The Strategies of Thoreau with King and Gandhi - Essay Example

& Number: Effecting Social Change (Human Resources Essay) 28 April (estimated word count 470) Introduction This paper examines how some people who were very resolute in their ideas, aims, and purposes were able to effect change in society during their times. It is also important to note how they achieved social change despite all the odds arrayed against them, and what are the key success factors that finally gave them what they wanted. Three famous people in our times achieved great things, such as Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) who was abolitionist, the great Mahatma Gandhi of India (1869-1948), and lastly, Martin Luther King of America (1929-1968). Each of these three people fought against social injustice using various means at their disposal, by employing creative strategies to fight against entrenched economic interests and also long-standing cultural and political practices. Moreover, this essay also attempts to give the reader some points to ponder, on how these strategies can be used today to achieve a certain aim or advocacy, such as fighting climate change, gun control, and human rights. Discussion Henry David Thoreau was an eminent American author, philosopher, poet, naturalist, social critic, historian, and most importantly, an abolitionist who fought hard against slavery. His writings were instrumental in shaping American public opinion in his time on the evils of slavery, as an aberration in American historical and political development. He is most famous for his book Walden, which is a philosophical reflection on the benefits of simple living while his essay “Civil Disobedience” laid the groundwork for later activists such as Gandhi and also Martin Luther King himself; the principles in the said essay are to fight for individual rights. However, it was his essay “A Plea for Captain John Brown” in 1853 which made the people who were against slavery take notice of how important it was to fight for liberty, this in behalf of the black slaves. This particular essay was delivered as a speech in defense of the attack carried out by Captain Brown and his men against a federal government armory; with a hope of capturing firearms and to distribute these to plantation slaves and spark a rebellion. Although many thought the attack was foolhardy, even suicidal, from a military standpoint, it was Thoreau's effusive speech which praised Brown that galvanized the Northerners to finally end slavery. He said it costs nothing to be just. The basis of Thoreau’s political thinking came from his “Civil Disobedience” essay where he advocates for people to assert their citizens’ rights against a government which they think has become unjust, that the best government is a government that governs the least. Resistance to government can be justified if following it is unconscionable; additionally, strong individuals can take action on their own if they will think their government is uncaring, unwieldy, too big, or even abusive or repressive. An example of this individualistic attitude was Captain Brown, who saw it fit to take action on his own to end slavery, but Thoreau did not want anarchy but only a better government (Thoreau 2). The moral philosophy of Thoreau also influenced the political ideas of Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi in his uphill struggle against British colonial rule in India. In particular, the strategies used by Gandhi were based on Thoreau's moral civil disobedience. This is a focal point in Gandhi's fight because it gave him and his followers the moral high ground. Gandhi was a lawyer, and he knew there were many instances in which laws can be immoral. In this regard, he used the legal system to beat the British using his peaceful civil disobedience, such as not paying taxes (reminiscent of what Thoreau also did who went to jail for one night) and in leading the 400-km march against the British-imposed national salt tax. Martin Luther King (MLK) was a pivotal figure in the Civil Rights Movement as he struggled to unify the struggles of black Americans. There were also other black leaders with similar aims, such as Medgar Evers, who was also assassinated like MLK. Evers was one of the first prominent black leaders to be killed back in 1963, earlier than when MLK got killed. The Civil Rights Movement got its start during the Great Depression, when the economy was going under and blacks bore the most burden in terms of unemployment. President Theodore Roosevelt implemented his New Deal programs to revive the economy, and this momentum for reforms soon spilled over into the social and political arenas. The stated aim was to gain equality for all races. Many black Americans did not achieve or attain civil and political rights due to blatant discrimination such as the Jim Crow laws of the South or overt discrimination in many spheres of life, like in housing facilities, job openings, and educational opportunities. King called this new stirring among blacks for equality as the Third Revolution; the first was the American Revolution for independence, while the second revolution was the Civil War. He deemed it as an unfinished business from the Civil War because blacks still continue to be enslaved: suffering silently, waiting patiently, and enduring quietly (King 63). Blacks can no longer afford to not take action; they are now protesting to proclaim its unendurability. Henry David Thoreau used wit, satire, rhetoric, metaphors, and paradox to prod his fellow citizens to throw away the justifications for slavery. All his writings, books, essays, and speeches helped shaped public opinion as he was recognized as a gifted and influential writer. Mahatma Gandhi utilized the principles of civil disobedience propounded by Thoreau to help trounce the British by infuriating them and to finally abandon India as their jewel colony. He was used to utilizing legalisms and the same laws imposed by British rulers to question their authority. Martin Luther King employed sit-ins, prayer rallies, and freedom rides for his aim. Based from the foregoing discussion, it is Mahatma Gandhi who faced the biggest or the most monumental task of effecting the desired changes and reforms. Firstly, Gandhi was up against a recognized world power at that time, which was Great Britain. This country had the most extensive colonies ever of any nation in history, which was exemplified by the boast of “the sun never sets on the British Empire” as its colonies encircle whole areas of the world. After losing the American colonies when Britain lost in the War for Independence, it is now more determined than ever not to lose its precious crown jewel among colonies because of its lucrative spice trade in India, including trade in other commodities such as tea and opium. It was expected to fight at all costs any attempts of Indian nationalism to gain its independence. It was a fight of one nation against another but alien nation, but against a big colonial power. During the American civil war, it was merely a fight among brothers, the agricultural and less populated South versus an industrialized but more populous North; Gandhi’s fight against the British in India was an unequal fight, in terms of military or political resources. Moreover, Gandhi was also fighting a centuries-old cultural practice of the caste system, the social and economic system based on the same principles of discrimination, but this time, on a politics of exclusion and a pattern of marginalization of certain sectors. From fighting on two fronts (against British rule and against an ingrained or embedded Indian caste system), then it can be concluded the task of Gandhi was effectively doubled and made more monumental. Conclusion In terms of legacy, Martin Luther King can be considered as the most successful. This is because he was able to effect changes on a much wider scale, by eliminating practices of segregation and also uplifting the lives of many African-Americans with better economic opportunities today, greater political rights (such as the right of suffrage) and civil freedoms. It can be said he eventually produced a landmark achievement, the election of the first black president back in 2008 in the person of Barack Obama. Despite the efforts of Gandhi, its caste system still exists in India today, despite the valiant attempts to eradicate it because it is still very deeply ingrained in Indian society, in its cultural practices and even religious beliefs. In political teachings, Gandhi always emphasized on his favorite twin principles of satyagraha (or the power of non-violence) and also that of swaraj (this word means self-rule, freedom, or self-governance) but still there are outcasts in society in India, relegated to doing the most menial jobs that nobody ever wants because of a rigid social hierarchy. Gandhi was able to defeat the British rulers by driving them mad with his passive resistance and non-cooperation, ideas he got from the civil disobedience essay of Thoreau (Gandhi 50), but the caste system is still prevalent in many areas of India, because the people are resistant to change. Works Cited Gandhi, Mahatma. Selected Political Writings. Indianapolis, IN, USA: Hackett Publishing, 1996. Print. King, Martin Luther. Why We Can’t Wait. Boston, MA, USA: Beacon Press, 2011. Print. (Note: a re-print). Thoreau, Henry David. Civil Disobedience and Other Essays. Mineola, NY, USA: Dover Publications Incorporated, 1993. Print. Read More