Why non violence

Anand Sharma, said that the wide and diverse sponsorship of the resolution was a reflection of the universal respect for Mahatma Gandhi and of the enduring relevance of his philosophy. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man".

The name of Mahatma Gandhi transcends the bounds of race, religion and nation-states, and has emerged as the prophetic voice of the twenty-first century. The world remembers Gandhi not just for his passionate adherence to the practice of non-violence and supreme humanism, but as the benchmark against which we test men and women in public life, political ideas and government policies, and the hopes and wishes of our shared planet.

Gandhi, who helped lead India to independence, has been the inspiration for non-violent movements for civil rights and social change across the world. Throughout his life, Gandhi remained committed to his belief in non-violence even under oppressive conditions and in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.

The theory behind his actions, which included encouraging massive civil disobedience to British law as with the historic Salt March of , was that "just means lead to just ends"; that is, it is irrational to try to use violence to achieve a peaceful society. He believed that Indians must not use violence or hatred in their fight for freedom from colonialism.

The principle of non-violence — also known as non-violent resistance — rejects the use of physical violence in order to achieve social or political change. Often described as "the politics of ordinary people", this form of social struggle has been adopted by mass populations all over the world in campaigns for social justice. Professor Gene Sharp , a leading scholar on non-violent resistance, uses the following definition in his publication, The Politics of Nonviolent Action :.

Nonviolent action is not an attempt to avoid or ignore conflict. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Search form Search. Back to the King Encyclopedia. Share this article on Facebook Share this article on Twitter. King, Stride Toward Freedom , This entry is part of the following collection Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Montgomery Bus Boycott. Related Events King begins freshman year at Morehouse.

King hears Mordecai Johnson preach on Gandhi. Montgomery bus boycott begins. Bayard Rustin visits Montgomery. King discusses nonviolence with Bayard Rustin. Glenn Smiley interviews King in Montgomery. Could you imagine if Things would be totally different in this country. There are just some characteristics of our age that complicate things a bit.

WCFIA: You make the surprising claim that even when they fail, civil resistance campaigns often lead to longer-term reforms than violent campaigns do. How does that work? CHENOWETH: The finding is that civil resistance campaigns often lead to longer-term reforms and changes that bring about democratization compared with violent campaigns. Countries in which there were nonviolent campaigns were about 10 times likelier to transition to democracies within a five-year period compared to countries in which there were violent campaigns — whether the campaigns succeeded or failed.

One of the best examples of this is the Kefaya movement in the early s in Egypt. Although it failed in the short term, the experiences of different activists during that movement surely informed the ability to effectively organize during the uprisings in Egypt. Another example is the Saffron Revolution in Myanmar, which was brutally suppressed at the time but which ultimately led to voluntary democratic reforms by the government by And democratization processes tend to be much bumpier when they occur after large-scale armed conflict instead of civil resistance campaigns, as was the case in Myanmar.

There was a nursing home in Encinitas, Calif. Their local news had shot a video of them and they asked to be counted, and we put them in the sheet.

This originally appeared on the Weatherhead Center website. Part two of the series is now online. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy. Erica Chenoweth discovers it is more successful in effecting change than violent campaigns.