘‘morally and practically’’ practical experience of leading nonviolent committed to nonviolence, King believed protest, King came to understand how that ‘‘the Christian doctrine of love nonviolence could become a way of life, operating through the Gandhian method applicable to all situations (King, 83). of nonviolence was one of the most potent King called the principle of nonviolent weapons available to oppressed people in resistance the ‘‘guiding light of our their struggle for freedom’’. movement. Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the King stated that he was first introduced method’’. to the concept of nonviolence when he read Henry David Thoreau’s Essay on Civil By the time the Supreme Court ruled Disobedience as a freshman at Morehouse segregated seating on public buses College. Having grown up in Atlanta and unconstitutional in November 1956, King, witnessed segregation and racism every heavily inluenced by Mahatma Gandhi day, King was ‘‘fascinated by the idea of (1869-1948) and the activist Bayard Rustin refusing to cooperate with an evil system’’. (1912-1987), had entered the national spotlight as an inspirational proponent In 1950, as a student at Crozer Theological of organized, nonviolent resistance. Seminary, King heard a talk by Dr. Mordecai (He had also become a target for white Johnson, president of Howard University. supremacists, who irebombed his family Dr. Johnson, who had recently travelled to home that January.) Emboldened by the India, spoke about the life and teachings boycott’s success, in 1957 he and other of Mohandas K. Gandhi. Gandhi, King later civil rights activists–most of them fellow wrote, was the first person to transform ministers–founded the Southern Christian Christian love into a powerful force for Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group 4 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 committed to achieving full equality for mixture of the spiritual and the political, African Americans through nonviolence. noting that capitalism is a system in which (Its motto was “Not one hair of one head of America has “been able to do wonders,” one person should be harmed.”) He would but we faced the danger of misusing remain at the helm of this inluential capitalism, which can lead to “tragic organization until his death. exploitation.” King criticized the class system and implored Christians to work In his role as SCLC president, Martin “within the framework of democracy Luther King Jr. travelled across the country to bring about a better distribution of and around the world, giving lectures on wealth.” nonviolent protest and civil rights as well as meeting with religious igures, activists Martin Luther King inspired hundreds of and political leaders. During a month- thousands of people in the United States long trip to India in 1959, he had the into actions against racism, to end poverty, opportunity to meet family members and and for peace. Early December 1955, he followers of Gandhi, the man he described led the irst great non-violent protests in his autobiography as “the guiding light of Afro-Americans in a bus boycott in of our technique of nonviolent social Montgomery, Alabama. The boycott lasted change.” King also authored several books 382 days and ended after the US Supreme and articles during this time. Court ruled that segregation in public buses was unconstitutional. In spring With a conluence of ideas from thinkers 1963, King and the student movement such as Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, organised mass demonstrations in Karl Marx, Nietzsche, Gandhi, Reinhold Birmingham, Alabama. The white Niebuhr, and theologically liberal police oficials responded violently and professors, King emerged from Boston King was arrested for organizing sit-in University with what he called a “positive demonstrations. In his ‘Letter from the social philosophy.” Birmingham jail’, he puts the struggle against injustice in Birmingham in the King had no qualms about preaching broader context of the United States. He politics from the pulpit. After the writes: “Moreover, I am cognizant of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, he preached interrelatedness of all communities and on an “imaginary” letter from the apostle states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and Paul to American Christians. While Paul’s not be concerned about what happens letters to the churches relected spiritual in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a matters, King’s sermon-letter was a threat to justice everywhere.” -Gambhir Watts OAM

President

International Centre of Nonviolence Australia

www.nonviolence.org.au

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 5 Journeys to Peace: the 2015 Conference on Nonviolence Preliminary notice and invitation to widest possible audience internationally. participants It is appropriate that it is seen to be taking the lead again in bringing to the A conference hosted by the International attention of the world the promise of Centre of Nonviolence, Durban nonviolence. In April 2015 it was the site of University of Technology and Gandhi recent xenophobic violence, but also where Development Trust community resources have been mobilised to defend the rights of all. Thursday 18th September to Sunday 20th September, 2015 The Durban University of Technology, which is providing a venue and Steve Biko campus, Durban University administrative support, has peace and of Technology nonviolence as one of its strategic areas. This conference will have the additional Peace continues to be elusive for much of the role of strengthening the relationship world. Hostility to migrants in Europe and between the university and other groups overt xenophobic violence in South Africa working for nonviolence, both regionally are examples of the continuing threats to and internationally. peace. So is the continuing vulnerability of minority groups to police violence in the This conference is being organised in USA. We see distorted ideologies around the collaboration with the eThekwini Metro, world that promote division and hostility in which has this as its vision: By 2030, the name of justice, truth and faith. We see eThekwini will be Africa’s most caring and the threat to all forms of life from reckless viable city. The city has a range of initiatives environmental damage driven often by the to achieve this vision. pursuit of money. This conference will explore how The philosophy of nonviolence developed nonviolence is being practised in many by Mahatma Gandhi and other thinkers different settings and movements, provides a clear and effective challenge and how those practices related to the to these practices. There is no more philosophy of nonviolence. It will focus important time for this thinking to be heard on how we extend such effective practices and understood. Indeed, there are many more widely. life and hope, tackling environmental Conference aims issues,movements transforming around the education, world that building affirm social cohesion and advancing ideas that 1. To deepen our understanding of the liberate people. nature, extent and consequences of the violence that permeates our This conference follows the successful societies Roots to Fruits conference held in 2. To deepen our understanding of the Durban in 2012. Durban is a city with thinking of nonviolence and peace an unparalleled history of nonviolent To review and strengthen our work thought and action. The relevance of that to advance nonviolence in all areas history should be made known to the 3. of life

6 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 To celebrate our humanity and not all sessions will be academic in nature, our capacity for harmony amongst it is important that academics can present 4. ourselves and with the rest of in an atmosphere that is both critical and creation supportive. Academics and researchers The conference will address such issues are invited to submit an abstract of not more than 250 words. A presentation may activity, including migrancy, education; take the form of a formal presentation thein relationcreative toarts specific and media; areas the of military, human police and prisons; government; corporate (20 minutes), poster or a workshop (45 life; family; gender; the environment; Organisersminutes). : Details are as follows: community life, and so on. Crispin Hemson [email protected] Format Brightness Nyawose +27 31 373 5499 proposals from participants. There will [email protected] beThe both shape plenary and emphasis and parallel will reflect sessions, the to encompass the diversity of topics and forms of presentation. Papers, workshops, Registration:+27 31 373 5499 This will be posters and creative activities will be done through the ICON presented by delegates themselves. The website: www.icon.org.za structure will accommodate both more theoretical presentations, practical Registration fees: This will cover all workshops that develop skills, displays issues directly related to the conference, such as meals, teas and conference creative expression such as dance and material. music.(including interactive digital media) and Academics, corporate, A central element is that the whole government, overseas visitors conference, from the early planning stages Representatives from unions, onwards, will be a model of nonviolence in NGOs and religious father R2 750 action. It will be inclusive and respectful communities R1 000 of the whole range of human diversity. For Teachers R800 this reason, we encourage participants to School and university students, attend the whole conference. conference staff R50 Thanks to the support of the eThekwini Total Metro, there will be a civic reception to welcome delegates, who will also be able to Accommodation enjoy tours to places of specific significance The organisers will assist participants in in the history of nonviolent struggle.

Research into violence and nonviolence Thefinding support suitable given accommodation. to this conference by Durban University of Technology is stimulating and reporting research. While acknowledged with gratitude. The conference has a specific role in May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 7 Contents

The Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence (SNV)...... 9 I Have a Dream...... 22

When Martin Luther King gave up his Guns ...... 10 Nonviolent Resistance of Martin Luther King Jr...... 24

Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr...... 16 Gandhi: Truth and Non-Violence...... 26

Gandhian Politics of Non-Violent Action...... 20 The King Holiday—MLK Day...... 34

International Centre of Non-Violence Australia

Office Bearers President and National Coordinator, Gambhir Watts OAM

Patrons • Development Trust, South Africa • LibbyRev. Dr. Davies, Ela Gandhi CEO, White(Granddaughter Ribbon Australia Mahatma Gandhi) Founder & Trustee, Gandhi Publisher & General Editor • Emeritus Professor Magnus Haavelsrud, Department of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management, Norwegian University Gambhir Watts OAM • • International Centre of Non-Violence Australia Greg Johns (General Director, Soka Gakkai International Australia) • Suite 100, Level 4, Maestri Towers Nick Kaldas APM (Deputy Commissioner of Police, NSW Police Force) 515 Kent Street Sydney 2000 Australia Dr Stepan Kerkyasharian AO (Chairperson, Community Relations Commissions for a • Mail: GPO Box 4018 Sydney 2001 Australia Multicultural NSW) T: +61 2 9267 0953, [email protected] • Emeritus Professor Bernard LaFayette (Distinguished Senior Scholar-in-Residence Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding, Emory University) The views of contributors to Nonviolence News are Dr Phil Lambert (General Manager, Curriculum, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and • not necessarily the views of ICON Australia or the Reporting Authority (ACARA) • Editor. • Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence (Senior Rabbi, the Great Synagogue Sydney) • DrHon. Ravindra Clover MooreKumar, (The Coordinator Lord Mayor International of Sydney) Affairs, Shridhar University, Rajasthan, Nonviolence News reserves the right to edit any IndiaVenerable Phra Mana Viriyarampo, (Abbot Sunnataram Forest Buddhist Monastery) contributed articles and letters submitted for • publication. • Emeritus Professor Stuart Rees AO (Chair, Sydney Peace Foundation) Copyright: all advertisements and original • DrDr. NevilleAden Ridgeway Roach AO, (Chairperson, Patron of Australia NSW Government’s India Institute Aboriginal Trust Fund Repayment editorial material appearing remain the property • NanikScheme) Rupani, Chairman Emeritus, Priyadarshni Academy, India of Nonviolence News and may not be reproduced • except with the written consent of the owner of the copyright. • RosalindProfessor Strong Abdullah AM, Saeed Chair, (Foundation Sydney Community Chair of Foundation the Sultan of Oman Endowed Chair and • Director of the Asia Institute) Nonviolence News: Issue 2.3 May 2015

• Stafford Watts (Vice President, Ramakrishna Sarda Vedanta Society, NSW (representing ISSN: 2202-9648 Mataji) Pravrajika Gayatriprana Professor Thomas Weber (Reader and Associate Professor in Politics, La Trobe University).8 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 The Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence (SNV)

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar E. Chavez, and President Nelson Mandela, as well as living legends such as His Holiness,

Tibet. Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Spiritually guided citizen leaders in 900

since the campaign began in 1998. Seasons forcities Nonviolence in 67 countries is a national have participatededucational, media, and grassroots campaign dedicated to demonstrating that nonviolence is a powerful way to heal, transform, and empower our lives and our communities. Inspired by the memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this international event honors their vision for a nonviolent world. “And so it is marvellous and great that we There are daily thought-provoking do have a dream; to forever challenge us; messages designed to help increase your to forever give us a sense of urgency; to capacity to: forever stand in the midst of the “issues” of our terrible injustices; to remind us of • honor the dignity and inherent the “oughtness” of our noble capacity for worth of every human being justice and love and brotherhood.” Martin Luther King, Jr. • understand that all of our words and actions have an impact The Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence • practice compassion with apparent adversaries (SNV) commenced for the 18th consecutive foundedyear on Januaryin 1998 30,by 2015Dr. Arun in cities Gandhi across and • become stewards for the rights of Thethe globe. Association The annual for Global 64 day Newcampaign, Thought co- individuals and the environment

grassroots awareness campaign spanning • use our talents to empower rather (AGNT), is an educational, media and than to exert power anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martinthe January Luther 30th King, and Jr. April 4th memorial • engage in constructive dialogue

The purpose of the campaign is to focus educational and media attention on the with oneSource: another www.agnt.org to solve conflicts, www. philosophy of attaining peace through seasonsfornonviolence.com nonviolent action as demonstrated by legendary leaders Mohandas K. Gandhi,

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 9 When Martin Luther King gave up his Guns

Few are aware that Martin Luther King, about Civil Rights advances to win over the Jr. once applied for a permit to carry a concealed handgun. DixiecratRather, the South fact tothat their King side would of the requestaisle). license to wear a gun in 1956, just as he professor Adam Winkler notes that, was being catapulted onto the national afterIn his King’s 2011 house book was Gunfight, bombed UCLA in 1956, law stage, illustrates the profundity of the the clergyman applied in Alabama for transformation that he underwent over a concealed carry permit. Local police, the course of his public career. loathe to grant such permits to African- While this transformation involved a and denied his application. Consequently, conversion to moral nonviolence and Americans, deemed him “unsuitable” home. the story. More importantly, for those who King would end up leaving the firearms at arepersonal interested pacifism, in thathow is nonviolence not the whole can of The lesson from this incident is not, as serve as a useful strategy for leveraging some NRA members have tried to suggest social change, King’s evolution also in recent years, that King should be involved a hesitant but ultimately forceful remembered as a gun-toting Republican. embrace of direct action — broad-scale, confrontational and unarmed. That stance portrayal neglects to acknowledge how had lasting consequences in the struggle Republicans(Among many used other conservative problems, anger this for freedom in America.

10 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 A Personal Conversion and he admitted that he knew little about Gandhi or the Indian independence The 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott, the leader’s campaigns. As King biographer Taylor Branch notes, out-of-state visitors national reputation, was not planned in who were knowledgeable about the advancecampaign as that a Gandhian-style first established campaign King’s principles of unarmed direct action — of nonviolent resistance. At the time, such as Rev. Glenn Smiley of the Fellowship King would not have had a clear sense of Reconciliation and Bayard Rustin of the of the strategic principles behind such a War Resisters League — reported that campaign. Rather, the bus boycott came King and other Montgomery activists together quickly in the wake of Rosa Park’s arrest in late 1955, taking inspiration from in nonviolence.” were “at once gifted and unsophisticated Interestingly, the Montgomery drive was Both Rustin and Smiley took notice of initiallya similar quite action moderate in Baton inRouge its demands, in 1953. calling only for modest changes to the and argued for their removal. In a seating plans on segregated buses. famousthe firearms incident around described the King by household historian David Garrow, Rustin was visiting King’s King, a newcomer to Montgomery, was parsonage with reporter Bill Worthy unexpectedly thrust into the leadership when the journalist almost sat on a pistol. of the movement, chosen in part because the startled Rustin warned. He and King established factions among the city’s stayed“Watch out,up late Bill, there’sthat night a gun arguing on that chair,”about prominenthe was not blacks. identified He withwas anyreluctant of the whether armed self-defense in the home about his new role and its burdens. Soon could end up damaging the movement. he was receiving phone calls on which While today’s NRA members might nigger, we’ve taken all we want from you. prefer to forget, it was not long before Beforeunidentified next week voices you’ll warned,be sorry you “Listen, ever King had come around to the position came to Montgomery.” After such threats advocated by groups like the Fellowship resulted in the bombing of King’s home in of Reconciliation. Smiley would make February 1956, armed watchmen guarded visits to Montgomery throughout King’s against further assassination attempts. remaining four years there, and the civil rights leader’s politics would be shaped by many more late-night conversations. tentative embrace of the theory and practiceThis response of nonviolence. reflected In King’s his talks still- In 1959, at the invitation of the Gandhi before mass meetings, King preached National Memorial Fund, King made a pilgrimage to India to study the principles enemy.” Having read Thoreau in college, of satyagraha, and he was moved by the the Christian injunction to “love thy experience. Ultimately, he never embraced massive noncooperation” and regularly he described the bus boycott as an “act of in the Black Power years, King made a distinctionthe complete between pacifism people of A. J. Muste;using later,guns called for “passive resistance.” to defend themselves in the home and

But King did not use the term “nonviolence,” May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 11 King echoed the argument when he wrote wise to use a gun while participating in anthe organizedquestion of protest.” “whether But, it was for tacticallyhimself, a strategy that one uses simply because it isthat expedient “nonviolence in the in themoment,” truest sensebut rather is not life,” and he maintained his resolve under conditionsKing claimed that nonviolence would make as many a “way others of sheer morality of its claim.” falter. is something “men live by because of the Despite such admonitions, the opposite In September 1962, when King was case can be made: Moral nonviolence addressing a convention, a 200-pound without strategic vision rings hollow. And, in holding up King as an icon of individual Party member Roy James, jumped onto the stagewhite andman, struck the 24-year-old the clergyman American in the face.Nazi King responded with a level of courage pacifism,It is possible we fail for to seesomeone his true to genius. make a that made a lifelong impression on many commitment to nonviolence as a point of of those in the audience. One of them, personal principle without ever taking storied educator and activist Septima part in the kind of action that would Clark, described how King dropped his make their convictions a matter of public consequence. calmly to his attacker. hands “like a newborn baby” and spoke Indeed, this is common, since most people King made no effort to protect himself prefer the comforts of private life to the even as he was knocked backwards by further blows. Later, after his aides had do put their beliefs to the test might pulled the assailant away, he talked to the undertaketension of politicalcivil disobedience conflict. Pacifists individually who young man behind the stage and insisted — performing acts of moral witness that that he would not press charges. pose no real threat to perpetrators of injustice. Nonviolence as a Political Weapon It is only when the tenets of unarmed direct action are strategically employed, such principled nonviolence represents made into effective weapons of political theBelievers high point in pacifism in a person’s often moral contend evolution. that persuasion through campaigns of They argue that those who merely use widespread disruption and collective unarmed protest tactically — not because they accept it as an ethical imperative, but power. because they have decided it is the most sacrifice, that nonviolence gains its fullest effective way to propel a given campaign Martin Luther King did embrace strategic for social change — practice a lesser form nonviolence in its most robust and radical of nonviolence. form — and this produced the historic confrontations at Birmingham and Selma. Gandhi advanced this position when he But it is important to remember that these claimed that those who forgo violence for came years after his initial baptism into strategic reasons, rather than ethical ones, political life in Montgomery, and that they might easily not have happened at all. employ the “nonviolence of the weak.” 12 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 The Road to Birmingham Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth of Birmingham warned that, if the organization did not Following the successful bus boycott, become more aggressive, its leaders King sought out ways to spread the Montgomery model throughout the South. future to justify our existence.” He knew that there existed strategists who would “be hard put in the not too distant had immersed themselves in the theory The next major breakthroughs in civil and practice of broad-scale confrontation, rights activism would come not from the but he acknowledged that this organizing SCLC’s hesitant ministers, but through the tradition had yet to take root in the civil student lunch counter sit-ins that swept through the South starting in Spring of James Lawson, a savvy student of unarmed 1960, and then through the 1961 Freedom resistancerights movement. who had In earlyspent 1957, several King years met Rides. In each case, when young activists in India. As Branch relates, King pleaded implored King to join them, the elder with the young graduate student to quit — held back. When King told the students thatclergyman he was — himselfwith them just inin hisspirit, early they 30s thehis studies:South that “We understands need you now,” nonviolence.” King said. “We don’t have any Negro leadership in Despite this recognition, the idea of pointedlyAccording shot to Johnback, Lewis,“Where’s then your a body?”leader waging broadly participatory campaigns in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating of direct action fell far outside of King’s Committee, or SNCC, King replied with organizational frame of reference, and irritation, making reference to the site of in many ways he remained a reluctant the time and place of my Golgatha,” he King’s Southern Christian Leadership said.Jesus’ crucifixion: “I think I should choose Conference,convert to mass or SCLC, action. was Founded conceived in 1957, as a coalition of ministers. When King’s SCLC did get directly involved in a major campaign of strategic It thought of itself, in the words of one nonviolence, the organization was drawn into an effort that was already underway church.” However, as Ella Baker biographer — one in Albany, Ga., starting in late 1961. Barbarahistorian, Ransby as the “political writes, armthat ofinstitution the black Even then, the SCLC did not fully commit until after King and close colleague Ralph majority of black ministers in the 1950s Abernathy were swept up in an unplanned stillwas optednone too for bolda safer, on lesscivil confrontationalrights, and “the arrest. political path;” even King and his more Unfortunately, the effort in Albany was goals squarely within the respectable beset by rivalries between different civil Americanmotivated mainstream cohort “defined and were their cautious political rights groups, and it ended in failure. As about any leftist associations.” Garrow notes, the New York Times ended

of Albany’s segregationists and the deft handlingup praising by the “the police remarkable of racial protests,” restraint thanFrustrated civil thatdisobedience, SCLC’s program the in militantthe first while another national publication years involved more “flowery speeches” May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 13 hidden injustices of racism on stark public fell.” display. remarked that “not a single racial barrier Nevertheless, the sense of potential he As historian Michael Kazin argues, the experienced in Albany, combined with famous scenes from Birmingham of police the inspiration of the Freedom Rides dogs snapping at unarmed demonstrators and student sit-ins, convinced King that and water canons being opened on young the time had come for a campaign of mass action that, in the words of Andrew blackmarchers freedom.” “convinced Likewise, a plurality King would of whites, later and coordinated from beginning to end” writefor the that, first in time, watching to support marchers the defycause Bull of Young, could be “anticipated, planned King had chosen his time and place: using the principles of nonviolent conflict. powerConnor’s of nonviolence.”menacing police troops, he “felt there, for the first time, the pride and BigBirmingham, Enough to 1963. Fail, Big Enough to Win Ultimately, King was a follower, not a leader, in cultivating a new tradition of King’s political genius was in putting strategic nonviolent action in the United the institutional weight of a major States. Yet acknowledging this should not national civil rights organization behind an ambitious, escalating deployment he did commit himself to spearheading the of civil resistance tactics. In the case of typediminish of broad-based his significance. nonviolent Because protest when Birmingham, this meant taking many of he had been talking about for years, it the approaches that had been tried before resulted in campaigns that profoundly — the economic pressure leveled against altered the public sense of what measures merchants during the Montgomery Bus were needed to uphold civil rights in the Boycott, the dramatic sit-ins of Nashville, United States.

— and combining them in a multi-staged The Birmingham model would prove assaultthe fill-the-jails that sociologist arrest strategy and civil of Albanyrights ripples throughout the country: In the two planned exercise in mass disruption.” andwidely a half influential. months Victory after the in thatBirmingham city sent historian Aldon Morris would dub “a campaign announced a settlement with store owners that commenced could capture the national spotlight, KingIn creating took huge an engineered risks. It conflictwould have that protests took place in 186 American cities, been far easier for an organization of leadingdesegregation, to almost more 15,000 than arrests. 750 civil rights the size and background of the SCLC to turn toward more mainstream lobbying Given the demonstrated power of mass and legal action — much as the NAACP disruption to shift the political discussion had done. Instead, by following SNCC’s around an issue, why don’t more student activists in embracing nonviolent confrontation, SCLC organizers and their Why aren’t more groups using militant local allies created a dramatic clash with nonviolenceorganizations pursueto confront such strategies?pressing segregationists that put the normally challenges such as economic inequality

14 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 — from the Nashville sit-ins to Occupy to the revolution in Egypt — are often led andThere global is a climatecertain change?paradox at work here, by scrappy, under-funded upstarts. Such one that should enhance our appreciation ad hoc groups can risk daring campaigns of King’s courage. As veteran labor because they have nothing to lose, but they strategist Stephen Lerner argued in 2011, commonly lack the resources to escalate major organizations have just enough at or to sustain multiple waves of protest stake — relationships with mainstream over a period of years, a rare and powerful ability that established institutions can members, collective bargaining contracts provide. —politicians, to make financialthem fear obligations the lawsuits to and political backlash that come with sustained civil disobedience. philosophy, but rather to stake your career andTo not your merely organization’s adopt pacifism future as ona personal a belief What Lerner says of unions applies equally in the power of nonviolence as a political to large environmental organizations, force, requires tremendous determination. human rights groups, and other It took years of deliberation and delay for Martin Luther King to take such a step. But and just connected enough to the political andnonprofits: economic they power “are just structure big enough — —to King went from being someone who had be constrained from leading the kinds beenwhen repeatedlyhe finally did, swept the result up in was the decisive: saga of of activities that are needed” for bold civil rights — a reluctant protagonist in the battle against American apartheid — successful. to being a shaper of history. campaigns of nonviolent conflict to be As a consequence, explosive direct actions Source: wagingnonviolence.org

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 15 Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 21st Century Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther However, it was not everybody that was King Jr. have been championed by many magnanimous in his or her description of Gandhi and King. Rabindranath Tagore, M.N. Roy, Nirad Chaudhuri, Dr. social commentators and educators as ― B.R. Ambedkar, Winston Churchill, Lord remarkable ethical individuals and ―Great Archibald Percival Wavell, and the Federal Souls (see Hunt, 2005, p.56; Brown, 1993, manyp.11; alsopeople see in Brown, the world 1972; as 1977;the epitome 1989; or another seen and described Gandhi Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had one time of2000). the Gandhi,highest for moral instance, behaviour is viewed with by and King as frauds and disingenuous individuals who must be avoided by all decent people. respect to means and ends (see Alinsky, For instance, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, a leader once1972; wrote Nagler, that 2004;nowhere Holmes in human and history Gan, and2005; time, Kurlansky, perhaps over 2006). the Stuartpast thousand Nelson years, have humanity known one with a of the ―untouchables‖ of India, described greater compassion for his or her fellow Gandhi‘s influence in India with these haswords: had ―Fewto go through know what on account tragedies of the ―untouchables‖ as well as the country human beings than Gandhi (see Nelson, 1975,Rabbi p.58).Abraham Joshua Heschel also illusions of Mr. Gandhi‖ (Ambedkar, 1946, p.39). America depends on the impact and prophesied that ―the whole future of TempleSimilarly, lawyer, Winston now Churchillposing as a in fakir 1931 … Further to these accolades, the non-violent stridingdescribed half-naked Gandhi as upa ―seditious the steps Middleof the philosophiesinfluence of Dr. and King‖ practices (West, 2011,of Mahatma para.3). Gandhi and Martin Luther King, in social heViceroyal was constantly palace‖ (Churchill, accused of 1931, promoting pp.94- people as the conscience of humanity in 95). In the case of Martin Luther King, conflict, have been idealized by many Communist agenda. In fact, he was even accused of being on the twentieth century (see, Nagler, 2004; the payroll of the Communist Party of the HolmesIn fact, in and the Gan, opening 2005; introduction Kurlansky, 2006). to the Soviet Union and was heavily criticised book Gandhi and King: The Power of Non- for his opposing stand on the Vietnam Violent Resistance, Michael J. Nojeim was even more audacious in his description of percentWar (see of Aberbathy, white American 1989; population Dyson, 2000). and the 20th century is written, it shall record 55According percent to of Cornel black AmericanWest, as many population as 72 thatGandhi Mohandas and King: ―whenKaramchand the history Gandhi of then disapproved of Martin Luther King and Martin Luther King Jr. were at the Jr.‘s opposition to the Vietnam War and forefront of that century‘s most important his efforts to eradicate poverty in America struggles: the struggle for freedom, the

(West, 2011). fight for equality, and the battle against 16violence‖ | Non-Violence (Nojeim, News 2004, | Mayp.xi). 2015 However, beyond this hero-worshipping 2005, by critically examining Mahatma and the villain-scorning of Gandhi and Gandhi and Martin Luther King‘s ideas King, the truth is that not much has about non-violence and their pedagogical been done to critically examine their implications for transformative university non-violent ideas in ways that wrestled schooling in Toronto. the discussion outside the politics of polemics. Even with the few critical works The dissertation recognizes that any that have been done on Gandhi and King, examination of Gandhi and King within of Political Science, History, Religion, and venture because most previous readings of the contents are more useful in the field the field of university schooling is a risky of schooling. The dissertation recognizes Philosophy than in the field of Education theGandhi existing and King tension had been between outside schooling the field (see Sharp, 1973; Fischer, 1982; Colaiaco, not1988; much Nojeim, has been2004; done Kurlansky, so far 2006).to study It note that education is broad and include Kingappears and that Gandhi within as criticalthe field pedagogues. of Education, theand education.workplace, Dei homes and Simmons and families, (2010) schools, media, museums, arts, and the Although I recognize that in 2005 I criminal justice system. Schooling on the attempted to study Mahatma Gandhi other hand, refers to formal classroom, as a critical pedagogue whose ideas instruction, curriculum, pedagogical about non-violence can help decolonize practices, and the rules and norms that govern the management and operation of schools from Kindergarten to Grade 12, scopeschooling and andoperation. education This in dissertation Ghana (see through to post-secondary. seeksAdjei, 2007),to expand the what study was was started limited in

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 17 Thus, there are not many works to drawn on when studying Gandhi and King in frightening for a society that is caught up in context of schooling. Further, Gandhi awell false as sensethe field of comfortof university and complacency.schooling are is full of contradictions; therefore, it By global violence, I imply a pattern of global relations in which the management robust pedagogical questioning. For instance,becomes difficultGandhi was to subject in support him toof anythe Caste system, yet he was vehemently of society in handed over to the ―market.‖ opposed to the practice of Untouchability; of responsibilities, according to John he was for India‘s progress yet was against W.The Burton, usual justification is that, in competitivefor this abdication global industrialization; he supported democracy conditions, the management and yet was against the parliamentary administration of essential social services system of government; he loved national such as education, health, environment, sovereignty but was against nationalism. energy services, law and order are best left to the judgement and competitive Bidvut Chakrabarty noted that Gandhi‘s thought is problematic because there is neither a thesis nor consistency in incentive of private enterprises (Burton, his arguments as he reacted differently 2010,Unfortunately, p.2). the private enterprises, as at different times in response to we all know, have historically pursued the interest of the few to the detriment of the In fact, Gandhi once boasted that at the majority—an action that has resulted in timecircumstances of his writing, (Chakrabarty, he never 2006, thought p.57). of what he had previously said because his aim was not to be consistent with his privileged,the increasing and gap the between global ―thedestruction wealthy‖ of previous statements but to be consistent and ―the poor‖; the privileged and the de- problem is that the more governments abdicatethe environment their responsibilities(see Burton, 2011). to Thethe with the truth (cited in Attenborough, private enterprises, the more humanity his1982, ideas p.93). to critical Thus, givenanalyses his contradictoryin education. will continue to witness an increased social nature, it is extremely difficult to subject and economic neglect of marginalized Yet, Gandhi and King have a lot to say about people. contemporary university schooling and education. By education, I mean the varied How else can one explain what recently options, strategies, and ways through happened in South Fulton, Tennessee, which people come to learn, know, and understand their world and act within house to burn along with three dogs and onewhen cat firefighters because watchedthe home and owner allowed had a University schooling, on the other hand, refersit to bringto formal about university change education (Dei, 2000a). and rules and norms that operate and govern not paid a yearly subscription fee of $75 it. Fox(see News The Channel Telegraph, argued 2010). that Speaking the debate in the defence of firefighters, Glenn Beck of The current trends of global violence and nowhere if one goes into compassion their impact on families, communities as on the actions of the firefighters will go

18 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 (Gastaldo, 2010, para. 1). However, if learners cannot ask complex Martin Luther King Jr. in the pursuit of and sophisticated questions about the university schooling transformation in the nature of global relations and the need to 21st century. degradation, then the fate of humanity lies Although the dissertation has no intention inopenly danger. and But defiantly as Jack challenge DuVall, the this President human of idolizing and canonizing Mahatma of International Centre on Non-Violent Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., it uses qualitative studies of twenty University ordinary people to change the system too activists operating within Toronto Conflict, once noted, ―the capacity of the to critically examine the non-violent praxes of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin unlessoften goes there unnoticed‖ are a million (DuVall, of them 2006, on p.3) the Luther King Jr. and their possibilities because the people ―can‘t get respect‖ and limits in the social and political mobilization of university students to streetsInstitutions (DuVall, of 2006).domination have always create transformation within university assumed that people are naturally schooling in Toronto. malleable and that compliance is always possible because individuals have no -Paul Banahene Adjei, Memorial University sense of responsibility or can be compelled of Newfoundland, Social Work, Faculty Member received his undergraduate degree in Social work from the University of Ghana. toby challenge rewards the and current punishments trends of (Burton, global He has a Ph.D. degree from the University violence2001). This on university is why mobilizing schooling students cannot of Toronto and be postponed. he is currently an Assistant But, in what ways can one mobilize a Professor at the million university students to believe and School of Social understand that the current conditions of Work, Memorial university schooling requires some action University. and that there is an urgent need for them Paul’s teaching to untie their tongues to speak against and research the current global assault on university interests are in the areas of Critical schooling?The dissertation opines that political Race and Anti- mobilization, knowledge, strategies, Racism Studies, Anti-Colonial and Post- courage, unity, and discipline of Mahatma Colonial Studies, issues around Indigenity Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. can and Indigenous Knowledge, Violent and help achieve this feat. Contrary to those Non-Violent Studies, HIV/AIDS and Rural who may think Gandhi and King‘s non- Development, Social Work Direct Practice, violent praxes are straining against the Diverse Theories in Social Work Practice, boundaries of a closed ontology, this Leadership and Social Justice, Spirituality dissertation will establish that there is and Social Work Praxis. a lot that can be learned from the non- violent strategies of Mahatma Gandhi and

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 19 Gandhian Politics of Non-Violent Action

Mahatma Gandhi, the pioneer of non-vio- something to Emerson, Thoreau and Tol- lence was born on 2nd October 1869. His stoy but also revealing considerable origi- prominent role in India’s freedom strug- nality.”2

According to Gandhi, ahimsa is the greatest pre-eminentgle fetched him spiritual the title and of political ‘Bapu’ (Father leader - of the Nation). The birthday of this Indian ier than the mightiest weapon of destruc- Violence” throughout the world. tionforce devised available by to the humankind, ingenuity “Itof isa mightman.” is celebrated as “International Day of Non- Though the concept of non-violence was3 of a number of sources and ahimsa forms person to apply it for a political purpose. theGandhi’s basic foundation philosophy of bears Gandhian the influenceThought. Gandhi’snot originated greatest by Gandhi,contribution, he was therefore, the first Apart from Bhagvad-Gita, Isha Upanisad is the use of non-violence into a successful - technique for direct mass action. The con- stoy’s ‘The Kingdom of God is Within Us’, cept of non-violence was not a new one. Ruskin’sand Bible ‘heUnto was This highly Last influenced’, Thoreau’s by Tol‘On the Duty of Civil Disobedience’ and Plato’s Before the teachings of Gandhi, the notion dialogues of Socrates.1 It is aptly said that, of ahimsa Ahimsa and Satyagraha Scriptures, teachings of Gautama Bud- to Gandhi personally constituted a deep- dha to Prophetfinds an Mohammad important place and inworks Holy ly“Non-Violence felt and worked or out philosophy owing of various philosophers. However, it was

20 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 Gandhi who converted it into a social and Gandhi through his concept of truth tried political technique and super humanitar- to enlighten the people of his country. His ian method of resolution to all type of cri- spinning wheel becomes a symbol of self- reliance and rejection of foreign goods im- that non-violence stands out as something plies autonomy and striving for self-iden- inevitablesis and problems. for the reformationGandhi firmly of believedpolitics. Gandhi was a real visionary who through the use of non-violence gave new direc- tion to Indian freedom struggle.

He objected to violence as he considered that it created more problems than it solved and the aftermath of it was sheer hatredness and bitterness amongst peo- ples. His non-violent resistance was a dy- namic and spiritually active force, which aimed to destroy the sin and not the sin- ner. Gandhi was committed to follow this principle and therefore, he made every possible effort to achieve this goal with the help of non-violent action.

Gandhi was not only a political and social tity and human dignity. Amongst all these reformer but also a political thinker and notable examples of his contributions, a faithful humanist as well. Glimpses of the idea and practice of Satyagraha is the his political and social ideas can be eas- most important to his political thought ily found in his autobiography ‘My Experi- and ethical motivation. ments with Truth’, in his letters, his writ- ings, his interviews and addresses. Gandhi Source: www.mkgandhi.org in his teachings communicated to the people concept ranging from freedom, in- 1. Ray, B.N., Gandhigiri: Satyagraha dependence or Swaraj, self-reliance, self- - cial values. It is very correctly said about After Hundred Years, ( Kaveri Books, Gandhisufficiency that: 4to protection of distinctive so New Delhi, 2008), p.6. 2. Ibid., p. 76. Moral values like truth, non-violence, re- p.180. nunciation of the pleasures of life etc., po- 3. Gandhi, M.K., Harijan, 20 July 1935, litical ideas such as freedom, democracy, peace etc., social objectives such as aboli- 4. GandhiMathur, Museum, J. S., (ed.), Publishing Gandhi: In House, the tion of castes distinctions, emancipation Mirror of Foreign Scholars, (National of women, unity of all religious groups and 5. Ghosh, S., Modern Indian Political communities etc.- these were indivisible New Delhi, 2007), p. 1. parts of his life and teachings.5 Thought, (Allied Publishers Pvt., Ltd., New Delhi,), p.172. May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 21 I Have a Dream - Martin Luther King, Jr.

(Delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washingtonon a lonely D.C.) island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American

an exile in his own land. Andsociety so andwe’ve finds come himself here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the and the Declaration of Independence, greatest demonstration for freedom in theymagnificent were signing words a ofpromissory the Constitution note to the history of our nation. which every American was to fall heir. Five score years ago, a great American, This note was a promise that all men, in whose symbolic shadow we stand yes, black men as well as white men, today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree would be guaranteed the “unalienable came as a great beacon light of hope pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the to millions of Negro slaves who had today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak citizens of color are concerned. Instead tobeen end seared the long in thenight flames of their of witheringcaptivity. of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people But one hundred years later, the Negro a bad check, a check which has come still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation backBut we marked refuse “insufficient to believe that funds.” the bank and the chains of discrimination. One of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to hundred years later, the Negro lives believe that there are insufficient 22 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 funds in the great vaults of opportunity threshold which leads into the palace of this nation. And so, we’ve come to of justice: In the process of gaining our cash this check, a check that will give rightful place, we must not be guilty us upon demand the riches of freedom of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek and the security of justice. to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and We have also come to this hallowed spot hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity of Now. This is no time to engage in and discipline. We must not allow our theto remind luxury America of cooling of theoff fierceor to takeurgency the creative protest to degenerate into tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now physical violence. Again and again, we is the time to make real the promises must rise to the majestic heights of of democracy. Now is the time to rise meeting physical force with soul force. from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial The marvelous new militancy which justice. Now is the time to lift our nation has engulfed the Negro community from the quicksands of racial injustice must not lead us to a distrust of all white to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now people, for many of our white brothers, is the time to make justice a reality for as evidenced by their presence here all of God’s children. today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And It would be fatal for the nation to they have come to realize that their overlook the urgency of the moment. freedom is inextricably bound to our This sweltering summer of the Negro’s freedom. legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of We cannot walk alone. freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty- three is not an end, but a beginning. And as we walk, we must make the And those who hope that the Negro pledge that we shall always march needed to blow off steam and will now ahead. be content will have a rude awakening We cannot turn back. if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest There are those who are asking the nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue asdevotees long as of the civil Negro rights, is the “When victim will of youthe to shake the foundations of our nation unspeakablebe satisfied?” horrors We can ofnever police be brutality. satisfied until the bright day of justice emerges. bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, But there is something that I must say cannotWe can gainnever lodging be satisfied in the as motels long as of ourthe to my people, who stand on the warm highways and the hotels of the cities.

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 23 I have a dream that one day this nation negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller will rise up and live out the true ghetto*We cannot to a largerbe satisfied one. Weas long can asnever the truths to be self-evident, that all men stripped of their self-hood and robbed aremeaning created of equal.” its creed: “We hold these be satisfied as long as our children are I have a dream that one day on the asof long their as dignity a Negro by in signsMississippi stating: cannot “For red hills of Georgia, the sons of former voteWhites and Only.”* a Negro We in cannot New York be satisfiedbelieves slaves and the sons of former slave he has nothing for which to vote. No, owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the likeno, we waters, are not and satisfied, righteousness and we will like not a state of Mississippi, a state sweltering mightybe satisfied stream until .”¹ “justice rolls down with the heat of injustice, sweltering I am not unmindful that some of you with the heat of oppression, will be have come here out of great trials and transformed into an oasis of freedom tribulations. Some of you have come and justice. fresh from narrow jail cells. And some I have a dream that my four little of you have come from areas where children will one day live in a nation your quest -- quest for freedom left you where they will not be judged by the battered by the storms of persecution color of their skin but by the content of and staggered by the winds of police their character. brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work I have a dream today! with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, I have a dream that one day, down in go back to Alabama, go back to South Alabama, with its vicious racists, with Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back its governor having his lips dripping to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and inwith Alabama the words little of black “interposition” boys and black and will be changed. girls“nullification” will be able -- one to join day hands right therewith little white boys and white girls as Let us not wallow in the valley of sisters and brothers. despair, I say to you today, my friends. I have a dream today! And so even though we face the I have a dream that one day every still have a dream. It is a dream deeply valley shall be exalted, and every hill rooteddifficulties in the of American today and dream. tomorrow, I and mountain shall be made low,

24 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 the rough places will be made plain, Let freedom ring from the and the crooked places will be made heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. itstraight; together.” “and the glory of the Lord Let freedom ring from the snow- shall be revealed and all flesh shall see capped Rockies of Colorado. This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone But not only that: of hope. With this faith, we will be able Let freedom ring from Stone to transform the jangling discords of Mountain of Georgia. our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we Let freedom ring from Lookout will be able to work together, to pray Mountain of Tennessee. together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom Let freedom ring from every hill together, knowing that we will be free and molehill of Mississippi. one day. From every mountainside, let And this will be the day -- this will be freedom ring. the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning: And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land from every village and every hamlet, of liberty, of thee I sing. from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all Land where my fathers died, land of God’s children, black men and white of the Pilgrim’s pride, men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands From every mountainside, let and sing in the words of the old Negro freedom ring! spiritual: And if America is to be a great Free at last! Free at last! nation, this must become true. Thank God Almighty, we are And so let freedom ring from free at last! the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Source: www.americanrhetoric.com Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 25 Nonviolent Resistance of Martin Luther King Jr.

As a theologian, Martin Luther King boycott in 1955. During the boycott, King personally enacted Gandhian principles. of nonviolence. He described his own reflected often on his understanding Rustin and Glenn Smiley of the Fellowship book, Stride Toward Freedom, and in ofWith Reconciliation, guidance from King black eventually pacifist decided Bayard subsequent‘‘pilgrimage tobooks nonviolence’’ and articles. in his ‘‘True first not to use armed bodyguards despite threats on his life, and reacted to violent wrote, is ‘‘a courageous confrontation of experiences, such as the bombing of his pacifism,’’ or ‘‘nonviolent resistance,’’ King home, with compassion. Through the practical experience of leading nonviolent committedevil by the to power nonviolence, of love’’ King (King, believed Stride, protest, King came to understand how that80). ‘‘the Both Christian ‘‘morally doctrine and practically’’ of love nonviolence could become a way of life, operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence was one of the most potent King called the principle of nonviolent weapons available to oppressed people in resistanceapplicable tothe all‘‘guiding situations light (King, of 83).our movement. Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the their struggle for freedom’’ (King, Stride, 79; Papers 5:422). to the concept of nonviolence when he method’’King’s notion (Papers of 5:423). nonviolence had six readKing Henry stated David that heThoreau’s was first Essay introduced on Civil key principles. First, one can resist evil Disobedience as a freshman at Morehouse without resorting to violence. Second, College. Having grown up in Atlanta and nonviolence seeks to win the ‘‘friendship witnessed segregation and racism every and understanding’’ of the opponent, not day, King was ‘‘fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system’’ evil itself, not the people committing evil acts,to humiliate should himbe (King,opposed. Stride, Fourth, 84). Third,those committed to nonviolence must be willing (King,In 1950, Stride, as a student 73). at Crozer Theological to suffer without retaliation as suffering Seminary, King heard a talk by Dr. Mordecai itself can be redemptive. Fifth, nonviolent Johnson, president of Howard University. resistance avoids ‘‘external physical Dr. Johnson, who had recently traveled to violence’’ and ‘‘internal violence of spirit’’ India, spoke about the life and teachings as well: ‘‘The nonviolent resister not only of Mohandas K. Gandhi. Gandhi, King later refuses to shoot his opponent but he also

Christian love into a powerful force for socialwrote, change. was the Gandhi’s first person stress to on transform love and refusesThe resister to hate should him’’ be (King, motivated Stride, by 85). love in nonviolence gave King ‘‘the method for the sense of the Greek word agape, which social reform that I had been seeking’’ means ‘‘understanding,’’ or ‘‘redeeming

The sixth principle is that the nonviolent (King,While Stride,intellectually 79). committed to resistergood will must for allhave men’’ a ‘‘deep (King, faith Stride, in 86).the nonviolence, King did not experience the future,’’ stemming from the conviction that ‘‘the universe is on the side of justice’’ hand until the start of the Montgomery bus power of nonviolent direct action first-

26 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 (King, Stride, 88). During the years after the bus boycott, King grew increasingly committed questioning of nonviolence. to nonviolence. An India trip in 1959 the hope was fulfilled there was little helped him connect more intimately with But when the hopes were blasted, when Gandhi’s legacy. King began to advocate people came to see that in spite of progress nonviolence not just in a national sphere, their conditions were still insufferable but internationally as well: ‘‘the potential destructiveness of modern weapons’’ … despair began to set in’’ (King, Where, convinced King that ‘‘the choice today is no impractical in the context of a multiracial 45). Arguing that violent revolution was longer between violence and nonviolence. society, he concluded that: ‘‘Darkness It is either nonviolence or nonexistence’’ cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. The beauty of nonviolence (PapersAfter Black 5:424). Power advocates such as is that in its own way and in its own time Stokely Carmichael began to reject it seeks to break the chain reaction of evil’’ nonviolence, King lamented that some African Americans had lost hope, and (King, Where,Source: 62–63). www.pon.harvard.edu nonviolence: ‘‘Occasionally in life one Bibliography: developsreaffirmed a conviction his own so precious commitment and to meaningful that he will stand on it till • King, ‘‘Pilgrimage to Nonviolence,’’ the end. This is what I have found in

• inKing, Papers: Stride 5:419–425. toward Freedom, nonviolence’’ (King, Where, 63–64). He 1958. maintainedwrote in his the1967 hope book, while Where transforming Do We Go • King, Where Do We Go from Here, thefrom hate Here: of Chaostraditional or Community?: revolutions ‘‘Weinto positive nonviolent power. As long as 1967.

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 27 Gandhi: Truth and Non-Violence

No society can exist if there is no minimum acceptance of truth and non- violence. Every society is built on certain basic moral values like keeping a promise for instance, which is the minimum value of truth and coexisting without causing undue harm to members in society which again is the minimum value values and which they considered to be of non-violence. One can visualize early of paramount importance both in their society framing some basic rules of personal lives and in their dealings with conduct for society as a whole so that it other members in society. One such can function within a certain amount of individual was Mahatma Gandhi whose law and order. name, before he came to be given the In early society, religion also played a role in framing some basic rules of conduct person’ was Mohandas Karamchand and in the Indian context Hinduism had Gandhi.honorific Mahatma which means ‘great evolved this grand concept denoted by Born into a devout Vaisnava family i.e. one that believed in devotion to the highest behavior that behooves a human being” Deity called Vishnu, and who practiced whichthe word means dharma that humans which have stands to follow for “a vegetarianism, Gandhi was already certain basic rules of conduct for society familiar with not killing for the sake of however, that rules by themselves ensure moral virtues of truth, non-violence, thatto exist individuals without followconflict. them It does necessarily. not mean non-stealing,food. He was alsoself-control heir to theand five non-greed cardinal Most people would conveniently follow the preached both by the Jaina path of faith norms when it suits them and otherwise and by the Hindus but visibly present in turn a blind eye to them. However, once in the Jaina community which had a strong a while, history has been witness to extra- presence in Porbandar/Gujarat where ordinary individuals who committed he was born and spent the early years themselves to certain values which they of his life. While all this is the common had inherited by virtue of having been heritage of a number of people born into born into a tradition that accepted those the tradition and who were also placed

28 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 in similar circumstances, there was understood that truth and non-violence something unique in Gandhi that made implied each other and are incomplete him take these values seriously. when not practiced together. Thus he declares in his Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, that ahimsa with truth in his autobiography when he is the basis for the search for truth. He also Thus, he talks about his first experiment was a school lad and his school master went to the extent of equating truth with wanted him to copy from his class mate non-violence and ”towards the end of his in order to impress the visiting inspector life …said that the root of all his activity of the caliber of his students. Knowing lay in truth otherwise known to me as fully well that he would be punished non-violence”. for disobeying his master, Gandhi at the young age of ten refused to obey him and He considered truth and non-violence stuck to ‘truth’ which to his tender mind as the two sides of a coin, the one being meant that he had to be truthful to himself incomplete without the other. While and not pretend he knew what he did not Gandhi inherited these values of Truth in fact know. There would be many more and Non-violence from his heritage, the such incidents in his early life. way he interpreted their psychological implications were his own. He believed These early lessons would eventually that fear is at the root of both fraud mature into a grand philosophical outlook, wherein Gandhi combined his vision of Truth along with Non- who(falsehood/untruth) adheres to truth and at allforce times (violence). will be violence or ahimsa, for he clearly He also had the firm conviction that one

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 29 fearless enough which will entail his being demonstrated to the world, in many of non-violent as well. his political campaigns, that he would not compromise with these twin principles, Psychology tells us that a fearful person even against great odds. The logic for the is an insecure person and it is such a one use of nonviolence and truth, according who resorts to all kinds of subterfuge in to Gandhi was that adherence to truth order to surmount his fear. Falsehood through non-violence would enable or telling lies as well as turning violent the change of heart of even the worst are well known defense mechanisms opponent or enemy. Gaining independence of people who have fear in one form or for the Indians from the British colonial another or who feel insecure because of power was paramount in Gandhi’s mind fear and it seems Gandhi had hit upon as colonialism was against all moral and a great psychological fact when he said ethical laws and was an act of violence. that fear is at the basis of falsehood and violence. But this discovery did not come However, he did not advocate the resort about all of a sudden. While the values of to any means for the gaining of swaraj or truth and non-violence were embedded self-government/independence. A mere in his psyche right from childhood, they change of government from a foreign to an indigenous one can only be one in in South Africa which is where Gandhi form according to Gandhi. True swaraj had to be tested in the fire of apartheid can only come with a change of one’s and also test them in the arena of South inner personality, wherein the principles Africangot the politics.opportunity to refine these ideas of truth and non-violence guide all one’s actions. Thus for Gandhi the means were It is the lessons that he learnt in the to be as pure as the end to be achieved political struggles in South Africa that and if the means were tarnished the end enabled him to later apply the weapons would be shaky. Keeping these in mind of truth and non-violence in the freedom one could look at the general way in which struggle against the British in India. That Gandhi conducted his political campaigns Gandhi was not just paying lip service to adhering to the twin values of truth and the ideas of truth and non-violence, but non-violence. believed them to be the guiding principles in his life, are illustrated on many occasions Whenever he planned any protests against both in South Africa and in India. It is his any of the Government regulations, he commitment to truth and non-violence would send in advance the reasons for his which is at the basis of the Satyagraha actions and also the exact plan of action concept which Gandhi developed and like the date, the place it would start from, and which he then used as guidance not focus of the protest and so on. He was thus onlypracticed in all forhis thepersonal first time dealings in South but alsoAfrica in adheringthe specific to itemhis commitmentor measure that to truth was theby his political life. not deceiving the opponent by surprise, as to the time and place of action. In the Politics is the last place one would think 1920s, when a large number of people in which the principles of truth and non- were taken prisoners and the government violence can be applied. But Gandhi resorted to repressive actions against

30 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 all and sundry and banned all public to go on a fast as penance for the violence demonstrations, Gandhi, under constant committed. pressure from his own Congress party, had to use civil disobedience as a last resort to The lessons that were learnt at Chauri persuade the government against these Chaura would lay the foundations of extreme measures as he also believed that, truth and non-violence stronger for committed to truth as he was, it was the future Satyagraha campaigns. The duty of every individual to resist unjust salt Satyagraha is, perhaps, where the rule. weapons of truth and non-violence were truly tested and proven to have matured At the same time, his commitment to into the greatest weapon against political nonviolence made him caution them oppression. Common salt got from the against lawlessness and the resort to sea, which Gandhi argued was the right of violence and he was prepared to call the every person to possess and which was a movement to a halt at any moment, if he poor man’s food in India, was subject to thought it had descended to violence. The tax and anyone taking salt from the sea Chaurie Chaura police station incident in 1922 is an important test case and reveals the most iniquitous of all [taxes] from the the sincerity and honesty of Gandhi in poorwas subject man’s tostandpoint” punishment. says “The Gandhi salt tax and is his following his commitment to truth therefore it had no legs to stand on. and nonviolence in his actions. Thus when civil disobedience was planned in He therefore, decided to launch a non- violent Satyagraha against this unlawful and unjust tax in the form of a salt march to informedthe district the of highest Bardoli authorities in North Indiaon Feb 3 the sea where the satyagrahis could pick up on an experimental basis Gandhi firstly their own salt from its natural source. This resorted to if the prevailing repressive march to the sea led by Gandhi, in order measuresfirst 1922 were that not civil withdrawn. disobedience will be to collect a handful of salt, is immortalized in history as the famous Dandi Salt march When the government rejected his plea for the withdrawal, a number of the residents march, Gandhi wrote an open letter to the of Chaurie Chaura went in a procession Viceroyof 1930. Lord As was Irwin, his stating wont, beforehis reasons the salt for and resisted the attempts of the police to starting the civil disobedience and also break up the procession and when it failed giving him the exact date and place it will start from. procession. When their ammunition was exhausted,the police opened the police fire against took arefuge non-violent in a The salt march witnessed one of the worst nearby police station. The fury of the mob sights of brutal repression of the British government when wave upon wave of station and a number of policemen were satyagrahis were beaten and wounded, burntresulted alive in astheir a result. setting Gandhi fire to was the furious police some fatally. But it also speaks volumes when he heard the news and in spite of about the maturity of the satyagrahis great opposition from his own friends and who, unlike at Chauri Chaura, did not raise party ordered the stoppage of the civil disobedience movement and also decided observed the principle of nonviolence in a finger against their oppressors, and

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 31 every sense of the term. The world-wide mind that he was a man of action and did publicity that this non-violent protest not unnecessarily concern himself either against the salt tax got, won recognition with the theoretical aspects or of the for Gandhi and his non-violent movement as well as condemnation for the violent principles he believed in. That in turn tactics of the British power. It is dramatized waspractical the legacy difficulties of the in culture adopting he thewas moral born into. His was not a fragmented approach Gandhi in the eighties which won eight to a political situation but in keeping with Oscarvividly awards. in Attenborough’s famous film on the holistic world view of the Hindus

This historic salt march and the brutal the moral responsibilities of the citizen” scenes of violence against the non-violent withinwas subsumed the physical under and amoral grand order vision of the “of salt satyagrahis that accompanied it, universe. This grand moral and physical spread world-wide antagonism against the order was called Rta in the Vedas and rulers who were perceived as oppressing later came to be viewed as Dharma and a non-violent peaceful struggle for the an individual was to live in the world independence of a country and this, in trying to realize his/her exalted goal of turn, hastened the departure of the British liberation by pursuing moral principles from India. It would be proper to speculate in every walk of life which did not exclude on the factors that give rise to people like the political as well. Gandhi. India has had a long tradition of a number of spiritual leaders using Gandhi found a deep contradiction in and preaching truth and nonviolence for the moral values that people/politicians harmony in their personal and communal proclaim as individuals and their non- lives. But using these moral principles application in political and community in the political arena was probably the life. He probably believed that by bringing genius of Gandhi. in religious and moral principles like truth and non-violence into the society as a There is the great Indian emperor Asoka whole it would be possible to get rid of the of the third century BCE, who is reputed to have shunned all violence after witnessing seeking that characterized all institutions mass killings in one of his battles and andprevalent political “soulless” institutions politics in and particular. power- who then converted to Buddhism and Since all people cannot be expected to live actively preached non-violence and truth by these exalted standards it is left to the thereafter. After that history is witness leaders in society and politics to show the only to Gandhi who in the twentieth way and appeal to the moral dimension of human conscience to be able to reform the applied these principles for a political political arena as a whole. cause.century One almost needs 2300 to ask years the afterquestion Asoka as to what makes individuals like Asoka and For Gandhi truth was the supreme value and the goal of all action. It was not an ideal the service of the highest principles they believeGandhi in.risk everything and sacrifice all in of moksa/liberation but to be achieved in action.to be reflected Since truth on and is abstract achieved it incan a stateonly In assessing Gandhi one has to bear in be tested by adherence to non-violence.

32 | Non-Violence News | May 2015 including that of politics. One can argue endlessly as to whether this is a practical proposition or not but history has again witnessed individuals like Martin Luther King Junior and others applying the same method of nonviolence to solve political problems.

The votaries may be assassinated in the process but they stand as beacons of light illuminating the darkness of despair and giving hope when situations look gloomy. The fascination that Gandhi still holds for the world is the almost Raghavan Iyer explains this equation as impossible task of adherence to truth and non-violence that pursuit of truth if we are prepared to Gandhi achieved against great odds to harmfollows: our “We fellow cannot men. beOn genuinethe other in hand, our himself and his family. In keeping with the if we practice non-violence in all our age old dictum in Sanskrit that the whole relationships, we promote the common world is one’s family Gandhi truly lived pursuit of truth”. Gandhi was convinced a life possessing the whole world as his that political and social tensions come own family. It is no wonder that one of the about because we are more concerned greatest minds in the twentieth century, with self-interest than with the truth and Einstein, paid him this tribute when he a scrupulous observance of truth can lead to reducing tensions in the world. to come, it may be, will scarcely believe heard of his assassination : “Generations Persons disagree about their ends as blood walked upon this earth”. they hold to different relative truths, but that such a one as this ever in flesh and their common concern for truth requires Dr. Trichur Rukmani, Professor & Chair as a corollary the practice of tolerance of Hindu Studies (Concordia University, Montreal), has been teaching and other. This led Gandhi to emphasize the researching mainly in the areas of Hinduism, twinand non-violencemoral principles (ahimsa) of truth towards and non-each Advaita Vedanta and Sankhya-Yoga. violence in every sphere of human activity

May 2015 | Non-Violence News | 33 The King Holiday—MLK Day

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrate the values of equality, tolerance celebrates the life and legacy of a man and interracial sister and brotherhood who brought hope and healing to America. he so compellingly expressed in his great People commemorate as well the timeless dream for America. values he taught us through his example — the values of courage, truth, justice, It is a day of interracial and intercultural compassion, dignity, humility and service cooperation and sharing. No other day of the year brings so many peoples from character and empowered his leadership. different cultural backgrounds together Onthat this so holiday, radiantly people defined commemorate Dr. King’s the in such a vibrant spirit of brother and universal, unconditional love, forgiveness sisterhood. Whether you are African- and nonviolence that empowered his American, Hispanic or Native American, revolutionary spirit. whether you are Caucasian or Asian- American, you are part of the great dream People commemorate Dr. King’s inspiring Martin Luther King, Jr. had for America. words, because his voice and his vision This is not a black holiday; it is a peoples’ holiday. And it is the young people of all answered our collective longing to races and religions who hold the keys to becomefilled a a great country void that in truly our nation,lived by and its noblest principles. Yet, Dr. King knew that it wasn’t enough just to talk the talk, that thePeople fulfillment commemorate of his dream. on this holiday the he had to walk the walk for his words to ecumenical leader and visionary who be credible. And so people commemorate embraced the unity of all faiths in love and on this holiday the man of action, who put truth. And though people take patriotic his life on the line for freedom and justice pride that Dr. King was an American, on this every day, the man who braved threats holiday people must also commemorate and jail and beatings and who ultimately the global leader who inspired nonviolent paid the highest price to make democracy liberation movements around the world. a reality for all Americans. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is not only for The King Holiday honors the life and celebration and remembrance, education contributions of America’s greatest and tribute, but above all a day of service. champion of racial justice and equality, All across America on the Holiday, his the leader who not only dreamed of a followers perform service in hospitals and color-blind society, but who also lead a shelters and prisons and wherever people movement that achieved historic reforms need some help. It is a day of volunteering to help make it a reality. to feed the hungry, rehabilitate housing, tutoring those who can’t read, mentoring On this day People commemorate Dr. King’s at-risk youngsters, consoling the broken- great dream of a vibrant, multiracial nation hearted and a thousand other projects for united in justice, peace and reconciliation; building the beloved community of his a nation that has a place at the table for dream. children of every race and room at the inn for every needy child. People are called on Source: www.thekingcenter.org this holiday, not merely to honor, but to

34 | Non-Violence News | May 2015

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