Part Two: India through King's Eyes
Instructions
Martin Luther King, Jr., his wife Coretta Scott King, and their friend Dr. Lawrence D. Reddick spent over a month in India. The trip was filled with meetings, activities, and cross country travels. During that time King took time to observe Indian society and the way people lived and interacted with each other.
Learning goals:
· to examine how King experienced India
· to analyze the observations King made while traveling
· to note where King saw similarities and differences between the US and India
1. Opening Activity
Read the description of India written by King, Handout D. What was India like at the time of King’s visit? In order to visualize what King had observed in India, ask students to condense King’s description using bullet points. Then use the following categories to summarize: poverty, overpopulation, unemployment/underemployment, caste system.
2. Classroom Activity
Divide students into four groups:
1. Untouchables,
2. Poverty/Employment: India’s Leaders,
3. Poverty/Employment: Prime Minister Nehru,
4. Poverty/Employment: Bhoodanists (Land distribution advocates). Let each group read and discuss the corresponding excerpt from Handout E. Stage a Round Table Discussion where the teacher introduces one of India’s problems (identified in previous activity: poverty, overpopulation, unemployment/underemployment, caste-system) and students present possible solutions using the descriptions and arguments from the handout text. Discussion questions:
· which of the problems India was facing at the time of King’s visit were similar to those in the US?
· would any of the solutions be applicable in the US? If so, which ones, in not, why not?
3. Classroom Activity
Take a look at the India Trip itinerary. The five weeks that Martin Luther King, Jr. and his companions spent in India were busy. King met with politicians, activists, Gandhi’s family members and followers. Take a look at the trip itinerary and point out that some of the meetings and activities were especially important and meaningful to King. Divide the class in three groups. Ask each group to read one of the three documents:
· Prime Minister Nehru (Notes for Conversation between King and Nehru)
· Vinoba Bhave (excerpt from The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume V, Intro, p. 5, first two paragraphs.)
· Untouchable villages (King, Palm Sunday Sermon on Mohandas K. Gandhi, March 22, 1959, p. 10, first two paragraphs)
Discuss why these meetings were important? Did they have any impact on King's work? If so, how did they inform King’s work back in the US?
4. Classroom Activity
In a final farewell statement recorded for All India Radio on March 9, 1959, King was asked to give his impressions of India. Listen to the recording of King's statement. Pause the recording periodically to allow students to take notes. What were King’s main points that he addressed in the recording? Direct students' attention to the following remarks:
· Mahatma Gandhi may well be God’s appeal to this generation, a generation drifting again to its doom. This eternal appeal is in the form of a warning: “They that live by the sword shall perish by the sword.”
· For in a day when Sputniks and Explorers dash through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can win a war.
Ask students to choose one of the remarks and to interpret it. What exactly was King trying to express here? How do these remarks connect to larger global events such as WWII, the Cold War, the nuclear arms race, disarmament, and space exploration?
Materials
Handout D: King's Description
Handout E: Untouchables,Poverty/Employment...
India Trip itinerary
Resources
Notes for Conversation between King and Nehru
Volume V, Intro (The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume V: Threshold of a New Decade, January 1959-December 1960)
Palm Sunday Sermon on Mohandas K. Gandhi
recording (Martin Luther King, Farewell Statement for All India Radio, March 9, 1959)
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