 | Gandhism: Encyclopedia II - Gandhism - Inspiring Struggle for Freedom
Gandhism - Inspiring Struggle for Freedom
See Also: Apartheid, Tiananmen Square Massacre, American Civil Rights Movement
Gandhi's deep commitment and disciplined belief in non-violent civil disobedience as a way to oppose tyranny, oppression and injustice was shared by many contemporary leaders of nations, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko of South Africa, Lech Wałęsa of Poland and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar.
Gandhi's early life work in South Africa between the years 1910 and 1915, for the rights of colored peoples oppressed by the racist, white-dominated South African regime inspired the later work of Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress. Since the 1950s, the ANC organized non-violent civil disobedience akin to the Indian National Congress of Gandhi during the Indian Independence Movement. Determined ANC activists braved the sticks and bullets of the police, water-hoses, tear gas and mad dogs to break the back of tyranny, racism and oppression in South Africa, all without retaliating despite the brutality. Many, especially Mandela, languished for decades in jail, while the world outside was divided in its effort to remove apartheid from South Africa. Steve Biko, perhaps the most vocal adherent to non-violent civil resistance, was allegedly murdered in 1977 by agents of the regime.
When Mandela and the ANC finally won in 1994, and when the first universal, free elections were held in South Africa and Mandela became President, he made a special visit to India and publicly honored Gandhi as the man who inspired the freedom struggle of black South Africans. Statues of Gandhi have been erected in Natal, Pretoria and Johannesburg and many South Africans do not hesitate to honor his importance to their revolution.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a young Christian priest and leader of the American Civil Rights Movement seeking the liberation of African Americans from racial segregation in the American South, and also the terrible economic and social injustice and political disenfranchisement, traveled to India in 1962 and Jawaharlal Nehru met him personally. The two discussed Gandhi's teachings, and the methodology of organizing peaceful resistance. The terribly graphic imagery of determined Black protestors being hounded by police, beaten and brutalized, evoked universal admiration for Dr. King and the protestors across America and the world, and precipitated in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In an unholy coincidence, Dr. King was assassinated by a white fanatic in 1968, even as Gandhi was killed in 1948 by a Hindu extremist.
The non-violent Solidarity movement of Lech Wałęsa of Poland overthrew a Soviet-backed communist government after two decades of peaceful resistance and strikes, in 1989, beginning the downfall of the Soviet Communist empire. Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi, a small young woman, remains under house arrest, and her National League for Democracy suppressed in their non-violent quest for democracy and freedom in military-controlled Myanmar. This struggle was inaugurated when the military dismissed the results of the 1991 democratic elections and imposed harsh military rule.
Other related archives1964 Civil Rights Act, Adolf Hitler, African, African Americans, African National Congress, Ahimsa, American Civil Rights Movement, An Autobiography, Or The Story Of My Experiments With Truth, Apartheid, Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi, B.R. Ambedkar, Bengal, Benito Mussolini, Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Brahmacharya, Brahman, British Empire, British Isles, Buddhism, Buddhist, Calcutta, Celibacy, Chauri Chaura, Christ, Christian, Christian anarchism, Christianity, Cold War, Dada Dharmadhikari, Dalit, Delhi, Dharma, God, Gujarat, Henry David Thoreau, Hindu, Hinduism, Hindutva, Hungary, India, Indian Army, Indian Independence Movement, Indian National Congress, Islam, Jain, Jainism, Jawaharlal Nehru, Jaya Prakash Narayan, Jew, Johannesburg, Julius Nyerere, Koran, Lech Wałęsa, Lenin, Leo Tolstoy, Mao Zedong, Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Muhammad, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Muslim, Myanmar, Narendra Modi, Natal, National League for Democracy, Nazi Germany, Nelson Mandela, Non Aligned Movement, Pakistan, Partition of India, Poland, Praveen Togadia, Pretoria, Prime Minister of India, Punjab, Quit India Movement, Sarvodaya, Satya, Satyagraha, Sermon on the Mount, Sino-Indian War, Solidarity, South Africa, Soviet Union, Stalin, Steve Biko, Tanzania, Tiananmen Square Massacre, Truth, USSR, United States, Vedas, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Vinoba Bhave, West Bengal, World War I, ahimsa, apartheid, atheist, brahmacharya, colonialism, dhoti, gender, holocaust, jihad, khadi, kurta, love, lust, neutrality, ontology, pacifism, salvation, satyagraha, sexual orientation, socialism, untouchability, untouchable, vegetarianism
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Inspiring Struggle for Freedom", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
