eastiseverywhere:eastiseverywhere:Martin Luther King postage stamp (cancelled)India (c. 1980)From he
eastiseverywhere:eastiseverywhere:Martin Luther King postage stamp (cancelled)India (c. 1980)From hereMartin Luther King with portrait of Mohandas K. GandhiUS (1950s-60s)From hereBayard Rustin with Martin Luther KingUS (1956)From hereMartin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta, both wearing garlands, are received by admirers in New DelhiIndia (1959)From hereWe’ve all heard about the great American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968) - winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting racism with nonviolence.But where did he get that philosophy of nonviolence from? From Christian pacifist groups like the Quakers, certainly. But also from the teachings of Mohandas K. Gandhi.King’s main advisor and mentor, the openly gay (and rather handsome) Bayard Rustin, had been to India and studied Gandhi’s principles of ahimsa. Gandhi’s success in throwing off British colonial rule was a constant inspiration, as King wrote:While the Montgomery boycott was going on, India’s Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique ofnon-violent social change. We spoke of him often. So as soon as our victory over bus segregation was won, some of my friends said: “Why don’t you go to India and see for yourself what the Mahatma, whom you so admire, has wrought.”He made the journey in 1959, meeting PM Jawaharlal Nehru:At the outset, let me say that we had a grand reception in India. The people showered upon us the most generous hospitality imaginable. We were graciously received by the Prime Minister, the President and the Vice-president of the nation; members of Parliament, Governors and Chief Ministers of various Indian states; writers, professors, social reformers and at least one saint. Since our pictures were in the newspapersvery often it was not unusual for us to be recognized by crowds in public places and on public conveyances. Occasionally I would take a morning walk in the large cities, and out of the most unexpected places some- one would emerge and ask: “Are you Martin Luther King?”Virtually every door was open to us. We had hundreds of invitations that the limited time did not allow us to accept. We were looked upon as brothers with the color of our skins as something of an asset. But the strongest bond of fraternity was the common cause of minority and colonial peoples in America, Africa and Asia struggling to throw off racialism and imperialism…The Indian people love to listen to the Negro spirituals. Therefore, Coretta ended up singing as much as I lectured. We discovered that autograph seekers are not confined to America. After appearances in public meetings and while visiting villages we were often besieged for autographs. Even while riding planes, more than once pilots came into the cabin from the cockpit requesting our signatures.Speaking of which, here’s a picture of Coretta Scott King in a sari!From hereYou should read the whole of King’s essay, My Trip to the Land of Gandhi. He also talks about the social problems in India like caste and poverty, and how the country’s working on solving them.Yeah, he’d probably be disappointed by some bits of India today. But he’d be disappointed in a whole lot of things about us. :/Happy Martin Luther King Day! -- source link