[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 132 (Wednesday, July 28, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E836]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     INDIA'S 75TH INDEPENDENCE DAY

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                      HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 28, 2021

  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate 
India on its 75th Independence Day, which will be celebrated this year 
on August 15. On that date, its first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru 
proclaimed that his country, in casting off its British rule, had 
``made a tryst with destiny.'' He said that ``[at] the stroke of the 
midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and 
freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we 
step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul 
of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance . . .''
  Of course, India's history stretches back thousands and thousands of 
years. Its civilization and its contributions to the world are 
countless--from literature to philosophy to mathematics. India today is 
continuing in that tradition by extending a hand to other nations in 
their fight against the pandemic as the country itself manages its own 
severe COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, Indian Americans are making 
countless contributions here in the United States as doctors, lawyers, 
scientists, business owners, artists, and even in the White House in 
the person of Vice President Kamala Harris whose mother was Indian.
  Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that 
India's own struggle for independence greatly influenced the United 
States' own civil rights movement. America's civil rights leaders, from 
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King to my late colleague and friend 
Congressman John Lewis, were inspired by the revered leader of Indian 
independence Mahatma Gandhi. They followed in his footsteps by 
embracing Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent approach to achieving social and 
political justice.
  In fact, when Dr. King left for India in February 1959, he was just 
beginning to make his mark as a leader of the national movement for 
civil rights. He had organized the successful boycott of Montgomery, 
Alabama's public transportation system in 1955, and founded the 
Southern Christian Leadership Conference two years later. His 
burgeoning success had provided his non-violent movement with the 
momentum and potential to become a truly powerful force in the pursuit 
of equal rights for all Americans. This momentum became entrenched 
during Dr. King's trip to India, where his immersion in the world of 
Mahatma Gandhi's own non-violent success led King to commit himself in 
his philosophical entirety to the principle of meeting hate and 
injustice with persistent non-violence.
  Though Gandhi had passed away eleven years prior to Dr. King's 
journey, King was no less attentive to the followers of the great 
shanti sena--the ``non-violent army'' that Gandhi led in his successful 
effort to free his country from the grasp of colonialism. He 
encountered those who had stood with Gandhi through the long, arduous 
struggle for India's sovereignty, and came to deeply understand the 
necessary commitment and purpose of which believers in non-violence 
must never lose sight. Dr. King came to believe that if India can 
assert its independence from the bonds of the British Empire without 
violence, then the United States of America can achieve racial equality 
with the same approach. He took the lessons of a people half a world 
away and applied them to the struggle of his own nation, illustrating 
that a righteous cause pursued by means which justify its ends holds 
universal promise. Perhaps it is best articulated by Dr. King himself: 
``As I delved deeper into the philosophy of Gandhi, my skepticism 
concerning the power of love gradually diminished, and I came to see 
for the first time its potency in the area of social reform.''
  India and the United States share many deep and historic ties. I want 
to congratulate India and its people on the 75th Anniversary of its 
independence. I wish it many more years of peace and prosperity.

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