Transnational Roots of the Civil Rights Movement

This book explores collective learning in the Gandhian repertoire’s transnational diffusion from the Indian independence movement to the American civil rights movement. Instead of focusing primarily on interpersonal linkages or causal mechanisms, it highlights how decades of translation and experimentation by various actors enabled full implementation. It also shows that transnational diffusion was not a linear and predictable process, but underwent numerous twists and turns. It is relevant for contemporary scholars as well as activists.

How did African Americans gain the ability to apply Gandhian nonviolence during the civil rights movement? Responses generally focus on Martin Luther King’s “pilgrimage to nonviolence” or favorable social contexts and processes. This book, in contrast, highlights the role of collective learning in the Gandhian repertoire’s transnational diffusion.

Collective learning shaped the invention of the Gandhian repertoire in South Africa and India as well as its transnational diffusion to the United States. In the 1920s, African Americans and their allies responded to Gandhi’s ideas and practices by reproducing stereotypes. Meaningful collective learning started with translation of the Gandhian repertoire in the 1930s and small-scale experimentation in the early 1940s. After surviving the doldrums of the McCarthy era, full implementation of the Gandhian repertoire finally occurred during the civil rights movement between 1955 and 1965. This book goes beyond existing scholarship by contributing deeper and finer insights on how transnational diffusion between social movements actually works. It highlights the contemporary relevance of Gandhian nonviolence and its successful journey across borders.

CHAPTER 1: Introduction

CHAPTER 2: Invention of the Gandhian Repertoire

CHAPTER 3: Initial Perception of Gandhi

CHAPTER 4: Translation of the Gandhian Repertoire

CHAPTER 5: Experimentation with the Gandhian Repertoire

CHAPTER 6: Survival in the Doldrums

CHAPTER 7: Full Implementation of the Gandhian Repertoire

CHAPTER 8: From Heyday to Decline

CHAPTER 9: Conclusion