In speeches across India and the US, Jesse Jackson credited Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence for shaping global civil rights movements and influencing leaders from King to Mandela.
Veteran US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who often cited Mahatma Gandhi as a moral inspiration, died on Tuesday. | Photo: Tourism Ministry/Wikimedia
Jesse Jackson, the veteran American civil rights leader who died on Tuesday, placed himself in a global lineage of anti-racism icons shaped by Mahatma Gandhi, calling the apostle of non-violence the “spiritual godfather” of leaders like Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela.
Jackson made the remark during a keynote address in New Delhi in 2008, marking the 60th anniversary of Gandhi’s martyrdom.
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Speaking in New Delhi in 2008, Jackson said Gandhi’s ideas continued to resonate decades after his death. “Even 60 years after his martyrdom, his dreams of democracy, peace and human rights are alive,” he said. “Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King were dreamers who marched to a different beat and heard a different sound.”
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He described Gandhi’s “quest to end barbaric enmity based upon class, tribe, race and gender” as a force that still carried momentum. For Jackson, decolonisation “for the most part, all of Africa, Asia, South, Central and Latin America and the Caribbean” over the past six decades was part of that larger arc shaped by non-violence and moral courage.
“Nuclear war and greed remain our threats (but) non-violence and Satyagraha, soul force, remains our therapy, and the only window from which the peace we seek is possible,” he said.
Jackson also acknowledged Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s role in India’s freedom struggle. During a visit to Kolkata in 2014, he toured Netaji Bhawan and wrote in the visitors’ book: “Gandhi plus Bose equals Liberation.”
Jackson carried forward the peaceful strategy that King used to push through landmark civil rights reforms in the United States. Those gains, leaders from the Indian diaspora have often pointed out, also reshaped America’s immigration landscape.
MR Rangaswami, founder of Indiaspora, recalled telling Jackson: “The Indian community owes an enduring debt to the African-American community. The courage and sacrifice that led to the Civil Rights Act also made immigration reform possible, opening America’s doors to people of colour that included many of us!”
In Kolkata, Jackson addressed students at the Indian Institute of Management, reflecting on globalisation and shared responsibility. He argued that the idea of a “foreigner” should give way to common international rules grounded in economic justice.
Explaining what he called the “Save the House” principle, he said that if a house is on fire, it makes no sense to try to save only one room. The entire structure must be protected collectively.
Jackson’s political ambitions extended beyond activism. During his 1984 bid for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, he invoked then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as an example of female leadership, saying she “can run India, a nation of 600 million people,” as he argued for selecting a woman as his running mate.
His daughter, Santita Jackson, later said that the campaign influenced Democratic nominee Walter Mondale’s decision to choose Geraldine Ferraro as his vice-presidential running mate, the first woman on a major party ticket in the United States.
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