Civil Disobedience –Martin Luther King. Jr & Mahands Karamchand Gandhi
Eddie Li
Tianjin Foreign Languages School
Introduction
For hundreds of years since the prevail of human civilizations, no matter in eastern or western countries, citizens were and are always trying to pursue a more democratic society. Since then, regional conflicts and battles had been raised in European and North America in the past two centuries, millions of people got injured or dead during the war time. However, civil disobedience, as one special form of social revolution, doesn’t involve violence and casualties but represents human rights and wills.
The idea of “civil disobedience” was firstly proposed by an American philosopher Henry David Thoreau in his essay “Civil …show more content…
Though Gandhi wasn’t the founder of India, due to his remarkable contributions to the society of India, he was unofficially called the Father of the Nation.
Gandhi found out Indian labors who was working at South Africa had very limited human rights, he felt unfair towards them. He, as a lawyer worked in South Africa, was discriminated by local people, so decided to do something to change the current situation. He started protesting and lobbying against laws on racial discrimination of African Indian. Once in South Africa, he was thrown off from a train because he refused to leave first-class for a European passenger. After suffering all kinds of discriminations, bias, prejudices and racism, Gandhi realized that he needs to extend his act and make efforts on the whole rather individually. In June 1903, Gandhi organized a protest movement on “The Black Act” against black people, this Act force all Asians in South Africa to sign. Through the years Gandhi fighting in South Africa, he first contacted with works of Emerson and Thoreau, the idea of Satyagraha movements (Independence of India) and Non-co-operation movement formed in his mind and made him realized that he wasn’t alone people in other countries were fighting for freedom as …show more content…
In 1942, Japan invaded British India and established independent Indian provisional government in Yangon. Gandhi believed this was the only way that India can be independent, he drafted a plan to let India quit Britain. As soon as the beginning of the independence movement, all National Congress leaders, and Gandhi were arrested in Yangon. Two years later, the British government released Gandhi who announced the obsoletion of the independence resolution.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King was born on January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was skeptical about many doctrines of Christianity when he was a child. When he was 13 years old, he refused to believe that Jesus would befall again. However, he later concluded that the Bible has "many profound truths which one cannot escape" and decided to enter the seminary.
In 1954, 25-year-old Martin Luther King became a baptist priest. As a Christianity priest, he was influenced by its doctrines profoundly, he usually quotes sentences from The Gospel According to St. Matthew in his speeches. Martin Luther King was deeply affected by Gandhi’s non-violence independence movement and always wonder visiting India one day. His dream came true in 1959 April, the Quaker group the American Friends Service Committee agreed to support King’s
Eddie Li
Tianjin Foreign Languages School
Introduction
For hundreds of years since the prevail of human civilizations, no matter in eastern or western countries, citizens were and are always trying to pursue a more democratic society. Since then, regional conflicts and battles had been raised in European and North America in the past two centuries, millions of people got injured or dead during the war time. However, civil disobedience, as one special form of social revolution, doesn’t involve violence and casualties but represents human rights and wills.
The idea of “civil disobedience” was firstly proposed by an American philosopher Henry David Thoreau in his essay “Civil …show more content…
Though Gandhi wasn’t the founder of India, due to his remarkable contributions to the society of India, he was unofficially called the Father of the Nation.
Gandhi found out Indian labors who was working at South Africa had very limited human rights, he felt unfair towards them. He, as a lawyer worked in South Africa, was discriminated by local people, so decided to do something to change the current situation. He started protesting and lobbying against laws on racial discrimination of African Indian. Once in South Africa, he was thrown off from a train because he refused to leave first-class for a European passenger. After suffering all kinds of discriminations, bias, prejudices and racism, Gandhi realized that he needs to extend his act and make efforts on the whole rather individually. In June 1903, Gandhi organized a protest movement on “The Black Act” against black people, this Act force all Asians in South Africa to sign. Through the years Gandhi fighting in South Africa, he first contacted with works of Emerson and Thoreau, the idea of Satyagraha movements (Independence of India) and Non-co-operation movement formed in his mind and made him realized that he wasn’t alone people in other countries were fighting for freedom as …show more content…
In 1942, Japan invaded British India and established independent Indian provisional government in Yangon. Gandhi believed this was the only way that India can be independent, he drafted a plan to let India quit Britain. As soon as the beginning of the independence movement, all National Congress leaders, and Gandhi were arrested in Yangon. Two years later, the British government released Gandhi who announced the obsoletion of the independence resolution.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King was born on January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was skeptical about many doctrines of Christianity when he was a child. When he was 13 years old, he refused to believe that Jesus would befall again. However, he later concluded that the Bible has "many profound truths which one cannot escape" and decided to enter the seminary.
In 1954, 25-year-old Martin Luther King became a baptist priest. As a Christianity priest, he was influenced by its doctrines profoundly, he usually quotes sentences from The Gospel According to St. Matthew in his speeches. Martin Luther King was deeply affected by Gandhi’s non-violence independence movement and always wonder visiting India one day. His dream came true in 1959 April, the Quaker group the American Friends Service Committee agreed to support King’s