Gandhi's VS. Martin Luther King's Views on Nonviolence Essay

Gandhis VS. Martin Luther nances Views on Nonviolence - Essay physical exertionNonviolence is the doctrine, policy, or practice of rejecting violence in favor of peaceful tactics as a means of gaining political objectives (TheFreeDictionary, 2012). Nonviolence can also mean the abstention from the use of physical tweet to achieve goals (TheFreeDictionary, 2012). While Martin Luther King considers nonviolence as the fundamental code of life in whole situations irrespective of the complexity of the circumstances, Mahatma Gandhi believed in a balance between violence and nonviolence to attain a holistic control over both the international and the internal factors influencing one(a)s life. This paper draws a comparison between the views of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi regarding nonviolence. Martin Luther Kings Views on Nonviolence Martin Luther King thought of the participation as one unit in which if one is affected by the violence in some(prenominal) way, its consequen ces are borne by all people in the society indirectly.Therefore, the first and the foremost responsibility of either citizen is to feel this sense of belongingness and have-to doe withness when somebody experiences violence. Martin Luther King believed that a nonviolent campaign basically consists of four step determination of the existence of injustice by collection of facts, dialogue, self-purification, and lastly, the direct action. None of these steps imparts the need for one to be violent in ones attempt to eradicate violence from the society and dish out peace. Even the direct action which apparently seems to be a little rough approach towards the heroism of the matter is not-so-rough in the real sense, as it is also nonviolent. Examples of the nonviolent direct action are border and sit-ins. The only purpose of these nonviolent direct actions is to convince the other party to conduct dialogue and negotiations with the concerned party to ease the strain. While negotiati on is a fairly effective way of reducing tension between ii or more parties, the results are not always very objective and straight because of the non-seriousness of some people in the concerned groups. Mahatma Gandhis Views on Nonviolence Unlike Martin Luther King, Gandhi has considered violence not only a useful but also compulsory way of attaining control over the external factors. Violence is needed for the protection of things external, non-violence is needed for the protection of the Atma, for the protection of ones honor (Gandhi cited in Kripalani and Radhakrishnan, 1958, p. 86). From this quotation of Gandhi, it can be inferred that Gandhi considered ones self to be incomplete without either of the two violence and nonviolence. Gandhi considered that it was equally important, if not more, for an individual to be violent as nonviolent. Conclusion Comparing Gandhis and Martin Luther Kings views of resolution of issues, it becomes clear that Martin Luther King and Gandhi were on opposite ends of the continuum with respect to the acceptability towards self-violence in life. Gandhis approach is rougher but more practical as compared to that of Martin Luther King. The approach towards the resolution of issues proposed by Marin Luther King requires an individual to display extreme endurance and patience, which does not always lead the individual to the wanted results in the right time. In the contemporary world in which discrimination and segregation on the basis of caste, creed, and last is so common, it is beyond doubt that the ones enjoying the superior status do not like to step set down to the level of the victims of discrimination and segregation so that negotiation can be carried out. The first and the foremost requirement of