JAN. 14, 2005 | Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mohandas K. Gandhi shared a vision of human equality and compassion, said the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) professor who delivered the keynote address at a Jan. 11 commemoration of King’s life.

Dr. K.S. “Sunny” Anand, a professor of pediatrics, anesthesiology, pharmacology and neurobiology in the UAMS College of Medicine talked about how King and Gandhi sought social justice through non-violent civil disobedience in their countries.

The lives of King, the preacher and civil rights activist, and Gandhi, the activist for Indian independence, intersected on several levels, including their personal backgrounds and the injustices they fought, said Anand, who is also director of the Pain Neurobiology Laboratory in the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

Anand charted the numerous intersections, from their strong belief in non-violent protest to the fact both were assassinated.

“These were two humble, incredibly simple, incredibly sincere people, thrown into very complex situations,” Anand said.

Their commitment to non-violence extended to the movements they led, he said. “They were deeply dismayed when others resorted to violence.”

Focusing on King, Anand pointed to a legacy that included desegregation of public facilities, making it possible for people of all races to have similar opportunities for education and careers, equal voting rights, equal pay, fair housing practices and a deep commitment to non-violence.

“Has this legacy been safeguarded today? We each have to answer that question for ourselves,” he said.

Anand said King’s legacy challenges us today to give unselfishly, to help the less fortunate and to get involved in service to our communities.

Based on King’s teachings of love and echoing physicist Albert Einstein’s famous theory of relativity and its equation E=mc² (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared), Anand suggested his own equation for his “theory of human relativity.” Anand proposed that “University (“meaning universally or pertaining to the universe”) equals unity times diversity to the power of infinity (University = unity X diversity^infinity).

In introducing Anand, Jonathan Bates, M.D., president and chief executive officer of ACH, said Anand had “worked hard to address pain in the academic setting and has worked just as hard to address pain in the human setting.”

In his opening remarks, UAMS Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson, M.D., said that while it may not be possible for everyone to do the kinds of things King and Gandhi did in their struggles for equality and independence “we can do our part to make our world better.” He noted that technology was bringing the world together but there remained many divisions, from racial to religious to philosophical differences.

There are 70 countries represented on the UAMS campus, Wilson said, reflecting the diversity of the nation.

The commemoration for King, ahead of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Jan. 17, also featured an invocation from Rev. Llewellyn Terry and a solo by Paul Fisher of “To God Be the Glory.” Rev. Cecil Gibson gave a dramatic reading of King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

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