On June 13th Let Fatherless Day Begin the Boycott!!!

Most of the myths and misconceptions surrounding Gandhi have to do with nonviolence. It’s surprising how many people have the idea that nonviolent action is purely passive. Let’s be clear about this: There is nothing passive about Gandhian nonviolent action. Gandhi helped create this confusion by referring to his method as “passive resistance,” he soon changed his mind and rejected the term.

Gandhi’s nonviolent action was not an evasive strategy, nor a defensive one. Gandhi was always on the offensive. He believed in confronting his opponents aggressively. In this way they could not avoid dealing with him.

Some political dreamers that have seen the movie or read a book of quotes ask? Wasn’t nonviolent action designed to avoid violence? That depends on whether you were a follower or a opponent. Gandhi avoided violence toward his opponents, but couldn’t care less if you did violence toward himself or his followers.

To Gandhi the nonviolent activist, like any good soldier in the trenches, had to be ready to die for the cause. In fact, during India’s struggle for independence, hundreds of Indians were killed by the British.

Gandhi pointed out three responses to oppression and injustice.

One was the coward’s way: to accept the wrong or run away from it.

Second was to stand and fight back with force. To Gandhi this was better than acceptance or running away.

The Third Way was the best of all and required the most courage: to stand and fight only by nonviolent means.

One of the biggest myths about nonviolent action is that Gandhi invented it.

Gandhi is often called “the father of nonviolence,” and while he did raise nonviolent action to a level never before achieved, it wasn’t his invention.

The book “Gandhi as a Political Strategist,” shows that Gandhi and his colleagues in South Africa were well aware of other nonviolent struggles prior to their adoption of such methods. In the years before 1906 they’d been impressed by mass nonviolent actions in China, Russia, India and among blacks in South Africa itself. Some of the best examples of nonviolence come from right here in the United States, in the years leading up to the American Revolution. To oppose British rule, the colonists used many tactics similar to Gandhi’s and they used these techniques with more skill and sophistication than anyone else before the time of Gandhi.

For instance the Boycotts of British imports were organized to protest the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, and the so-called Intolerable Acts. The campaign against the latter was organized by the First Continental Congress, which was originally a nonviolent action organization. Almost two centuries later, the boycott of British imports played the pivotal role in Gandhi’s struggle against colonial rule.

The forms of Satyagraha which could be conducted in a manner consistent with the love-ethic are negotiations, arbitration, agitation, demonstration, economic boycott, strike, nonpayment of taxes, and noncooperation. Violence may enter into any one of these, but violence may enter into complete withdrawal in the form of hate. These modes of social action represent love insofar as they retain emotional and physical discipline and are performed in the interest of a suffering minority or in the interest of justice. Inherent in both the principle of nonresistance and Satyagraha are the self imposed criteria which test the rightness of the cause and the action employed.

Gandhi’s "Satyagraha” is a principle of social action that informs and controls the conduct of the conflict. with the requirements of truth, nonviolence, and self-suffering. The positive expression of Gandhi’s love-ethic is to 'overcome evil with good'."

Lets Bring this Movement to the Next Level!! On June 13^th Let Fatherless Day Begin the Boycott!!!

William Lake

www.Fightingfathersofdistrict1.com

On June 13^th Let Fatherless Day Begin the Boycott!!!