Perhaps the most successful campaigns of nonviolence were those
led by Mahatma Gandhi in South
Africa before World War I and in India afterward.
Gandhi based his theories of civil disobedience partly on the
writings of Westerners such as Tolstoi and Henry David
Thoreau
and on the Christian Gospels, and partly on Indian teachings of
ahimsa. Out of these he developed his own approach, called
satyagraha (truth-force), which in practice took many different
forms: strikes, street demonstrations, withdrawal of cooperation,
and symbolic breaches of law such as the manufacture of salt - all
within the context of a movement based on self-discipline,
self-sacrifice, and moral purity.
Gandhi directed his nonviolent campaigns not only against British
rule but also against abuses within Indian society such as
discrimination against the casteless group called
Untouchables.
His campaigns were the most important factor leading to the British
withdrawal from India in 1947. Because of Gandhi's movement
discrimination against the Untouchables is now illegal in India,
though it is still widely practiced.
Although Gandhi himself was a pacifist who wanted to
create a simple, decentralized, non-militarist political order after
India attained its independence, most of his associates saw
nonviolence merely as a means to achieve the liberation of India.
Since gaining independence, India has used its military forces in
the same way that other countries have, notably in conflicts with
China and Pakistan and in occupying the Portuguese colonies of Goa,
Daman, and Diu.
India -
