Civil Disobedience

 The concept of civil disobedience has become a well-established political theory in the modern world. 

It is regarded as a vital element of the power structure as prevalent in modern times. However, the most ardent propounder of the theory of civil disobedience has been Gandhiji, Martin Luther King and Tolstoy among others.

Underlining the significance of civil disobedience and Satyagrah as enunciated by Gandhism, Dr Daisaku Ikeda has said that “As we approach the end of the century of unprecedented wars and violence, we seek as our common goal the creation of a world without wars.”

The concept of civil disobedience found mentioned in the essay of Henry David Thoreau. Though it has some or other manifestation in the thoughts and theories of all dominant streams of political thinking, ranging from Aristotle to the present day, it was elaborated by Gandhiji and Martin Luther King in modern times.

It is these two who translated the ideas and the principles of civil disobedience in reality. The concept of civil disobedience is based on the justice and common good. The history of the concept of civil disobedience is traceable to ancient Greek thinking, Socrates, early Christian thinking and another ancient stream of thinking.

Later on, it was elaborated by Thoreau, who provided the libertarian concept of civil disobedience, Jeremy Bentham who maintained that citizens have the right to enter into measures of resistance as a matter of duty as well as interest’ and Thomas Aquinas who considered unjust laws as ‘acts of violence rather than laws.

However, it was the anarchist who maintained that man’s social self could be realized through civil disobedience.  The theory of civil disobedience found another votary in modern existential philosophy. Existentialism and its theme of alienation as enunciated by Sartre and Albert Camus have contributed to civil disobedience by believing that there is no valid basis for any moral or political authority’s claim authority and legitimacy.

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