Icons of peace who walked on our earth ---Dr. Wachanga

Before Mahatma Gandhi, that icon who declared that only truth conquers, succumbed to three bullets from an assassin on 30th January 1948, one of the greatest thinkers, Albert Einstein had already immortalized the reverence, which Gandhi would later demand from humanity: Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. The same month, almost 20 years before, Martin Luther King Jr., who was to profoundly derive inspiration from Gandhi, was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Both, at different times, took upon themselves to enlighten a society that had become what psychoanalysts would call a bad mother, a cannibal that devours her own offspring.

Born Mohandas Karamchand in October 1869, Gandhi led India to independence from a restrictive British colonial system. A simple man, owning only two pairs of leather sandals and spectacles, Gandhi pursued Satyagraha, truth force; a system of non-violence formulated on understanding that India’s civilization demanded a “different and higher weapon for self-protection.” His philosophy, rooted in a firm belief that human beings have a deep need to love and to be loved, as opposed to hate and to be hated, changed many hearts of the world, carving a lasting niche as a “solace to innumerable souls.” He constantly reminded the world that the good in humanity should arouse love, not hate, that human energy should only be used for what is good, that truth has power; it eventually conquers, a fact he exemplified when he defied the Salt Laws that oppressed his people. He led numerous demonstrations, impressing on his followers not to hate the colonialists, but their ideas; to reject the colonialists' acts and not to hurt them.

A veritable embodiment of love, Gandhi inspired Martin Luther King Jr. as he fought for racial equality in the United States. Like Gandhi, King knew that one who lacks something to die for is not fit to live. Like Gandhi, he resisted the temptation of violent confrontation, even when criticism abound from militant activists like Stokely Carmichaels, the young philosophy graduate who first shouted “black power!” along the highway in Mississippi in 1966.

When Malcolm X saw King’s “dream” as swiftly degenerating into a nightmare, urging African-Americans to either use the ballot or the bullet in 1964, King maintained the need to “ rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force,” of not allowing “ creative protests to degenerate into physical violence.”

Paradoxically, both men, who never held a weapon during their protests, whose lips only knew the word peace, whose lives exceptionally personified the significance of human dignity, met their death through assassins.

While we wonder what would be their advice in a world so insecure, sections of our society marginalized, poverty stricken, AIDS ravaged, environmentally degraded, humanity threatened, culturally castrated, virtues despised; one thing is certain: we can only ignore them and their legacy at our own peril, for these two belonged to the world.