The Power Of Nonviolent Resistance

In time for the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his birth, a specially curated collection of Mahatma Gandhi's writings on nonviolent resistance and activism. A Penguin Classic The year 2019 marks the 150th anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi's birth, and Penguin Classics presents a short but comprehensive selection of text by Gandhi that speaks to non-violent civil disobedience and activism. In excerpts drawn from his books, letters, and essays--including from Hind Swaraj, Satyagraha in South Africa, Yeravda Mandir, Ashram Observances in Action, his readings of Thoreau and Tolstoy, and his essays on the life of Socrates--the reader observes the power and eloquence in which Gandhi expressed his views on non-violent resistance, which have inspired activists from the U.S. Civil Rights movement and around the world. The Power of Nonviolent Resistance includes a new introduction and suggestions for further exploration by renowned Gandhi scholar Tridip Suhrud, which gives context to the time of Gandhi's writings while placing them firmly into the present-day political climate, inspiring a new generation of activists to follow the civil rights hero's teachings and practices.

The Power of Nonviolence, written by Richard Bartlett Gregg in 1934 and revised in 1944 and 1959, is the most important and influential theory of principled or integral nonviolence published in the twentieth century. Drawing on Gandhi's ideas and practice, Gregg explains in detail how the organized power of nonviolence (power-with) exercised against violent opponents can bring about small and large transformative social change and provide an effective substitute for war. This edition includes a major introduction by political theorist, James Tully, situating the text in its contexts from 1934 to 1959, and showing its great relevance today. The text is the definitive 1959 edition with a foreword by Martin Luther King, Jr. It includes forewords from earlier editions, the chapter on class struggle and nonviolent resistance from 1934, a crucial excerpt from a 1929 preliminary study, a biography and bibliography of Gregg, and a bibliography of recent work on nonviolence.

For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals. By attracting impressive support from citizens, whose activism takes the form of protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, and other forms of nonviolent noncooperation, these efforts help separate regimes from their main sources of power and produce remarkable results, even in Iran, Burma, the Philippines, and the Palestinian Territories. Combining statistical analysis with case studies of specific countries and territories, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan detail the factors enabling such campaigns to succeed and, sometimes, causing them to fail. They find that nonviolent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement and commitment, and that higher levels of participation contribute to enhanced resilience, greater opportunities for tactical innovation and civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for a regime to maintain its status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents' erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment. Chenoweth and Stephan conclude that successful nonviolent resistance ushers in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, they originally and systematically compare violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and that it is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, the authors discover, violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds.

The lives and work of Mohandis Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. have much to teach us about nonviolent resistance to oppression. This book presents a comparative analysis of their legacies that demonstrates how powerful peace and love can be, even in the face of hate-filled oppression, aggression, and violence. No two individuals had a greater impact on the 20th century's monumental struggles for freedom, justice, and peace. Gandhi showed the world that steadfastly and nonviolently adhering to the truth gave the world a practical alternative to the madness of war and violence. King used nonviolence to realize his dream of a beloved community and to beckon his white countrymen to live up to the lofty ideals bequeathed to them by America's founders. The two men came from widely divergent cultural, religious, economic, and political backgrounds and settings, yet they both wielded nonviolent weapons effectively. This comparison not only demonstrates the broad applicability of nonviolent principles; it also highlights the importance of merging high ideals with a practical program that produces positive results in people's lives.

History indicates that there are powerful routes to liberation from oppression that do not involve violence. Mohandas Gandhi called for a science of nonviolent action, one based on satyagraha, or the “insistence on truth.” As Gandhi understood, nonviolent resistance is not passive, nor is it weak; rather, such action is an exercise of power. Despite the success of Gandhi’s “Quit India” movement, the resources dedicated to the application of rigorous science to nonviolent struggle have been vanishingly small. By contrast, almost unimaginable levels of financial and human resources have been devoted to the science and technologies of killing, war, and collective violence. Mark Mattaini reviews the history and theory of nonviolent struggles against oppression and discusses recent research that indicates the substantial need for and advantage of nonviolent alternatives. He then offers a detailed exploration of principles of behavioral systems science that appear to underlie effective strategic civil resistance and “people power.” Strategic Nonviolent Power proposes that the route to what Gandhi described as the “undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries” of nonviolent resistance is the application of rigorous science. Although not a simple science, Mattaini’s application of ecological science grounded in the science of behaviour brings exceptional power to the struggle for justice and liberation. At a time when civil resistance is actively reshaping global political realities, the science of nonviolent struggle deserves the attention of the scientific, activist, strategic, military, spiritual, and diplomatic communities, as well as the informed public.

DIVFine explanation of civil disobedience shows how great pacifist used non-violent philosophy to lead India to independence. Self-discipline, fasting, social boycotts, strikes, other techniques. /div

This widely-praised book identified peaceful struggle as a key phenomenon in international politics a year before the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt confirmed its central argument. Civil resistance - non-violent action against such challenges as dictatorial rule, racial discrimination and foreign military occupation - is a significant but inadequately understood feature of world politics. Especially through the peaceful revolutions of 1989, and the developments in the Arab world since December 2010, it has helped to shape the world we live in. Civil Resistance and Power Politics covers most of the leading cases, including the actions master-minded by Gandhi, the US civil rights struggle in the 1960s, the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, the 'people power' revolt in the Philippines in the 1980s, the campaigns against apartheid in South Africa, the various movements contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989-91, and, in this century, the 'colour revolutions' in Georgia and Ukraine. The chapters, written by leading experts, are richly descriptive and analytically rigorous. This book addresses the complex interrelationship between civil resistance and other dimensions of power. It explores the question of whether civil resistance should be seen as potentially replacing violence completely, or as a phenomenon that operates in conjunction with, and modification of, power politics. It looks at cases where campaigns were repressed, including China in 1989 and Burma in 2007. It notes that in several instances, including Northern Ireland, Kosovo and, Georgia, civil resistance movements were followed by the outbreak of armed conflict. It also includes a chapter with new material from Russian archives showing how the Soviet leadership responded to civil resistance, and a comprehensive bibliographical essay. Illustrated throughout with a remarkable selection of photographs, this uniquely wide-ranging and path-breaking study is written in an accessible style and is intended for the general reader as well as for students of Modern History, Politics, Sociology, and International Relations.

A stirring look at nonviolent activism, from American suffragists to civil rights to the climate change movementWe Are Power brings to light the incredible individuals who have used nonviolent activism to change the world. The book explores questions such as, what is nonviolent resistance and how does it work? In an age when armies are stronger than ever before, when guns seem to be everywhere, how can people confront their adversaries without resorting to violence themselves? Through key international movements as well as people such as Gandhi, Alice Paul, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, and Václav Havel, this book discusses the components of nonviolent resistance. It answers the question “Why nonviolence?” by showing how nonviolent movements have succeeded again and again in a variety of ways, in all sorts of places, and always in the face of overwhelming odds. The book includes endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.