Humanities: History

MYP Year 5

Initiator: Ravinder Kaur

Made by: Deep Shah
Contents

Task ...........................................................................................................................3
Research Question.....................................................................................................3
Plan of Investigation .................................................................................................3
Summary of Evidences..............................................................................................3
Evaluation of Sources................................................................................................5
Analysis......................................................................................................................7
Timeline.....................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.................................................................................................................8
Bibliography...............................................................................................................9
Task: -
Research based report on the similarities and differences in the strategies employed by Mahatma
Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King during their struggle to freedom and social justice.

Research Question: -
To what extent was non-violent protesting helpful to Martin Luther King (MLK) and Mahatma
Gandhi (MG) in achieving justice for Afro-Americans and Indians?

Plan of Investigation: -
Martin Luther King1 and Mahatma Gandhi2 were both different leaders who have contributed to
their own countries and for their own people. They have played a very important role in their
societies and for country in shaping the history. They both had the same objective of achieving
freedom3; they both have used common strategies like ‘Nonviolent Resistance’ 4 to gain freedom
peacefully.

There are various sources which I have used in order to collect the information. So first of all the
main source will be internet, though it’s the most resourceful source and can compare and
contrasts on information, and also choose the best of one. Then other source that will be used is
books like for Mahatma Gandhi there is this 2 books called ‘The Story Of My Experiments With
Truth5’, then the second book is ‘Gandhi’ where all his history is there. For Martin Luther King
there is this book called ‘The Autobiography of Martin Luther King’.

Summary of Evidences: -
Today people are free because of these two main leaders who helped them to achieve freedom
Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. They are the one who led many movements and
protests and applied different strategies that can help them to achieve their goal which was to get
freedom and one of the crucial movements / strategy 6 both the leaders used was nonviolent
resistance. Martin Luther King was inspired to use this strategy from Mahatma Gandhi. It is one
of the peaceful ways of achieving justice but sometimes this peaceful act turned out to be a
failure or the people who are in this strategy has to bear a lot.

1
Martin Luther King’s original name was Michael king and was born on 15 th January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
He was the social activist who led the civil rights movement in U.s. He was then assassinated on 4 th April 1968.
2
Mahatma Gandhi’s original name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and was born on 2 nd October 1869 in
Porbandar, India. He was a lawyer, a politician, a social activist, and a writer who then became a leader who led the
nationalist movement against the British rule.
3
The right to act, think, speaks as the person wants and also the condition of not being imprisoned and enslaved.

4
Nonviolent is an action through which we can achieve justice.
5
The condition of being true.

6
A plan to achieve your aim.
Timeline:-

Mahatma Gandhi major events timeline: -

 31st July, 1907: British tries to register Indians as members of The Boer Republic
Transvaal7, which was under control of the British but fails as the Indians and Mahatma
Gandhi refuse to be the members and occurred first ever nonviolence resistance action in
South Africa which was then called ‘Satyagraha’.
 13th November, 1913: Gandhi and other Indians in Natal and Transvaal did a march for a
peaceful protest against the racist poll tax8 and the marriage laws.
 6th April, 1919: People organized a protest for the Rowlatt Act9.
 1920 – 1922: Mahatma Gandhi used nonviolent action he helped the untouchables to
improve their status in the Indian society and also get the rights they don’t get and mostly
this event took place in.

 12th March – 6th April 1931: Mahatma Gandhi led nonviolent march.
 1930 – 1934 that was to reject the British imposed taxes and also refusing / boycotting
the British made products using the non violent resistance strategy that led to affect the
British economy.
 The last movement that was led by Mahatma Gandhi which was known as ‘Quit India
Movement’ where all the Indians protested against the British people to quit India in a
Non-violent manner which than affected British and they had no choice instead to quit
India.

7
The Boer Republic Transvaal, refers to the control of the British, attempts to register all Indians present in South
Africa as members; Mahatma Gandhi and other Indians refuse to register. Their refusal marks the first use of the
nonviolent strategy by the Indian people in South Africa, soon it was known as the satyagraha, or "soul-force
movement." 
8
Poll tax is known as head tax which is collected a fix sum of tax.

9
Rowlatt Acts happened in February 1919, legislation that are passed by the Imperial Legislative Council.
The acts allowed certain political cases to be tried without juries and permitted internment of suspects
without trial.
Evaluation of Sources: -
Mahatma Gandhi
Book 1: The Story Of My Experiments With Truth: -
The Story of My Experiments with Truth is an autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi, which covers
his life from the childhood to 1921, which includes his childhood, the experience of South
Africa, his history of his name being changed, the experimentation he does on the truth, his
beliefs and god. The book tells that how he used the principles of Truth, Non-violence,
Satyagraha and his motivational thoughts that he conveys to the people. This book is basically
about the experiments with the truth that Mahatma Gandhi experiments in his life journey. He
was the most influential person and always tells people about his philosophy on non violence,
and how he used this as a weapon. It was a good and informative book but could add more
people’s perspective in it, so that everyone’s points of views are showcased.

Martin Luther King

Book 2: The Autobiography of Martin King Luther: -
This book tells about the struggles that Martin Luther king has faced with philosophy, religion
and the racial policies of the U.S government which he tries to change; it also tells how he was
inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's teachings on nonviolent resistance to exploitation. The book
allows the reader to get into its issue about Rosa Parks and the bus boycott in Birmingham that
launched the civil rights movement, how he tries to use non violent strategy here. The book is in
detail and strong to the point but there is one limitation that there is no other viewpoints that
allows the reader to imagine different points of views in the book, but otherwise it is a very
informative book.

Analysis: -
Mahatma Gandhi fought for the Indians and Martin King Luther is an American who fought for
the Afro-Americans to get independence. They have done too much for their countries and for
their people. Their thoughts and opinions have changed people’s mindset and the way they react,
think and behave. They were very impactful leaders. Their own motive behind everything was
peace and that everyone should get.

There were many similarities between Mahatma Gandhi and Martin King Luther such as the
strategies they used were similar; they both gave speeches to motivate people, to prove their
point and to also explain people about it, one main thing that Martin King Luther is inspired by
Mahatma Gandhi and used its strategies, techniques in order to fight justice. Martin King Luther
used one main strategy that Mahatma Gandhi also used which was ‘Nonviolent resistance’; he
was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and thought this technique was useful and effective one and
this could lead to their freedom and get justice. Mahatma Gandhi was inspired and learnt
‘Ahimsa’ which is known as nonviolence from religions such as Jain, Christianity and
Buddhism.

Martin Luther King was an Afro-American who became the leader for the Afro-Americans in
fighting against the racial discrimination by the white people of America, who discriminated the
black Americans and also they created some laws against the Afro-Americans like distribution
law, they did not get all the civil rights a normal American would get. Martin Luther King used
nonviolent resistance and power of words. So here one of the major movements that Martin
Luther King led to achieve freedom was ‘Non-Violent protest’. He used the authority of words
and performed nonviolent resistance to achieve his goals. Martin Luther King led the nonviolent
movement / campaign / protest in 1963 which was directed at Alabama and Birmingham, which
were considered the most segregated cities in America at that time and MLK is the one who
assisted the whole movement and have done many acts to free all the Afro-Americans and
achieve respect for Afro-Americans and get all the rights that Afro-Americans don’t get. Albany
movement was one of the major event that took place in December, and he was arrested for
peaceful demonstrators, and he declined his bail till they changed the segregation laws. After
yearly protests the Albany police chief took him out of the jail and they eventually got their few
results after continuing the peaceful protest for a year. He was inspired to lead the non-violent
protests by Mahatma Gandhi; he also learned through Mahatma Gandhi’s peaceful teachings,
and he was also inspired by his faith in Christianity.

Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian freedom fighter as well as a leader who led the civil rights
movement in India and helped Indians achieve freedom from the British rule. Mahatma Gandhi
is known as the father of our nation and everybody called him ‘Bapuji’, who fought for the rights
against the British government in order to get freedom and liberty. He was the first one to start
the idea of non-violent protest to achieve freedom, which then became so famous that everybody
started to use this technique / strategy to achieve freedom or any other thing very peacefully.
First ever non-violent protest / resistance that Mahatma Gandhi used is when he helped the
untouchables to improve their status in the Indian society and also get the rights they don’t get
and mostly this event took place in 1920 – 1922. Other major event that took place in 1930 –
1934 that was to reject the British imposed taxes and also refusing / boycotting the British made
products using the non violent resistance strategy that led to affect the British economy. The last
movement that was led by Mahatma Gandhi which was known as ‘Quit India Movement’ where
all the Indians protested against the British people to quit India in a Non-violent manner which
than affected British and they had no choice, but to quit India.

Conclusion: -
This strategy was useful for both Martin King Luther and Mahatma Gandhi and their some
protests were a failure some made less impact and others were good. This strategy helped them
to fight injustice peacefully and through this they could achieve their aim but had to bear. This
also helped them to overcome inequality. Mahatma Gandhi was an inspiration for Martin Luther
king in conducting the non violent movement for the inequality that was happening and the
rights which the people did not get, which then helped them to get freedom. Gandhi was very
confident in facing British and took lead of whole nationalist movement, in order to free them.
Martin Luther King faced the USA government, its people and its unfair laws. Both the leaders
were very confident and applied good, though Martin Luther King was inspired by Mahatma
Gandhi, but he applied and demonstrated non violent strategy more in a efficient way than
Mahatma Gandhi. Both the leaders maintained the spirit very well. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin
Luther king did lot of struggle in order to get all the civil rights, and both were successful using
of non-violence action.
Bibliography

Websites: -
The Yugoslavia – Albania Border Dispute: Accessed on 5 th Feb: Prezi.com

The Martin Luther king and nonviolent social change: Accessed on 21st November 2018:
www.thekingcenter.org

Martin Luther king and Mahatma Gandhi: Accessed on 20th November 2018:
www.theindianpanorama.news

Martin Luther king and peaceful protests: Accessed on 24th November 2018: Time.com

Nonviolent Resistance: Accessed on 24th November: Wikipedia.org

Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Nonviolent Action: Accessed on 26 th November 2018:
Unesdoc.unesco.org

Timeline of Gandhi movements: Accessed on 26 th November 2018: Sparknotes.com and

gandhiheritageportal.org

Non-violent philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King: Accessed on 26 th

November 2018: Researchgate.net

Martin Luther king timeline: Accessed on 28th November 2018: Ctvnews.ca

Non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi: Accessed on 26th November 2018: Mkgandhi.org

Martin Luther king accomplishments, facts and biography: Accessed on 28 th November 2018:
Britannica.com

Gandhi and nonviolence: Accessed on 24th November 2018: Historytoday.com

Books: -
The Story of my experiments with truth: Accessed on 24 th November 2018

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King: Accessed on 24 th November 2018