Gandhi, King, and Mandela, all of them achieved peace through a new tactic that nobody believed would work. However, it did in fact work and that tactic is known as nonviolent resistance. Although many believed that nonviolence would never work, it worked due to nonviolence showing the conviction of the protestors, it painting the aggressors in a bad light, and it gained a massive amount of support from a lot of people. Nonviolent resistance shows the world conviction to your cause and tells them that you are serious about your cause and you are willing to endure a world of pain to get your point of across. Nonviolence takes much discipline to endure all the pain and abuse without resisting or fighting back unprovoked (document 6). The document …show more content…
Attacking an enemy that does not have a weapon or fight back has been a shame for thousands of years. It is believed to be something an honorable person would not do. So, nonviolence is putting the aggressors in a bad position because they are attacking the protestors even if the protestors do not have any intent to defend themselves or fight back. One example of them being put in a bad position is the march towards the Dharasana salt works. Many Africans marched toward the salt works and stopped at the gate. The police then went in and attacked the men ruthlessly. The marchers, however, stood their ground and did not even raise an arm to block the attacks. They kept marching until struck down (document 4). This paints the police in a bad light in the eyes of everyone. Since it is showing how brutal the police is, it makes people wonder if they should still support the government. Another example is when Martin Luther King took part in a sit-in at Rich’s department store in Atlanta, Georgia. They sat there and took abuse from many people who thought that Africans were inferior to white people. They endured abuse for their cause of racial equality for all (document 2). It shows white people in a bad light. While King and his supporters are sitting there doing no harm to the people, white people are harassing him and trying to make him lose hope and give up. Sometimes, you have no other choice but to use …show more content…
Nonviolence gathers a huge crowd and that is important. If history is looked back upon, large groups of people who want something usually start some revolution. Examples of this in history would be the French revolution, The USSR proletariat revolution, and the Chinese communist revolution. They all showed of a huge crowd of people who wanted something. An example of a large group of people being rallied is when Gandhi wrote a letter to Lord Irwin, Governor of India and led people to the sea to make salt, since salt was heavily taxed by the British in India (document 1). Gandhi led hundreds if not thousands of people with him, and that is a lot of people in one march. It shows that nonviolence creates a huge group of people who are united for the same cause. Another example of this is in Montgomery, Alabama when people went to the sheriff’s office to see if they have been arrested (document 8). This shows that a huge amount of people have been gathered and are convicted in their cause and are willing to go to jail proudly for it. That is powerful and will cause change. Hundreds of people responded to the cause and wanted to join the nonviolent army that would lead the change for racial equality (document 5). Even though people are nonviolent in their protests, the government views it as something different. They believe that there is a chance for a violent uprising, so they will give in and that’s why
...y shocks most of people who hear and see it, encouraging and moving others who also suffer. In instance, Elena screamed at Longoria to show she would not give them any information about resistances and Antonio when Longoria was about to killing her (Tobar 148). Elena sacrificed her life to protect Antonio and her friends who fought against the Guatemalan government without using any violence when she faced Longoria who tried to kill her. She showed it was important not to be daunted by fear and to keep fighting for justice. Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi advocated nonviolent resistance as a means of seeking peace and gaining independence for the Republic of India from Britain. Justice should be served by means in the name of justice. Nonviolent resistance is a powerful way to fight against the cycle of violence and work towards the realization of a peaceful world.
When you are fight to get peace and fairness back to your government, does it involve nonviolent or violent acts to get what you want? When Gandhi came back to India after getting his law degree, Gandhi started a movement to bring peace and fairness back to their government. What made Gandhi’s nonviolent movement work? The reason Gandhi’s nonviolent movement worked was because he didn’t believe in segregation, didn’t follow the British’s rules for Indians, went to jail for his movement, and he was determined.
Nowadays, this concept of using nonviolence is hard to achieve. This is because people think that peaceful protest aren’t effective compared to taking action with their hands. One example is the Blacks Lives Matter Movement. Although there are peaceful protest, there are times when people turn violent against police. This can be counterintuitive since watching these harsh actions by protestors, people start forming negative views about the organization. This leads to people not supporting the cause anymore. Without the support of the public, an organization can’t
Gandhi once said “An eye for an eye and the whole world is blind.” This is true in most circumstances but there are exceptions. By comparing acts of nonviolent civil disobedience with acts of violent civil disobedience it is apparent that force or violence is only necessary to combat violence but never if it effects the lives of the innocent. A recurrent theme in each of these examples is that there is a genuine desire to achieve equality and liberty. However, one cannot take away the liberties of others in order to gain their own. Martin Luther King Jr. believed that political change would come faster through nonviolent methods and one can not argue his results as many of the Jim Crow laws were repealed. Similarly, through nonviolent resistance Gandhi was able to eventually free India from the rule of Britain. It is true that sometimes the only way to fight violence is through violence, but as is apparent, much can be said of peaceful demonstrations in order to enact change. Thus, it is the responsibility of we as individuals to understand that nonviolence is often a more viable means to an end than violence.
As Dr. King stated in Letter from A Birmingham Jail, “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. I must confess that I am not afraid of the word, tension. I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive tension that is necessary for growth. The purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.” Such as in the case of the 1969 student site-in against the Vietnam W...
Having a non-violent way to approach civil engagement helps people rise from the dark. In the article, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” by King Jr., he writes, “So the purpose of the direct action is to create a situation so crises-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation”(236). King Jr. suggests that the only way for Americans to see the need to change is through direct actions and that could possibly get them to negotiate. It related to the article, “from Non-Violent Resistance,” by Gandhi because through a non-violent action, people see the value of actually wanting to create justice. He points out, “Non-violence is the supreme dharma is the proof of this power of love. Non-violence is a dormant state”(Gandhi 316). He refers to all people that if someone gives a person pain, the person receiving the pain should not act back in a harsh attitude, but he/she will win if they show love. However, King Jr. also explains one’s right to express verbally. He writes, “If his repressed emotions do not come out in these nonviolent ways, they will come out in ominous expressions of violence. This is not a threat; it is a fact of history”(MLK 242). It is within the first amendment that all people have the right to free speech in any way, and if people express their emotions in an intimidating way, it is not a threat. Approaching all injustices social issues in
Peaceful protests was one of the ways African Americans tried to make a change. Many sit-ins occurred where whites and blacks would sit together integrated at white bars and refuse to move. By refusing to move many people through things such as ketchup, mustard, fries, milkshakes, vinegar, and everything on the counter. Mobs of people would harass them and even hurt them to try and get them to move. (Document 4) White cops would arrest those people sitting at the counter eventually, but they wouldn’t protect them from white violence. Police officers also used fire hoses and dogs on peaceful protesters showing that they would not protect African Americans. (Document 5) African Americans also started to integrate into schools. John Meredith
types of nonviolent actions from not just the leaders, but the ones who follow them, show a true
Nonviolent civil disobedience was a critical factor in gaining women the right to vote in the United States, this changed the face of the South. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) initiated modern nonviolent action for civil rights. I also believe that the gay and lesbian community is the result of direct nonviolent activism and when the ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was formed it focused not only on AIDS but on the increase of homophobia and attacks on lesbians and gays. I believe governmental power is maintained through oppression and tactic compliance of the majority of the governed; struggle and conflict are often necessary to correct injustice. Our struggle is not easy, and we must not think of nonviolence as a safe way to fight oppression, the strength of nonviolence comes from your willingness to take personal risks in Kohlberg’s moral stage 5 moral rights and social contract is explained in this political analysis on governmental power and the antiapartheid and central American work when they led protests on campuses with hundreds being arrested and 130 campus withdrawals.
Conclusion: Nonviolent protest are more effective than violent protest in effort to bring about social change.
...able to showcase the great power that nonviolence could have on the world and how by using methods such as that one would be more successful than if one used violence. As Mahatma Gandhi once said “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.”
Violent resistance is resistance that does not revolve around events such as sit-ins and petitions. Violent resistance is most effective because, unlike the method of non-violence, it gathers a more drastic and immediate response from other involved parties. I have seen how effective violent resistance is through our lessons by observing how the majority of my classmates have continuously sided with violent resistance. Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael both understood the need to use violent resistance; Malcolm X committed many petty crimes and eventually was imprisoned. While in prison, he decided to join the Nation of Islam, a group that integrated the religion Islam into Black Nationalism. He quickly moved up the ranks in the Nation of Islam
Martin Luther King, Jr. advocated nonviolence to suppress oppression in his essay, “The Power of Nonviolent Action.” King's factual and reasoned approach is intended to win his adversaries over by appealing to their consciences. King realized that the best strategy to liberate African-Americans and gain them justice was to use nonviolent forms of resistance. He wanted to eliminate the use of violence as a means to manage and establish cooperative ways of interacting. Moreover, King states that the “oppressed people must organize themselves into a militant and nonviolent mass movement” in order to achieve the goal of integration. The oppressed must “convince the oppressors that all he seeks is justice, for both himself and the white man” (King, 345). Furthermore, King agreed with Gandhi that if a law is unjust, it is the duty of the oppressed to break the law, and do what they believe to be right. Once a law is broken, the person must be willing to accept the ...
It has been debated though out history whether or not nonviolence “works”. Many societies, and this without question includes the United States, have mostly relied on violent tactics. Many people believe that violence is the only way to stop wars, even though it creates war, and people tend to believe that violence is the one solution to many global and political problems. However, recent literature and research is starting to prove otherwise. Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist, recently published a book, Why Civil Resistance Works in 2011. The research highlights data that shows throughout history, nonviolent tactics are more effective than violent ones in various ways.
There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution. [The] only kind of revolution that’s nonviolent is the Negro revolution. The only revolution based on loving your enemy is the Negro revolution. The only revolution in which the goal is a desegregated lunch counter, a desegregated theater, a desegregated park, and a desegregated public toilet; you can sit down next to white folks on the toilet. That’s no revolution. Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.”(MalcolmX, Message to the