Foundation For India Studies (FIS)  Participates in 23rd MLK Grande Parade

Participants in the parade were : Kulwant Bhatia, Atul Kothari, Satish Saridey, Sai Aakarsha Saridey, Thrayee Sai Saridey, Rajender Aparasu, Shravya Aparasu, Saureesh Aparasu, Krishna Vavilala (FIS Chair), Lakshmi Vavilala, Raghavender Nednur (Event Chair), Kranthi Nednur, Apoorv Nednur.

Participants in the parade were : Kulwant Bhatia, Atul Kothari, Satish Saridey, Sai Aakarsha Saridey, Thrayee Sai Saridey, Rajender Aparasu, Shravya Aparasu, Saureesh Aparasu, Krishna Vavilala (FIS Chair), Lakshmi Vavilala, Raghavender Nednur (Event Chair), Kranthi Nednur, Apoorv Nednur.

By Raghavender Nednur

HOUSTON: For the sixth year in a row Foundation for India Studies (FIS) has participated in the 23rd annual MLK Jr. Grande Parade held in Midtown on January 16, which was a  declared a public holiday. Readers may recall that FIS was the recipient of the 2015 Grand Marshall award.

It was a fun filled 2 hour long,1-hour walk under clear skies. Weather was comfortable for kids and adults alike. The parade provided an opportunity for the Indian community to express solidarity with grass roots America through the values expounded by Martin Luther King Jr. who had adopted Mahatma Gandhi ji’s principles of non-violence and civil disobedience in his struggle against racial discrimination in America.

FIS-in-1

Though the two had never met, MLK Jr. was profoundly influenced and inspired by Gandhi ji’s philosophy of Peace and Non-violence which took him to India on invitation from Gandhi Memorial Fund. Dr. King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott visited India in Feb.1959. King declared that he may go to other countries as tourist, but to India he would go as a pilgrim.

King also spoke on All India Radio broadcast when he said, “If this age is to survive, it must follow the way of love and nonviolence that [Gandhi] so nobly illustrated in his life.” Upon his return from India, Dr. King also wrote in Ebony magazine that his visit to India was a revelation as if “the spear of frustration had been transformed into a “shaft of Light”.