To the Mountaintop

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I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment [December 1964] when twenty-two million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award in behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice.

I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeing to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. …

After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time — the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.

— Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, December 10, 1964Then one Sunday afternoon I traveled to Philadelphia to hear a sermon by Dr. Mordecai Johnson, president of Howard University. He was there to preach for the Fellowship House of Philadelphia. Dr. Johnson had just returned from a trip to India, and, to my great interest, he spoke of the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. His message was so profound and electrifying that I left the meeting and bought a half-dozen books on Gandhi’s life and works.

Like most people, I had heard of Gandhi, but I had never studied him seriously. As I read I became deeply fascinated by his campaigns of nonviolent resistance. I was particularly moved by the Salt March to the Sea and his numerous fasts. The whole concept of “Satyagraha” (Satya is truth which equals love, and agraha is force; “Satyagraha,” therefore, means truth-force or love force) was profoundly significant to me. As I delved deeper into the philosophy of Gandhi my skepticism concerning the power of love gradually diminished, and I came to see for the first time its potency in the area of social reform. Prior to reading Gandhi, I had about concluded that the ethics of Jesus were only effective in individual relationship. The “turn the other cheek” philosophy and the “love your enemies” philosophy were only valid, I felt, when individuals were in conflict with other individuals; when racial groups and nations were in conflict a more realistic approach seemed necessary. But after reading Gandhi, I saw how utterly mistaken I was.

Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale. Love, for Gandhi, was a potent instrument for social and collective transformation. It was in this Gandhian emphasis on love and nonviolence that I discovered the method for social reform that I had been seeking for so many months. The intellectual and moral satisfaction that I failed to gain from the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill, the revolutionary methods of Marx and Lenin, the social-contracts theory of Hobbes, the “back to nature” optimism of Rousseau, the superman philosophy of Nietzsche, I found in the nonviolent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. I came to feel that this was the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.

— My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence, September 1, 1958

Text of speeches, letters, and papers relating to Dr. King can be found courtesy of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. The Institute publishes an online encyclopedia on King and his work; the entry on King’s trip to India in 1959 is here.

28 thoughts on “To the Mountaintop”

  4. siddhartha, thanks for the post and links.

    One of my favorite MLK quotes: “To other countries I may go as a tourist, but to India I come as a pilgrim.”

  6. Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale.

    What made Gandhi a great Hindu also made him a great Christian. I wish a few more religious sectarians these days would dwell on that fact!

  8. badmash,

    In his own words to support you,

    In contrast to this stands Gandhi, who amid tensions between Hindus and Muslims in his lifetime, told his supporters: “I am a Muslim, I am a Hindu, I am a Christian, I am a Jew – and so are all of you.

    Some of the earlier African American leaders like Booker Washington, WEB Du Bois, and Marcus Garvey were influenced by him too.

  10. Thanks for this Siddhartha. And well said, badmash!

    Gandhi and Gandhian tactics are something I think we can and all should be proud of, and this is exactly why. The ability to look at horrible situations and say, “There might be a better way,” and have that hope grounded in so much concrete accomplishment is, of course, humanity’s legacy–but of all the “desi” American legacies, I think this one is the best and brightest.

    I think it’s also important to acknowledge that without the Civil Rights movement, there might very well have been no 1965 immigration act.

  11. Me gusta mucho – this great exchange between India and the US.

    From the Wiki page on the song We Shall Overcome

    In India, its literal translation in Hindi “Hum Honge Kaamyab / Ek Din” became a patriotic/spiritual song during the 1980s, particularly in schools, and the song’s popularity has continued to endure. In the Bengali-speaking region of India and in Bangladesh there are actually two versions, both of which are incredibly popular among school-children and political activists. “Amra Karbo Joy” (a literal translation) was translated by the Bengali folk singer Hemanga Biswas and re-recorded by Bhupen Hazarika. Another version, translated by Shibdas Bandyopadhyay, “Ek Din Surjyer Bhor” (literally translated as “One Day The Sun Will Rise”) was recorded by the Calcutta Youth Choir during the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence and became one of the largest selling Bengali records of all time. It was a particular favourite song of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and regularly sung at public events after Bangladesh gained independence. In the Indian State of Kerala, the traditional Communist stronghold, the song became popular in college campuses in late 1970s. It was the struggle song of the Students Federation of India SFI, the largest student organisation in the country. The song translated to the regional language Malayalam as Njangal Vijayikkum…… Oru Nal by N. P. Chandrasekharan, then activist of SFI, in 1980. The translation followed the same tune of the original song. Later it was published in Student, the monthly of SFI in Malayalam, in September 2006. It was in connection with the Diamond Jubilee of the rebirth of the song as a protest song through the lips of Lucille Simmons.

  14. Any of y’all in the durty sowth should head to Memphis and take a gander at the National Civil Rights Museum, at the Lorraine Motel, where MLK was gunned down. It’s a moving and inspiring place. It’s definitely worth seeing, and I think everyone should go there at least once in their life (along with a trip to the Holocaust Museum, although maybe not on the same day).

  15. I just saw MLK’s ‘I have a dream’ speech for the first time, on youtube. Its v moving. I was curious about the people standing right behind MLK in what looked like Gandhi topis to my untrained eye. Does anyone know who these guys were and why they were wearing those topis.

  17. I was curious about the people standing right behind MLK in what looked like Gandhi topis to my untrained eye. Does anyone know who these guys were and why they were wearing those topis.

    Yes, It was very symbolic gesture that MLK’s bodyguards use to wear khadi topis to honor nonviolence. They always did. If I find a link, I’ll post.

    And, Gandhi used to have Red Shirt Pathans (followers of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, the Khudiya Kightmatgars) stand behind him.

  20. A beautiful dose of hope, mixed with a smidgen of perspective and a sprinkling of wisdom…

    perfect, soothing words of MLK for some inspiration during a rainy afternoon (well it’s afternoon here anyways)… thanks Siddhartha 🙂

    hopefully we’re closer on our way up than we were when he delivered that speech.

  21. our once-a-year rememberance of Martin Luther King Jr always makes me ambivalent towards the US. on one hand, he was such a visionary, such a leader, so inspiring. and i am proud that Gandhiji inspired him to make changes at home.

    and yet, after 9/11– how perverse that the Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis– in short, anyone who is brown–is the racial scapegoat.

    so far, and still so far to go. (and apologies for being such a downer…)

  28. I always remember Richard Pryor’s take on this:

    ‘I too have been on the mountain and what did I see? More White people with guns!’