September 11: 100th Anniversary of Gandhi's First Public Protest

[Sapphire Blue]

September 11: 100th Anniversary of Gandhi's First Public Protest
by Tobias Winright
SojoMail 9-06-2006

On Sept. 11 Americans will remember the fifth anniversary of the nightmarish terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Probably unbeknownst to many, however, is that Sept. 11 also marks, according to the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's first public act of civil disobedience.

Of course, civil disobedience is not unfamiliar to Sojourners and SojoMail readers. Indeed, when putting "civil disobedience" into the Sojourners site search, nearly 300 references to this practice of public protest are found. There are articles on the biblical roots of civil disobedience, the annual protests at the School of the Americas (recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), the arrest of Jim Wallis and many other religious leaders who called for a moral budget, the call by Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles for a church-wide commitment to acts of civil disobedience through providing hospitality to immigrants, and the arrest of Cindy Sheehan and Sojourners associate editor Rose Marie Berger a year ago for protesting the Iraq war, just to mention a few.

To be sure, these examples are in line with Gandhi's first public protest back on Sept. 11, 1906, in Johannesburg, South Africa, and it may be appropriate for us to remember this benchmark event, especially since much of what Gandhi was protesting has striking parallels in contemporary U.S. society.

(snip)

A century later, where there continues to be fear of the other, violence begetting retaliatory violence, and the erosion of civil rights by government, Christians who care about justice and peace should revisit the writings and example of Gandhi, as the "American Gandhi" Martin Luther King Jr., did nearly a half a century ago. In Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, King described how he came to realize "that the Christian doctrine of love operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence was one of the most potent weapons" in the civil rights struggle. Indeed, he wrote, "Christ furnished the spirit and motivation, while Gandhi furnished the method." Let us not allow the terrible violence of Sept. 11, 2001, but rather the nonviolent force more powerful of Sept. 11, 1906, to have the last word for the answer to the question in the title of another of King's books, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

Tobias Winright teaches Christian ethics at Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Missouri.

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=news.display_article&mode=C&NewsID=5537

Edited to add:

'Unity Walk' to mark Sept. 11

Please join national faith leaders in New York City and Washington, D.C., to peacefully commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In both cities, faith leaders will stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a Gandhi-style "Unity Walk" to encourage people of all faiths to "know and love thy neighbor." Please follow these links for more information:

DC Walk Sunday Sep 10th : http://www.911unitywalk.org/content/view/5/6/

New York Unity Walk on Monday 9/11: http://www.911unitywalk.org/content/view/43/74/

[Captain Hilts]

1. This is great! nt

[zeemike]

2. Let me be the first to K&R this...it is important

for us to remember this.

[Sapphire Blue]

3. kicking for the 'Unity Walk' added to the OP on edit

:kick: