Oscar Wilde, a renowned author, wrote, “It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” Although it is true that some forms of disobedience promote social progress, other types of rebellion can cause turmoil and chaos, without leading to any significant change. While progress can be achieved through peaceful protest, violent rebellions fail to bring about change. Peaceful rebellion draws the attention of the intended audience in a way that will persuade them to support the cause. One example of nonviolent protest that brought change was the disobedience of Rosa Parks during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. In Montgomery, Alabama, the public buses were segregated and African Americans …show more content…
Gandhi advocated for passive resistance in order to fight against colonial oppression. As a young Indian man living in South Africa, he experienced racism and injustice. After he was removed from a railway compartment and beaten, Gandhi began developing and teaching the idea of satyagraha, nonviolent protest, as a way of defying authorities. In 1906, when a new law required Indians in South Africa to register with the government, Gandhi urged his followers to resist the discrimination and suffer the punishments. Over the eight year period of the movement, thousands of Indians were imprisoned and murdered for not complying with the new law. However, the public pressure caused by the movement was substantial, forcing the leader of South Africa to compromise. Gandhi later returned to India and sought to fight for independence from the British through his successful method of satyagraha. However, once violence broke out, he called for the end of the disobedience because he was afraid that violence would undo all of his work. Gandhi renewed the non-cooperation movement in India and called for the Salt March to peacefully protest against a salt tax imposed on Indians. The protest gained worldwide attention and had a major impact in the independence of India. Through Gandhi’s approach of nonviolent protest, he achieved progress for Indians in both South Africa and …show more content…
However, this way of protesting is usually unsuccessful, pushing the subjects to strengthen their force against the protesters. In Dallas, Texas blacks felt that they were being treated unjustly by the police force. In response to this discrimination, Micah Xavier Johnson killed 5 police officers and injured 9 others. Instead of getting the equality that he wished for, he was killed and the police became more violent and active. The police were fearful of more hatred attacks, and therefore raised their amount of officers and tightened their security. This type of incident not only occurred in Dallas, but across the world. The police feel more threatened after violent protest, and they just justify their actions as self-defense. If the protesters would have taken a more peaceful route to equality, maybe they would have achieved their
Oscar Wilde, an Irish author, once suggested that if one were to ever look at the discourse of history, they would find that disobedience is man’s original virtue, and through disobedience social progress is made. The study of history is the study of social progress. Social progressions are the changes that occur in society that progress or improve social, political, and economic structures. Social progress can be achieved in several ways, but just like Oscar Wilde, I believe that disobedience is a valuable human trait that just so happens to be a huge part in the progression our society has made and continues to make.
Gandhi’s nonviolent movement worked because he didn’t believe in segregation and didn’t follow the British’s rules for Indians. When coming back from prison in 1859, things changed in India. The people if India were forced to mimic the English on how they dressed, copy their manner and accept their standards of beauty. When hearing this, Gandhi didn’t accept it and started his movement. According to the background document,” he shed the cloths that made him look like a British lawyer and dressed in a poor man’s traditional loincloth.”(Background document) By do...
“ First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win” (Mahatma Gandhi). Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar. Throughout his life Gandhi helped those in need. He was taught that everyone and everything is holy. He married at the custom age of 19 and went to London to study law. The thing that helped Gandhi promote nonviolence is that he worked his entire life saying that violence didn’t change the way people acted. He lived his life saying that an eye for an eye only made the whole world blind. Gandhi’s nonviolent movement worked because he had something to prove and everyone else in the world agreed with him.
Why partake in civil disobedience? Oscar Wilde, an influential author, has an opinion on utilization of civil disobedience. “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. Meaning, if a person wants to change society and its actions, they must rebel against the governing body in order to create effective alterations. Many situations exist where civil disobedience advocates change. In those situations, people have rights for disobedience, but must realize consequences may result from their disobedient actions.
In the article, “Satyagraha” : Gandhi’s Legacy, it states, “Gandhi developed his philosophy of “Satyagraha,” or resistance through non-violent civil disobedience to defend his rights and the rights of all Indians and non-whites.” He believed that racial and religious discrimination was wrong, leading him to have the motivation to end it because it gave freedom to him and everyone else. As referenced in the article, “... Indians and other non-white people were forced to ride at the back of trains, use separate facilities, and were treated as second-class citizens. Gandhi believed that this was wrong.” He faced major setbacks, including the fact that South Africa was under Britain’s control and limited their freedom for religious practices. The author explained, “Part of the problem in South Africa was that it was a British colony. Much as it had done in the American colonies, Britain controlled the South African government and all its practices and exacted taxes. It was this situation that led to much of the racial tension in the country.” Overall, Gandhi is a very intelligent man who invented a philosophy to end what he believed was
Despite the great efforts put forth during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 in which the black community and its supporters refused to use public transportation, transport segregation still remained in some southern states. As a result the civil rights group, the Congress on Racial Inequality (C.O.R.E.), began to organize what they called “freedom rides.” In 1961, the group began sending student volunteers on bus trips to test the implementation of new laws prohibiting segregation in interstate travel facilities (Peck, 161). Most notable was a trip they took from Washington, D.C., making stops in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Upon arrival the group was met with violence and brutality from the Ku Klux Klan and others, but this did not deter them from getting their voice heard. In September 1961, the Attorney General petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to draft a policy making racial segregation in bus terminals illegal, and in November this was put into effect. The Freedom Riders gave national publicity to the discrimination that black Americans were forced to endure and, in doing so, helped bring about change not only in bus terminals but in the nation as a whole.
One of the first and most known events of the Civil Rights Movement was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and is regarded as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the United States (Montgomer...
Through implemented tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to its independence as
One of those was a 16 year old named Joseph Haynes. Haynes was killed January 17th of this year, and from his grandmother’s eyes, Haynes was shot after he tried to protect his mother after the Deputy had shoved her against the wall. The first one of the year was tased to death, his name was Deautry Charles Ross. Eric Garner, Jordan Edwards, William Chapman, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice. All were killed by an officer, somebody who is supposed to protect us. The youngest was 12. All of them fed into a movement that was started in 2013, right after Trayvon Martin died. It was started by three girls, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. It now has over 40 chapters, and it is used to intervene if there is violence in the Black communities. A year after the movement started, 2014, Ferguson police murdered Michael (Mike) Brown. Others were pepper sprayed, tear gassed and the media criticize them. It is our right to assemble, and yet when we do, we have to fear our life just in case an officer decides that what we’re doing is
Lastly, Gandhi continued to struggle with the satyagraha belief and was willing to devote his time on demanding the British to “quit India.” However, despite being imprisoned for this campaign, Gandhi aroused upheaval from the Indians who insisted the British to remove Gandhi from captivity. After the execution of the Salt March, the events that followed supported Gandhi’s philosophy on the satyagraha movement and further brought India closer to its independence from the British colonization. Works Cited Furbee, Mary and Mike Furbee. The Importance of Mohanda Gandhi.
On December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks, a civil rights activist and progressivist made a decision that sparked one of the largest progressive movements. When told to give up her designated seat for a caucasian man, she refused implying that she was tired of giving in to racist culture. Her decision elicited the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a movement in which all of the African Americans in the area refused to ride the bus to show their support for Rosa Parks. This movement inspired other African Americans to rebel for their basic rights, aiding the civil rights movement. Although rebellion does cause violence and bloodshed, Oscar Wilde is correct in saying that disobedience and rebellion are the keystones of progress.
The Dallas police were protecting the marches when this “protest” turned into a riot. 12 police were shot and 56 were killed thus the right to protest in the guise of Free Speech, turned into a riot with innocent lives lost. This not only creates a negative impact on a free society but also creates a racial divide that will be difficult to repair. Police officers across the country started to back off investigating crime. The overall criminal activity, it appear, has started to rise.
Ghandi’s practices and believes led to the freedom of the Indian people. This positive impact clearly shows how the characteristics of a nonviolent revolution make it a much better alternative to a violent revolution which often leaves countries in a harmful state of
Both of these men were leaders in their countries, they fought for the same goals, but had different ideas of how to achieve freedom. Gandhi believed in nonviolent protest/resistance. Mahatma Gandhi's most famous act of nonviolent protest/resistance was the Salt March on March 12, 1930. This was a big part of an Indian independence movement that protested the British Salt business in India. Along the Salt March, as a part of protest, Gandhi led the people to obtain salt without paying taxes to the British.
On September 21, 2016 in Charlott, N.C. A black lives matter protest occurred, and it ended with 16 officers that suffered injuries, one person arrested, and one person shot to death. Marchers threw bottles and clods of dirt at officers. And after a shooting officers set off tear gas and flash grenades while protesters threw fireworks. It just goes to show that people respond with violence and that's how it's been.