Similarities and differences between Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi Please give both similarities AND differences?

Answer 1

Gandhi fought british oppression with non-violence. His belief in Hinduism (Christianity is also derived very closely to Hinduism) also made the non-violence even more important. they believed in peaceful ways. He told his followers that they would march, boycott, and and strike. But they would NEVER use violence. He said that "violence can only spurn more violence." Gandhi went to school and learned what he had to learn. But he wasn't really that interest in it. He wanted to help the people. Gandhi had also read many works of learned scholars during this time. And was studying to be a lawyer but didn't proceed with it all the way. Gandhi was later assassinated for his actions. He lived from about 1869 to January third 1948.

King was a son of a preacher, and followed in that path too (he connected Christianity to Gandhi). He didn't like the segregation that he and his father saw when he was a boy, and decided that it needed to change. King didn't plan to become the leader of a Civil Rights Movement it more chose him. He was well educated and spoke well. People also listened to him. King during his education chanced upon Thoreau's essay, Civil Disobedience (like Gandhi). Thoreau had wrote that if a there was a law that was evil, or unjust then it was okay to not obey it. Thus King began to read more and more of these important people. Then he read one of Gandhi's speeches and his non-violence path. He used Gandhi's methods while fighting segregation laws. Before King was assassinated he got a tip that he might die. When he was talking in his last speech said :

"But death doesn't matter with me now," he said. "Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I'm happy I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

The next day when he met with his helpers he told them non-violence was the only way they would win. King lived from January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968.

Both men are great and both are very strong leaders in what they did. They have many, many more similarities than differences. They were in different times and different places in the world, but both shared the same vision of equal rights and treatment. Is this not a message to us that people everywhere can be connected even though you haven't met them, or you are just reading their ideas or teachings? It is very difficult to find differences between them that more than just time and place, but extensive reading is all it takes.