In February 1959, three years after leading the Montgomery bus boycott that resulted from Rosa Parks’ arrest, Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta, landed in what was then called Bombay, India, to visit the land of his hero, Mohandas Gandhi, the father of nonviolent protest.
“For a long time, I had wanted to take a trip to India. Even as a child, the entire Orient held a strange fascination for me—the elephants, the tigers, the temples, the snake charmers, and all the other storybook characters. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
At the time of the bus boycott, King referred to Gandhi as “the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.” He and his followers spoke of Gandhi often, and following the success of the boycott in 1956, King made plans to visit India to deepen his understanding of Gandhian principles.
King wanted to see this place where the people’s fight to free themselves from the British monarchy had inspired his fight for justice in the U.S. He also wished to see the so-called Untouchables, the lowest caste in India’s ancient caste system. He had read about them and had sympathy. They were left behind even after India won independence in 1947.
King’s other obligations, such as traveling to Ghana and finishing his memoir “Stride Toward Freedom,” delayed his going. Then came Mrs. Izola Curry, who attempted assassination by stabbing him in the chest with a letter opener as he sat autographing books in a Harlem store.
He barely survived this injury, and this delayed his trip further. However, when he finally went at Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's invitation, he stayed for an entire month.
A Hero in India
In India, King was greeted as a hero. The Prime Minister, the President, and the Vice-President, members of Parliament, Governors, and Chief Ministers of states, writers, professors, and social reformers all came to receive him. Greeters covered him and Coretta in garlands upon arrival.
King returned their compliments by saying, 'To other countries, I may go as a tourist, but to India, I come as a pilgrim.”
While touring, King found that even common people in India had been following the challenges of his oppressed people in America. They knew about the bus boycott he had led years ago. Wherever he went, the people of Bombay and Delhi crowded around him for autographs.
He said, “Occasionally, I would take a morning walk in the large cities, and out of the most unexpected places, someone would emerge and ask, “Are you Martin Luther King?”
King afterward said that the Indian people looked upon him as a brother and that his skin color was an asset. He felt a fraternal bond thanks to the common cause of minority and colonial peoples in America and Asia struggling to throw off racial discrimination and imperialism.
A Startling Revelation
Still, he had a startling revelation. One afternoon, King and his wife traveled to Trivandrum in the state of Kerala at the southern tip of the country. There, he visited high school students whose families had been Untouchables. The principal introduced him.
“Young people,” he said, “I would like to present to you a fellow untouchable from the United States of America.”
King was stunned to hear that term applied to him. After all, he had flown in from the United States, dined with the Prime Minister, and been received as an honored guest wherever he went.
He couldn’t see what the Indian caste system had to do with him, nor did he understand why the lowest-caste people in India would perceive him, an African American and a distinguished visitor, as equal in status.
“For a moment,” he wrote, “I was a bit shocked and peeved that I would be referred to as an untouchable.”
However, he then began to consider the reality of the people he was fighting for. They were 20 million people, relegated to the lowest rank in his country for centuries and “still smothering in an airtight cage of poverty.” They lived isolated in ghettoes and were exiles in their own country.
Even when some reached celebrity status, they were still viewed as being inferior. After winning gold for the United States in 1960, for instance, Mohammed Ali was referred to as “the Olympic nigger” and denied restaurant service at downtown Louisville restaurants.
King concluded, “Yes, I am an untouchable, and every Negro in the United States of America is an untouchable.”
He realized that the Land of the Free had its own caste system, even if it didn’t use that term. He had unwittingly lived within it his whole life. It was this system that undergirded the forces he was fighting in his country.
Today, Dr. King is widely revered with monuments, streets and schools named after him, and a national holiday in his honor. However, in his lifetime, he was widely unpopular, despite winning a Nobel Peace Prize. He was, after all, assassinated.
A 1966 Gallup poll found that almost two-thirds of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of him. He was hated by many for fighting segregation not only in the South but also in the North, for speaking out against the Vietnam War, and for his Poor People's Campaign to highlight the plight of Americans living in poverty. It is in hindsight that he is viewed on the right side of history.
What Can We Do?
What can we do to honor Dr. King’s legacy? We can educate ourselves. There are numerous movies and documentaries devoted to his life and work. Some examples:
We can also act. “Everyone can be great,” King once said, “because everyone can serve.” Since 1994, Martin Luther King Day has been designated by Congress as a National Day of Service.
Americorps offers numerous local opportunities on its website, many of which can be done virtually. For instance, you can donate to a local food bank, volunteer to tutor, participate in suicide prevention, and offer transcription for the Smithsonian Institution and National Archives.
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