Why is it said that Martin Luther King Jr. was a true disciple of Gandhiji?

            Gandhiji was very famous world-wide for his non-violent movements, including indefinite fasts and marches. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize about five times throughout his life. His life and teachings have inspired many revolutionaries and liberationists of the 20th century, and Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States was one of them.

            Martin Luther King Jr., the key figure in the Civil Rights Movement in the USA, was greatly inspired by the thoughts and actions of Mahatma Gandhi. He acknowledged this fact many times himself.

            From his schooldays in Pennsylvania, Martin Luther King Jr. was drawn towards Gandhiji’s philosophy and actions. When he was leading the struggle for achieving civil liberty for African-American citizens, he incorporated Gandhian principles. To fight for liberty, he declared his two weapons as faith in God, and non-violence. His incorporation of non-violence started with the famous ‘Bus-Boycott Movement’ in the country.

            King Jr. had claimed that “the spirit of passive resistance came to me from the Bible and Jesus. But the techniques of execution came from Gandhi”.

            Many Gandhian ideals like love, non-violence, and self -sacrifice did go into the formulation of the philosophy and technique of King’s social protest movement.