Mumbai: Post his India visit in 1959, legendary American political activist and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr wrote: “While the Montgomery boycott was going on, India’s Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of non-violent social change.”
This and more such comments acknowledging Mahatma Gandhi‘s influence on civil rights movements in the US and India’s influence on Martin Luther King Jr’s vision for economic justice and human rights worldwide are part of an exhibition at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in association with The Times of India.
Titled ‘City of Hope: Gandhi, King, and the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign’, the exhibition has been curated by Dr Aaron Bryant, museum curator at Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC. Featuring 24 pieces, including posters, photos, the travelling exhibition has been facilitated by the US consulate and will travel to Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata too.
“In 1968, thousands responded to Dr King’s call and they planned the Poor People’s Campaign, demanding social reforms. The venue of protest for six weeks was the National Mall in Washington DC. It was rechristened Resurrection City,” said Dr Bryant. “This exhibition gets its name from that event in the history of the civil rights movement in the USA.”
To the question why the exhibition is called ‘City of Hope,’ he said, “No matter where you are and no matter whatever your situation maybe, you have to keep hope and this is also the message King and Gandhi gave. Gandhi and King might have individual struggles but their goal was the same. And it was to fight for human rights and human justice.”
How much is Gandhi relevant in the US today? “Oh, there is no one in America who has not heard of Gandhi. I cannot comment on whether textbooks in the US teach Gandhi, but I read about Gandhi as part of world history when I was a student,” he said. Brenda Soya, first secretary, public affairs officer at US Consulate General, said there is a Gandhi-King Exchange Programme where young adults from two countries are allowed to have person-to-person connection and understand the values the two great leaders stood for.
While Washington DC-based Meridian International Centre approached Bryant with the plan of the exhibition, Tejshvi Jain, founder-director, Retreeti Foundation, which works with museums in India, was roped in to co-curate it. Dr Bryant’s talk on ‘City of Hope: Gandhi, King, and the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign’ will be held at 5.30pm on Jan 28 at CSMVS near Kala Ghoda.