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

Nonviolence 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 force to achieve goals” (TheFreeDictionary, 2012). While Martin Luther King considers nonviolence as the fundamental code of life in all 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 external and the internal factors influencing one’s life.

This paper draws a comparison between the views of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi regarding nonviolence. Martin Luther King’s Views on Nonviolence Martin Luther King thought of the society as one unit in which if one is affected by the violence in some way, its consequences are borne by all people in the society indirectly.Therefore, the first and the foremost responsibility of every citizen is to feel this sense of belongingness and concernedness when somebody experiences violence. Martin Luther King believed that a nonviolent campaign basically consists of four steps; 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 one’s attempt to eradicate violence from the society and spread peace. Even the “direct action” which apparently seems to be a little rough approach towards the resolution of the matter is not-so-rough in the real sense, as it is also nonviolent. Examples of the nonviolent direct action are marches 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 tension.

While negotiation is a fairly effective way of reducing tension between two or more parties, the results are not always very objective and solid because of the non-seriousness of some people in the concerned groups. Mahatma Gandhi’s 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 one’s honor” (Gandhi cited in Kripalani and Radhakrishnan, 1958, p. 86). From this quotation of Gandhi, it can be inferred that Gandhi considered one’s 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 Gandhi’s and Martin Luther King’s 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. Gandhi’s 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 culture is so common, it is beyond doubt that the ones enjoying the superior status do not like to step down to the level of the victims of discrimination and segregation so that negotiation can be carried out. The first and the foremost prerequisite of