Opinion Three men and a belief in freedom

Nothing has tormented humanity more than caste,colour and colonialism along with their closest ally,poverty. The repression of the human needs for justice and freedom has scarred millions of lives over the centuries. Three men — Mahatma Gandhi,Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela,who saw and suffered these scourges,made it the mission of their lives to fight them. They never met,but they were contemporaries during a crucial period in the 20th century and were deeply linked in their thoughts and actions. They shared the same vision,their struggle had the same intensity,and they had a common goal: to deliver their people from bondage,the terror of racism and to restore to them the worth of their lives. A news item in Natal about the bill to disenfranchise Indians,and a $10 fine imposed on Rosa Parks,a black girl from Alabama,for occupying a seat reserved for whites,were moments of truth for Gandhi and King. For Mandela it was his “anger over the accumulation of thousands of slights and indignities” that produced in him “a rebelliousness to fight the system that curtailed not just my freedom but of every one who looked like I did”. Historic movements like satyagraha,civil resistance and the campaign of defiance that these men launched have their origin in these events. Much ahead of the universal declaration of human rights,Gandhiji’s satyagraha encompassed his quest for equality and freedom from bondage and discrimination. He defied the bill to disenfranchise Indians. He was arrested,but ultimately the legislation was vetoed by the colonial office in London. Returning to India,he saw the misery wrought by colonial repression. This time,the people of India joined him in his defiance. He rejected stratified customs and orthodox religious practices,untouchability and caste being most repugnant to his conscience. Gandhi led by personal example. In 1947,India got its freedom and all that he fought for,but he fell to an assassin’s bullet in January 1948.Martin Luther King’s commandment to his volunteers was also simple: “Pray daily to be used by God in order that all men be free”. That all human life is inter-related became integral to his thought and action. He was deeply influenced by Gandhi’s principle that “man’s action must be pure and justify the end”. King was assassinated on April 4,1968 in Tennessee when he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with garbage workers. As for Nelson Mandela,from tending sheep and cattle in the fields of Mvezo,he became the embodiment of African nationalism and waged a historic war against apartheid. The African National Congress and Mandela launched a massive campaign of defiance reminiscent of Gandhiji’s satyagraha ( whom whom he described as “the archetypal anti-colonial revolutionary”). He declared,“We want equal political rights because without them our disabilities will be permanent”. Sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment on Robben Island, Mandela lived to achieve the ideal for which he was prepared to die — the end of apartheid and freedom from bondage for his people. After three centuries of harsh rule,power shifted back to the black community and Mandela himself became South Africa’s first black president. These men knew that the dignity of human life means little if all the rights that we are entitled to are not restored to us. It was a unique warfare,where the oppressor was not an enemy. “I consider no one as my enemy,” Gandhi said. King believed that the “Negro must love the white man,because the white man needs his love to remove his tensions,insecurities and fears”. Mandela said that his “hunger for freedom for my own people became the hunger for freedom for all people,white and black”. History knows no men greater than these three men,to whom we must pay highest homage today on the occasion of the World Human Rights Day.

The writer is member,National Human Rights Commission,and former director of the CBI