As an avid supporter of non-violent civil disobedience in the pursuit of racial and social justice, and an active participant in the Black Lives Matter movement, I study the history of both Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, as the two greatest proponents of non-violent direct action in the 20th century.
Dr. King in his Southern Christian Leadership office in Atlanta in 1966. Photo credit: Bob Fitch
Dr. King's ideas and activism were directly influenced and inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's pioneering activism, the philosophy of non-violent civil disobedience that he called
'Satyagraha'. Below are some thoughts on non-violence, violence, the killing of police, and the political struggle for justice.
What role does violence play in the distribution of power in society?
The well-known writer and philosopher Frantz Fanon, a supporter of the Algerian struggle for independence from French colonial rule, has made clear the centrality of violence in the maintenance of dominant and colonial systems of oppression. In a similar way in today's America, violence is at the heart of the racist system of power that prevents people from finding justice and equality.
Social and racial justice movements that aim to overcome oppression always have to deal with this fundamental reality, the fact that the systemic and systematic use of violence keeps the powerful in power.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to overcoming violence and racism in the pursuit of justice. Dr. King wrote of the importance of Gandhi for his efforts in an essay he wrote from Chicago in 1959, titled 'My Trip to the Land of Gandhi'. In it, Dr. King writes that
While the Montgomery boycott was going on, India's Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of non-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."
Gandhi had developed his technique of Satyagraha, first, in his activism against the racist South African colonial government, and then as the leader of the Indian independence movement against the British Empire. By the early 1920s Gandhi had developed a very elaborate and disciplined method for using non-violence civil disobedience in the struggle for freedom. He insisted that any supporters of his movement be deeply committed to the idea of non-violence.
Under his leadership, the movement for Indian freedom gained great momentum. But in 1922, a series of events occurred that caused great trouble for his movement. Colonial police had been brutalizing freedom activists, and then two protesters were shot to death by the police in a town called Chauri Chaura. In response, a group of thousands of independence activists - acting in the name of Gandhi - surrounded a police station and burned it to the ground, killing 23 police officers.
When Gandhi heard of the violence in Chauri Chaura, he was mortified. He felt that he had failed in keeping his movement strictly non-violent, and called for serious reflection by the movement.
The tragedy of Chauri Chaura is really the index finger... If we are not to evolve violence out of non-violence, it is quite clear that we must hastily retrace our steps and re-establish an atmosphere of peace....
Let the opponent glory in our humiliation or so-called defeat.... Chauri Chaura must stiffen the Government, must still further corrupt the police, and the reprisals that will follow must further demoralize the people. [But] if we learn the full lesson of the tragedy, we can turn the curse into a blessing.
(From
Rajmohan Gandhi, Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire).
I'm not offering any easy or direct lessons from Gandhi's views and experience that might apply to the current state in which we find ourselves. I simply offer this to say that there are historical parallels to the moment we now find ourselves in, and which can offer us insight and inspiration, if we engage with them seriously.
Violence is endemic in our society, and it underpins the racist policing system that oppresses African Americans from coast to coast. There is no easy way to get rid of this system. The struggle is long, painful, and will take a long-term commitment. But in Black Lives Matter, we have found a powerful movement with inspiring leaders that can lead us forward, and show us the way to achieve our goals.
This emerging movement of Black millennial activists, with significant leadership from young Black women, has grown beyond earlier strategies that sought access to political power and full citizenship through civil rights legislation. Instead, these passionate leaders are using creative direct action tactics to both win new public policy and transform the vehicles of power itself.
Gandhi, in the end, after a long, hard struggle, helped India to win freedom from the racist British Empire, but it took an immense effort and an intense engagement of what it means to support non-violent civil disobedience.
Thoughtful commentaries like this one are helping to lead the way.