Mohandas K. Gandhhi
Active nonviolence.
Non-cooperation.
Civil disobedience.
If government rules by consent of the governed, what happens if they withdraw their consent?
Gandhi: An Autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, tracks Gandhi’s efforts to counter injustice with non-cooperation.
Consent of the governed is the principle Gandhi tested in his efforts to right injustices in the relationship between the then-British colonial rulers over India and the citizens of India.
- If policemen were disrespectful
- If stagecoach drivers refused to honor a first-class ticket
- If railroad conductors refused passage to ticket-holders
- If land-owners imposed usurious fees on tenants…
Gandhi wrote letters to the appropriate government authorities and asked for redress.
When encouraged to bring charges against individuals who treated him or his clients disrespectfully, he refused.
“They are just doing what their environment tells them,” he responded.
He aimed to change the environment.
He did not blame those who were unjust.
But, he did work to change the environment by not cooperating while also not using violence. He wanted to provide no other excuse for arrest but the pursuit of justice.
This was a powerful message and one that had to be taught to his followers so they would not take the natural course of returning insult with violence.
Eventually, he took aim at the economic bonds the British rulers held.
Monopolies on salt.
Control over the import of cloth.
In 1947, India gained independence from Great Britain.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial opened this week, in time for the 48th anniversary of King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963.
King’s quotes echo Gandhi’s philosophy:
- The end of violence is bitterness…. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation.
- Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- There is nothing greater in all the world than freedom. It’s worth going to jail for.
The anniversary of King’s speech was just two weeks after the anniversary of India’s Independence Day on August 15.
What better way to honor King than to read about the origins of non-violent civil disobedience in Gandhi: An Autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth.
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Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”
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