Gandhi’s legacy: How non-violence shaped global movements

International Day of Non-Violence has been commemorated on October 2 since 2007 in honour of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, celebrated as Gandhi Jayanthi. It aims at acknowledging his novel modes of mass mobilisation in commitment to the principle of ahimsa. 

It was Mahatma Gandhi who changed the very way political and other protests were organised with non-violence, or ahimsa, as the single most important principle. Non-violence coupled with civil disobedience helped end British rule in India, and this successful model has influenced modern civil disobedience movements across the world. The Dalai Lama and many others were inspired by his teachings and made a change without inciting violence. Since the 1940s many individuals and movements have adopted Gandhi’s principles.

In 1940-45, during the Second World War, the Norwegian Civil Disobedience by the students of Oslo University resisted the fascist power. The protesters sustained the momentum by distributing pamphlets and various written texts on non-violence and also by creating ‘an ice face’, which means refusing to sit next to German soldiers in public transport and refusing to speak German, which was prevalent as a common language.

Nelson Mandela, called the African Gandhi, followed the timeless philosophy of Gandhiji and learnt that non-violence was the best weapon to fight discrimination and brutality and establish social justice. The African National Congress and allied anti-apartheid groups carried out non-violent resistance against racial segregation and apartheid in South Africa.

Martin Luther King Jr, the American civil rights leader, was inspired by Gandhi’s philosophy to advocate for racial equality and justice in the United States through non-violent means. King came to India in 1959 and visited several places, which consolidated his commitment to nonviolent civil disobedience. He popularised Gandhian ideas in the U.S. and across the world. 

The African American Civil Rights Movement led by King against racial segregation in southern states was a non-violent resistance that included bus boycotts, sit-ins and mass demonstrations. The movement succeeded in bringing about legislative changes that made racial segregation illegal.

A series of non-violent and peaceful protests rages throughout 1968 in the US, Europe and elsewhere. University campuses became frontline battlegrounds for social change. While opposition to the Vietnam War dominated the protests, students also campaigned for civil liberty and against racism and feminism, and the beginning of the ecological movement can also be traced to protests against nuclear and biological weapons.

The Fight for the Larzac, a region in France, was a non-violent civil disobedience action by local farmers resisting the extension of a military base on the Larzac plateau. The farmers organised themselves to persist the government effort non-violently. The decision to expand the military base was resolved after 10 years of resistance from 1970 to 1981, which was absolutely non-violent.

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was a non-violent resistance against the prevalent political regime that finally led to the overthrow of Iran’s monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

In the 1980s, Solidarity, a broad anti-authoritarian social movement in Poland, used methods of civil resistance to advance the causes of workers’ rights and social change.

The non-violent People Power Revolution led to the departure of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, the end of his 20-year dictatorship and the restoration of democracy in the Philippines. The movement gained momentum because of massive human rights violations, election fraud, political corruption and other abuses by the Marcos regime.

During the 1987 to 1990 period, the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia sustained the unique Singing Revolution. This was a cycle of mass demonstrations featuring spontaneous singing in the Baltic states. The protesters sang national songs and hymns which were strictly forbidden during the years of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states. During the movement, people acted as human shields to protect radio and TV stations from the Soviet tanks. These states attained independence without bloodshed.

During the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, the people responded to the attack on their sovereignty with passive resistance called the Velvet Revolution, so called due to its peaceful and non-violent nature during the transition from a communist regime to a democratic government in late 1989. It involved mass protests and civil disobedience, led by figures like Václav Havel, without any armed conflict. Russian troops were frustrated as street signs were painted over; their water supply was mysteriously shut off; buildings were decorated with flowers, flags and slogans like “An elephant cannot swallow a hedgehog.” 

The Monday Demonstrations between 1989 and 1990 were a series of peaceful protests against the authoritarian government of the German Democratic Republic of the erstwhile East Germany that took place every Monday evening. The revolution led to the downfall of the existing government.

The Tunisian Movement of 2011 was a series of mass non-violent demonstrations against unemployment and government corruption. It led to the downfall of the government in power. The movement was triggered by the self-immolation of the vegetable seller, Mohammed Bouzizi, which became the rallying point of the protestors challenging the authority of the president who ruled Tunisia for 24 years. Also, in 2011 the Egyptian protest movement that began on March 15 led to the downfall of the three-decade-old Mubarak regime.

There have been a few instances in the past when violent movements have resulted in a pyrrhic victory. As against this, most non-violent movements have been long, persistent and consistent, but finally truth and justice have prevailed. This time-tested strategy of Mahatma Gandhi has never failed.