Our Vedas and Upanishads teach us that
Divinity exists not only in every human individual, but also every creature. The Bhagavad-Gita echoes this great Truth time and again. Because there is Godly quality in every creature, none is high, no one is low.
The wise look with equanimity on all whether it be a Brahmana endowed with learning and culture, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a pariah too. Because,
But unfortunately, inequalities persist among human beings. People are valued, judged and treated not according to their merit or deserving, but on the basis of their caste, religion, creed, colour and so on. On account of such superficial and superfluous considerations some people become highly respected, some others are treated as lowly and denied even fundamental rights and basic amenities. In one form or the other such discrimination is prevalent in almost all societies and countries.
The black and white divide was rampant in the U.S.A. One of the greatest presidents of the country had to sacrifice his life for the abolition of slavery of the Negroes. Another great leader Martin Luther King Jr. who fought vehemently for the emancipation of Negroes too became a martyr for the noble cause. A speech delivered by him in which he gives powerful expression to his dream is very famous and oft-quoted. A part of it is reproduced below:
“Five score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation proclamation. This momentous decree came as a beacon of light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been scarred in the flames of sweltering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.
One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of an ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society, and finds himself in exile, in his own land.
I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression; will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream, my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their characters. I have a dream today”.