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Compare And Contrast Similarities Between Martin Luther King And Gandhi

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Compare and Contrast Speeches

This essay will compare two inspiring men that have immensely impacted our world and whose speeches continue to be remembered because of the importance of their content. These two men are Mohandas Gandhi the leader of the Indian Independence Movement, and Martin Luther King Jr. an American Civil Rights Movement Activist. They were leaders in non-violent revolutions for equality and freedom until they were assassinated at the hands of men that did not share their beliefs and hopes of ending discrimination and uniting the people in the world. Gandhi's sole purpose was India's independence from the British Empire, he was born on October 2nd, 1869 in Porbandar, India (Gandhi, 2006) and died on January 30th, 1948 (Paranjape, …show more content…

He states that he understands the importance of supporting the British cause in WWII, arguing that they will not withhold freedom from them when they have made enough self-sacrifice. He also explains that he feels so strongly about independence that he will continue to work for it, even if the British become violent. Martin Luther King's speech also has several strong points. Firstly, he expresses what he considers to be the most pressing problem facing mankind, the unbalance that exists between our internal and external realms, which is seen in the lack of a sense of togetherness. The following words are evidence of this belief, “We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers”. Another strong point he makes is that the issues that must be addressed in order to fix that problem are: racial injustice, poverty, and war, all global problems. He recognizes that some significant strides have been made in the struggle to end racial injustice. For example, the independence of many African nations, the outlawing of segregation and the rejection by the American people of a racist presidential candidate. In spite of these things, there is still a ways to go and nonviolence is the solution. As for poverty, he thinks it should be combatted and as for war, it is never good nor the answer to anything. He believes peace and love are the answers. Another …show more content…

Dr. King believed that the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolence was the only logical and moral approach to the solution of the race problem in the United States (Paranjabe, 2015) and his actions match his words. Nevertheless, Gandhi's non-violence approach differs a bit from Dr. King's interpretation and was easily visible in his "do or die" mantra. This mantra means that they shall either free India or die in the attempt. This is a bit contradictory for someone who professes nonviolence. His conflicting thoughts on nonviolence are likewise shown in his speech where he states, “A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing for himself, he fights only for the freedom of his country". Even if men relied on fighting only as a mechanism of self-defense, nonviolence is defined as: “the use of peaceful means, not force, to bring about political or social change” (Oxford dictionaries, 2017 ), therefore his use of the words soldier and fighting give support to

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