MYP IB: Humanities research paper

Historical Investigation
Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.


Rutvi Shah
MYP 5
Academic year 2014-15
Word count – 1,480


































"To what extent were Gandhi's marches in 1930 and Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches in 1963 were successful for their movements against the social injustice?"

CONTENT



PLAN OF INVESTIGATION 3
SUMMARY OF EVIDENCES 4
EVALUATION OF SOURCES 6
ANALYSIS 7
CONCLUSION 8
BIBLIOGRAPHY 9

























Historical investigation

To what extent were Gandhi's marches in 1930 and Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches in 1963 were successful for their movements against the social injustice?
PLAN OF INVESTIGATION

From 19th century the revolutionary history was commenced when world's two great leaders fought for their respective country's freedom, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi from India and Martin Luther king Jr. from United States of America, (who was strongly influenced by Gandhi).

Historians believed that Gandhi's marches were more successful and a productive step towards the independence from British Empire such as Dandi March in 1930, although on the other side MLK performed March in Washington, in 1963 for Afro-Americans in the American society though in the march his speech "I have a dream" was more powerful and effective speech that inspired the nation than the other activities he did.
This investigation will identify the merits and demerits of the both movements, by Gandhi and MLK, which will suggest that, how Gandhi's Marches and MLK's speeches were more successful towards the community, than, the other strategies they did. This investigation will analyze and compare the effectiveness of Gandhi's Marches and MLK's speeches in the both prominent movements. To attain the understanding of the concept of this paper, this research will make use of books for reference along with some historical websites.



SUMMARY OF EVIDENCES

Gandhi's Movements

1906 11th September. First Satyagraha Campaign launched with Johannesburg meeting against the Asiatic Ordinance directed against Indian Immigrants.
1907: June. Satyagraha against the 'Black Act' forcing compulsory registration on Asians.
1913: Nov. Third Satyagraha begins with the "great march" of 2000 Indian miners from Newcastle against repressive laws.
Gandhi leads a number of marches and peaceful protests to protest racist poll taxes and marriage laws. These marches continue through the winter.
1914: Satyagraha suspended following;
Jan. Agreement between Smuts, C.F. Andrews and Gandhi and the passage of Indian Relief Act.
1917: Champaran Satyagraha for right of peasants on Indigo Plantation.
1919: First all India Satyagraha conceived against the Rowlatt Bills denying all Civil Liberties to Indians.
1930: 'Purna Swaraj' declared on 26th January 1930.
March 12. Historic Dandi March begins from Sabarmati under his leadership to break the Salt Law.
April 6. Breaking of Salt Law on the seashores of Dandi by him. The Salt Satyagraha begins in full earnest.
1933: Began weekly Publication 'Harijan,' began the nationwide campaign against untouchability.
1940: Launched Individual civil disobedience Satyagraha with Selection of Vinoba Bhave as the first Individual Satyagrahi.
1942: August Launching of the Quit India Movement-nation wide Satyagraha began-under his leadership.
1946: March met British Cabinet Mission in New Delhi.
1947: March- Bihar tour to stop communal riots there.
March met the Viceroy Lord Mountbatten in New Delhi.
May- Opposed decision to accept partition of India.

Martin Luther king, Jr. Movements

1962: During the unsuccessful Albany, Georgia movement, King was arrested on July 27 and was jailed.
1963: April 12, police commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor for demonstrating movement without permission arrested King with Ralph Abernathy.
1963: April 13, the Birmingham campaign was launched, that proved to be the turning point in the war to end segregation in south.
1963: During the eleven days he spent in jail, MLK writes his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail
1963: May 10, the Birmingham agreement was announced. The stores, restaurants, and schools will be desegregated, hiring of blacks implemented, and charges dropped.
1963: June 23, MLK leads 125,000 people on a Freedom Walk in Detroit.
1963: The March on Washington held August 28 is the largest civil rights demonstration in history with nearly 250,000 people in attendance.
1963: At the march on Washington, King makes his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
After the march, King and other civil rights leaders meet with President John F. Kennedy and Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House.
EVALUATION OF SOURCES

SOURCE A:

Hansen, Drew D.. The dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the speech that inspired a nation. New York: Ecco, 2003.

Drew D Hansen, a Harvard graduate and a Rhodes Scholar, studied theology at Oxford University, and went on to earn his J.D. at Yale Law School. His brilliant study of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, D. Hansen invests one of the most popular orations of all time with renewed vitality and historical significance. Analyses in the book are virtually done in every sentence, with a side-by-side comparison of the speech as it was drafted, written, and delivered. The analysis reveals the scriptural, historical and intellectual roots of MLK's phrasing of his speech. But since the book is written by a third person, the opinion should be carefully looked at because it can lead to different conclusion.

SOURCE B:

Chandra, Bipin. India's struggle for independence. India: penguin books, 2000.

Bipin Chandra was an Indian Historian; he has specialized on the Indian independence movement and is considered to be one India's foremost scholars on Gandhi.
He wrote about, India's freedom struggle, he has given all the details of the chronological events, in addition to the facts it justifies and analysis for the same. The action & purpose of the leaders were well explained to the readers. Since the writer has excelled in his study about Gandhi and Indian history hence, the source can be considered to be reliable. However, the book has been written by a third person, the opinion should be carefully looked at, as it can lead to different conclusion.



ANALYSIS

To achieve this challenging goal, an insightful research was done for both the leaders and their strategies. Both leaders used their strategies, speeches and marches to their advantages. But here's the question, regardless of the result, this argument is aiming– why did speeches worked for King and why did Marches worked for Gandhi? If it did work, then what determines speeches and marches as a successful strategy.

Years later, on August 28th 1963 MLK delivered "I Have a Dream" one of his most iconic speech. MLK gave his speech with a strong philosophy of freedom message to start his own point about civil rights. Further on, he symbolically refers to the rights of all citizens as an exchange and states that the order signed to the Afro-American was a "bad check" and come back with insufficient funds. The crowd of 250,000 applauded loudly at this, as the result of King's strategic use of the speech.
Apart from that, later during the speech King uses another powerful way to deliver the speech, which gives the words a command over the audience, which was anaphora, employed in four strong sentences in the speech. Use of the anaphora was to invoke the crowd and motivating them. Nevertheless, the failures of the strategy were also noted. After the movement, when the MLK's motivational speech ended, most of the audiences were motivated by the speech while certain audience doubted the following action of MLK. They supposed that the words spoken by him should have some action to it.

Similarly 'Dandi March' a major nonviolent protest in India led by Gandhi, which was a big step to take for the Indians.
When, all Indians were working for British as slaves, it was an unfair result for Indians, which was the time when Gandhi realized the weak point of British; the British were mainly depending on the country's citizens. So in order to manipulate the massive dependency of British, Gandhi undertook the March, Dandi march, and protested against the nefarious provisions of the Salt tax demanded by the British. Salt tax charged Indians as a basic human need and prevent them to do their own salt. Therefore, the march was the most important part to gain the independence because when all the Indians united and did NOT work for the Britishers, it resulted into Britishers being powerless. Even though many people were getting arrested during the Dandi March movement and many conferences between Gandhi and Viceroy, lord irwin were led though conferences led nowhere but the salt march gave Indians self-respect and confidence, from which they gained their independence.
However, the failures of the strategy have also been noted during the movement. During Dandi march, a lot of protestors were sent to prisons and had their life, which was not to expect maintenance for their family and dependents.
CONCLUSION

After Comparing both the movements, Dandi March and Speech "I Have a Dream" were smooth and faced fewer problems.
So, after going into an insightful research investigation, it can be conclude that the both the movements were successful for Gandhi and MLK, therefore, effective and because both the leaders were able to win social justice and equality, the goal was met which makes these strategies effective.
























BIBLIOGRAPHY

"GANDHI." GANDHI. Accessed December 18, 2014. http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/infodocs/people/pst

"Civil Disobedience : Complete Information about Dandi March." Civil Disobedience : Complete Information about Dandi March. Accessed December 18, 2014. http://www.mkgandhi.org/civil_dis/dandi_march.

"A Pinch of Salt Rocks an Empire." Google Books. Accessed December 18, 2014. https://books.google.co.in/books?id=DdQx-ReQqkIC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=drawbacks of salt satyagraha&source=bl&ots=X3YfO_949u&sig=amwF3soPYYxWsDrrMXUldJQKqNM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=htiSVKCCF5WfugSm3oGoBw&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Accessed December 18, 2014. http://www.civilresistance.info/challenge/bhikhu.

Accessed December 18, 2014. http://www.ingramcontent.com/Teacher Guides/Harper_DreamTG.pdf.

"Welcome to the LSU Libraries Website!" Timeline of Events in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Life. Accessed December 18, 2014. http://www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/mlk/srs216.html.

"Martin Luther King Timeline." Martin Luther King Timeline. Accessed December 18, 2014. http://www.datesandevents.org/people-timelines/28-martin-luther-king-timeline.htm.

"King Institute Resources." King Institute Resources. Accessed December 18, 2014. http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/resources/article/k

"Mahatma Gandhi Timeline." World History Project. Accessed December 18, 2014. http://worldhistoryproject.org/topics/mahatma-gandhi/page/1.

"Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti." Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti. Accessed December 18, 2014. http://gandhismriti.gov.in/index1b.asp?linkid=77&fname=index1b.asp.

"Mahatma Gandhi Timeline." World History Project. Accessed December 18, 2014. http://worldhistoryproject.org/topics/mahatma-gandhi/page/1.

"Mahatma Gandhi (1893""1914) "" Civil rights movement in South Africa." http://pigeonproject.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .

"Rowlatt Act & Satyagraha 1919 - General Knowledge Today." General Knowledge Today Rowlatt Act Satyagraha 1919 Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .

"Salt March." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. .

"The Success & Failure of Non-Violence." Philosophy Now. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .

"What were the limitations of non-cooperation movement......???." What were the limitations of non-cooperation movement......???. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .

WeSawThat. "Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream Speech". Youtube Video, 11:51. October 23 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyR8h9iimw4

Official Program for March on Washington (1963) "Official Program for March on Washington (1963)". OurDocuments.gov. / Milestone Documents.
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=96


Patnaik B.N. "Gandhi as a Communicator." Department of Humanities and Social Sciences - IIT Kanpur

"Our Documents - Official Program for the March on Washington (1963)." Welcome to OurDocuments.gov. http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=96

"India's journey towards Independence - GandhiTopia." GandhiTopia - Mahatma Gandhi Community Forum. http://www.gandhitopia.org/group/mgnd/forum/topics/india-s-journey-towards-independence


































Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi – Gandhi, the leader of the Indian nationalist movement against British rule, considered to be the father of his country. He is internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest to achieve political and social progress.
Martin Luther King, Jr. - He was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
Gandhi – Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom.
Dandi March also known as Salt Satyagraha, it was a major nonviolent protest action in India led by Gandhi on 12th March 1930.
MLK –Martin Luther King Jr.
A term used for African American.
"I have a dream" Is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963.
Dandi March and March on Washington speech "I have a Dream".
Literal English translation of Satyagraha means passive resistance. Satyagraha is basically a philosophical strategy to fight evil and unrighteousness by seeking truth in spirit of peace and love. Satyagraha is adopted when people refuse to cooperate and protest non-violently.
Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa by population.
The Asiatic Registration Act of the Transvaal Colony was an extension of the pass laws specifically aimed at Asians.
He served as prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948.
A Christian missionary, educator and social reformer in India, he became a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi and identified with the cause of India's independence.
Champaran is a village in the state of Bihar where a crop, indigo is produced in large quantity.
The Rowlatt act is law promulgated by the Imperial Legislative Council in order to sustain public control and root out conspiracy. The Rowlatt act effectively authorizes the British government to imprison any person suspected of terrorism for a total of 2 years. It gave the Britishers power to control political activities since public gatherings were banned as per the Rowlatt law.
Declaration of the Independence of India.
The first laws to regulate the salt tax were made by British East India Company.
Translation of "Harijan": "Child of Hari/Vishnu" is a term popularized by Mohandas Gandhi for referring to Dalit's, traditionally considered to be untouchable.
Untouchables are the practice of ostracizing a group by segregating them from the mainstream by social custom or legal mandate.
Vinayak Narahari "Vinoba" Bhave was an Indian advocate of nonviolence and human rights. Often called Acharya, he is best known for the Bhoodan Movement. He is considered as a National Teacher of India and the spiritual successor of Mohandas Gandhi.
Quite India Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's call for satyagraha.
The Albany movement is one of the most notable movements signifying the failure of mass protests.
Eugene "Bull" Connor was the Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, during the American Civil Rights Movement.
Ralph Abernathy was a leader of American Civil rights Movement, a minister and a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Birmingham campaign – A movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to bring attention to African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama.
Detroit – City in Michigan
March on Washington- On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C for a rally known as March on Washington for jobs and freedom.
I have a dream – A public speech delivered by American civil rights by Martin Luther King, in rally of march on Washington.
Drew D. Hansen, He practices law in Seattle. He is an American political of the Democratic Party and author; he is a member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing the 23rd district.
Bipin Chandra was an Indian Historian, specializing in economic and political history of modern India. He was a professor of modern history at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Anaphora – The repetition of phases in text to create rhetoric effect.
Manipulate- To handle or to control.
Nefarious- An action or an activity, which is wicked.
Viceroy Lord Irwin – The Governor of India or the Viceroy headed the British administration in India, after India got independence, they become the representative of the Indian monarch.
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