Commemoration of King's Indian Pilgrimage: Saturday 14 February

[Clayborne Carson]

In the morning, I went to Rimpa: The
Ravi Shankar Centre ["Peace through Music"] for a jazz master class attended by about 50 Indian musicians and conducted by Herbie Hancock, George Duke, as well as other less well known musicians who are all here in New Delhi for the "Living Dream" concert on Monday night. Shankar was present as Hancock and Duke explained the essentials of jazz while also performing in the beautiful Centre, filled with photographs and awards documenting Shankar's illustrious career. After Hancock's group played to the enthusiastic audience, Shankar came forward along with several musicians to offer a similar demonstration-lecture on traditional Indian music. The class ended with Shankar encouraging Hancock and Duke to join with the Indian musicians, offering a intriguing blend of India and African-American musical traditions. The audience witnessed a historic, emotional moment as the two great artists greeted and praised one another. Then
Mansi took me for a quick but enjoyable sightseeing visit to the Hauz Khas ruin before I went back to the
Hind Swaraj seminar to participate in the concluding plenary session titled "Towards a Harmonious World Order." I argued that Gandhi and King both were visionaries who sought global social justice that was rooted in a radical interpretation of traditional ideals -- both political (for King, the Declaration of Independence) and religious (for King: the social gospel of Jesus). My conclusion suggested that both visionaries challenge us to continue exploring the radical implications of traditional egalitarian and democratic ideals by moving beyond conceptions of citizenship rights that depend on the power of nation states toward a concept of universal human rights rooted in the Jeffersonian ideal expressed in the American Declaration of Independence.