Difference between Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi
A few people believe that leaders are born with the requisite characters that earn them success as a leader. While others consider that leadership, like several other similar characteristics, can be acquired and evolved through life. Environment plays a vital role in shaping and evolving a person to a great leader. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr are the example of those great leaders who made their way under a very unfavorable conditions and circumstances.
Mahatma Gandhi was the greatest political and spiritual leader of Bharat during the Indian freedom movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha-resistance to Caesarism through mass civil disobedience, a doctrine unwaveringly established upon ahimsa or absolute nonviolence-which guided India to independence and revolutionized movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is known in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 Oct, is remembered there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and world wide as the International Day of Non-Violence. Martin Luther King Jr. was an American clergyman, activist and outstanding leader in the Afro-American civil rights campaign. His principal bequest was to ensure advancement on civil rights in the America, and he has become a human rights icon. King led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and assisted found the southerly Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its 1st chairman.
Method of Non Violence
Method of Non violence was the trade mark of both these men. Initially it was Gandhi who was known for his non violence behavior; rather condemn his own party against violence. Gandhi made use of non-cooperation, nonviolent resistance and passive resistance as his "artilleries" in the conflict against Brits. In Indian Punjab, butchery of civilians by British military personnel induced deep trauma to the state, resulting in increased public wrath and acts of ferocity. Mahatma Gandhi criticized both the activities of British Government and the retributory fury of Indians. He authored the declaration extending commiserations to the British victims and excoriating the riots. Though initially his party was against that declaration and but later accept the Gandhi's principal that all ferocity is injurious and could not be rationalized. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi success with nonviolent activism, Martin Luther traveled to Gandhi place of birth in India in 1959. The trip to India touched King in a profound way, heightening his apprehension of passive resistance and his dedication to America's struggle for civil rights. King said, "Since being in India, I'm more confident than ever before that the technique of passive resistance is the most powerful weapon available to suppressed people in their fight for justice and human self-esteem.
Goal Oriented Leaders
Both Gandhi and King were goal oriented leaders. Mahatma Gandhi wanted self-government for India. King cherished 1st class citizenship for Afro-American. Both of them opted nonviolent resistance as their strategy, partially since it was the only pragmatic solution capable of accomplishing their targets. Mahatma Gandhi goal for India was a self-government founded on complete freedom from Britain. Mahatma Gandhi considered that self-rule was only conceivable if his people were authorized to overrule the "fourfold catastrophe" that centuries of Brits dominion had inflicted on the economic, political, ethnic, and religious life of India. King was struggling for his people, to have them equal rights in the country where they are born. King wants his men to get equal rights, freedom of speech, equal opportunity in jobs or equality in all walks of life. There should be no discrimination on the basis of caste, color or creed.
End of Road
On 4th April, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his room in a hotel, King was shot. A man who gave his 13 years to a continuous struggle to get freedom for his people was dead. He struggled till the last moment to get the just rights for his people, rather for all those people who were suppressed by the so called superior class all around the world. On 30th January 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was shot while having his nightly public walk on the roads of New Delhi. The assassin was a Hindu patriot with connections to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Mahatma Gandhi responsible for de-escalating India by taking a firm stand upon a payment to Pakistan, which according to Gandhi was the right of Pakistan to have their share of money after partition.
Similarities and Differences
- Both the men were true leaders and led their nation to get high place in a society
- Both are the believers of non violent method
- Martin Luther King had struggled a lot compare to Gandhi , as latter was struggling against a ruling party in his own country while all the nations was behind him to support him on all issues, where as King was struggling against a Black and white phenomenon which was present all around the world at that time.
