W.E.B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois has perhaps contributed more than any other thinker to our scientific understanding of white supremacy, colonialism and imperialism, and their connection to capitalism, war and poverty. Du Bois wrote a novel Dark Princess, where he put forward the vision of an intercivilizational unity between Africa and Asia through the metaphor of a love affair between an Indian princess and a black man in America.
Book review of Gandhi's autobiography
"It is no accident that Africa not Asia, showed Gandhi his way. The old and tired continent was, in the closing years of the nineteenth century, the critical center of the triumphant imperialism of expanding Europe"
Du Bois would run a magazine called The Crisis which once published a message from Gandhi. It would also publish a message from the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. Du Bois said
"Peculiar circumstances have kept Indians and Americans Negores far apart...My meeting with Tagore helped to change this attitude and today Negroes and Indians realize that they are fighting the same great battle against the assumption of superiority made so often by the white race"
Du Bois would fight for world peace, and the unity of oppressed nations. He wrote a tribute to Gandhi on the occasion of his death
"He was the Prince of Peace and stood among living leaders alone, because of that fact...It is singular that a man who was not a follower of the Christian religion should be in his day the best exemplification of the principles which that religion was supposed to lay down."
Book review of Gandhi's autobiography
"It is no accident that Africa not Asia, showed Gandhi his way. The old and tired continent was, in the closing years of the nineteenth century, the critical center of the triumphant imperialism of expanding Europe"
Du Bois would run a magazine called The Crisis which once published a message from Gandhi. It would also publish a message from the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. Du Bois said
"Peculiar circumstances have kept Indians and Americans Negores far apart...My meeting with Tagore helped to change this attitude and today Negroes and Indians realize that they are fighting the same great battle against the assumption of superiority made so often by the white race"
Du Bois would fight for world peace, and the unity of oppressed nations. He wrote a tribute to Gandhi on the occasion of his death
"He was the Prince of Peace and stood among living leaders alone, because of that fact...It is singular that a man who was not a follower of the Christian religion should be in his day the best exemplification of the principles which that religion was supposed to lay down."
Paul and Eslanda Robeson
Paul Robeson and Eslanda Robeson were fighters of world peace. They had friendships with several prominent Indian leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru and Krishna Menon. Eslanda Robeson would interview Gandhi in London.
India celebrated Paul Robeson's birthday in 1958, with nation-wide celebrations. He was, at that time, a hero to many Indian intellectuals. Robeson participated in the world peace movement and said that the oppressed nations and peoples would not fight Europe's wars.
"But what is perfectly clear today is that nine hundred million other colored people have told you that they will not. Four hundred million in India, and millions everywhere, have told you, precisely, that the colored people are not going to die for anybody: they are going to die for their independence. We are dealing not with fifteen million colored people, we are dealing with hundreds of millions."
He won the Stalin Peace Prize at the same time as the president of the All India Peace Council, Saifuddin Kitchlew. His remarks were
"Yes, peace can and must be won, to save the world from the terrible destruction of World War III. The prize which I have just received will spur me on to greater efforts than ever before to serve the cause of peace and to aid in building a triumphant peace movement in the United States. "
India celebrated Paul Robeson's birthday in 1958, with nation-wide celebrations. He was, at that time, a hero to many Indian intellectuals. Robeson participated in the world peace movement and said that the oppressed nations and peoples would not fight Europe's wars.
"But what is perfectly clear today is that nine hundred million other colored people have told you that they will not. Four hundred million in India, and millions everywhere, have told you, precisely, that the colored people are not going to die for anybody: they are going to die for their independence. We are dealing not with fifteen million colored people, we are dealing with hundreds of millions."
He won the Stalin Peace Prize at the same time as the president of the All India Peace Council, Saifuddin Kitchlew. His remarks were
"Yes, peace can and must be won, to save the world from the terrible destruction of World War III. The prize which I have just received will spur me on to greater efforts than ever before to serve the cause of peace and to aid in building a triumphant peace movement in the United States. "
Dr. King and Coretta Scott King
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would also speak out in favor of world peace. He said in an address to the War Resistor's League in 1959
"Arnold Toynbee says in A Study of History that it may be the colored peoples who will give the new spiritual dynamic to western civilization that it so desperately needs to survive. I hope this is possible. The spiritual power that the colored peoples can radiate to the world comes from love, understanding, goodwill, and nonviolence. It may even be possible for the colored peoples through adherence to nonviolence, so to challenge the nations of the world that they will seriously seek an alternative to war and destruction."
His speech, A Time to Break the Silence in 1967 can be found here
"I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government."
"Arnold Toynbee says in A Study of History that it may be the colored peoples who will give the new spiritual dynamic to western civilization that it so desperately needs to survive. I hope this is possible. The spiritual power that the colored peoples can radiate to the world comes from love, understanding, goodwill, and nonviolence. It may even be possible for the colored peoples through adherence to nonviolence, so to challenge the nations of the world that they will seriously seek an alternative to war and destruction."
His speech, A Time to Break the Silence in 1967 can be found here
"I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government."
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer of all time, stood out against the Vietnam War in 1967, saying
"No, I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over."
He visited India in 1980 and met the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Newspaper reports from that time can be found here.
"No, I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over."
He visited India in 1980 and met the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Newspaper reports from that time can be found here.
