Influences on Martin Luther King, Jr.: Gandhi & Tolstoy

Influences on Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy’s Thinking on:

War,Peace and Economics and Politics:

 Its Implications for America

Most Americans think of Mahatma Gandhi

as strictly as a Hindi religious figure.

But note this from the book, the Gospel of Gandhi

by K. Santhanam, p 4 about Gandhi,

“It was after his contact with fervent Christians in England

and later in South Africa that he became truly religious.”

In other words, Gandhi was profoundly influenced by Christanity

 Most westeners see Tolstoy exclusively through his novels

and are ignorant of his religious teaching.

Fewer still realize how Tolstoy’s religious principles

are intertwined by Gandhi’s

.

Almost nobody has heard of the John Ruskin

who wrote the profoundly Christian book, Unto This Last which also was a great influence on Gandhi.

Americans should know how the civil rights work of

Marin Luther king is based

on Gandi’s method of political action.

Gandhi, as related in the introduction of Murthy’s book,

Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy Letters, wrote,

“Three moderns have left a deep impression on my life

and captivited me;

Raychand Bhai-by his living contract,

Tostoy-by his book The Kingdom of God is within You

 and Ruskin-by his book Unto This Last.” See page 6

As related in the same book on page 5 Gandhi writes,

“The teaching of Unto This Last I understood to be:

1.      That the good of the individual is contained

in the good of all.

2.      That a lawyer’s work has the same value as the barber’s I      nasmuch as all have the same right

of earning their livelihood from their work.

3.      That a life of labour, i.e., the life of the tiller of the soil

       and the handicraftsman is the life worth living.

The first of these I knew.

The second I had dimly realized.

The third had never occurred to me.

Unto This Last made it clear as daylight for me

that the second and third were contained in the first.

I arose with the dawn,

ready to reduce these principles to practice.”

Quoting again from Murthy’s book we find on page 10,

a summary of Tolstoy of

“the commandents of Jesus”.

1.      Do not be angry without a cause.

2.      Do not commit adultery

3.      Do not swear.

4.      Do not resist evil by violence

5.      Love your enemies, bless them that curse.

Do good to them that hate you and pray

for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.

Murthy goes on to write,

“Tolstoy had a great impact upon Gandhi’s views

on Christianity.

There are two trends in Gandhi’s understanding

of Christianity,

namely, the traditional interpretation

of the message of Jesus

and the uniquely Gandhian understanding

of a true Christian life,

Gandhi could not accept tradtional Christianity.

He (Gandhi) says. ‘the orthodox books on Christianity

do not give me satisfaction.’

But Gandhi found the Sermon on the Mount

 to be the essence of Christ’s teaching.

‘If then I had to face only the Sermon on the Mount

and my own interpretation of it, I should not hesitate to say, Oh Yes I am a Christian.’”

Americans, who know and value the work

of Marin Luther King Jr.,

should know and value its roots in Gandhi and Tolstoy.

 (See more on this in the passage below.)

It is also relevant in the stuggle against Communisim

or as it used to be called “Bolshevism”

Read what Murthy aslo writes:

“’… Civil resistance (Gandhi’s method) is, therefore,

a most powerful antidote against Bolshevism

and those are trying to crush the spirit of civil resistance

are but fanning the fire of Bolshevism.’

(And I might add today’s terrorism.)

“The message of Tolstoy and Gandhi is as pertinent

to today’s world’s problems as it was during their lifetime. Hunger, social injustice, and political and economic oppression

still plauge the human race.

Communist countries have successfully expanded their influence

in the Third World through coercion, through propaganda. And through the exploitation of those who live in poverty despair and bitterness.

The poor are promised heaven on earth,

In case of Islamic terrorists; heaven if one dies for the cause,) which will be brought about solely

by changes in external circumstances.

Lenin clearly stated that any means justified the ends of revolution.

He advised that one should negotitate if necessary,

be peaceful if necessary,

and upon discovery of the opponent’s weakness,

trample him and seize power.

Lenin never foresaw that the non-violent resistance

which he belittled would be effective today even in Russia. Russian Jews have used the methoda of passive resistance

and non-violent resistance to win government concessions

on artistic and intellectual freedom,

as well as the right to immigrate.

Neither threats, nor torturous confinement in Siberian labor camps

can suffocate a just cause.”

“The History of the civil rights movement in the United States

has again demonstrated the effectiveness of no-violence

as a practical philosophy of life.

Under the Gandhi-inspired leadership of Martin Luther King Jr

American Black people sucesssfully

asserted their democratic rights.”

“Gandhi and Tolstoy have shown that the search

for truth and pratice of non-violence and love

can transcend political and cultural boundaries,

purify the spirit,

and set forth visionary, creative solutions

to most complex of problems.”