Civil Disobedience

       Laws that are unjust and inimical should not endeavor the people to amend them and obey them because it should be a duty as an individual to follow what is right. Aristotle once said that “It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizens.” As citizens who thrive justice, they have a moral responsibility to go against unjust laws. Campaigns such as the Salt March, to Flying pickets and sit-ins, and the poll tax non-payment were all historical events that brought the people common people together in order to fight against the detrimental laws.

     Henry David Thoreau, the man who laid the foundation of Civil Disobedience, was a transcendentalist who argued in favor of the common people and called for an upright, more righteous government and policies. He thoroughly expressed his opinion in his essay “Civil Disobedience” or “Resistance to Civil Government” which was read by many nonviolent advocates such as Gandhi and King. Thoreau being a transcendentalist had trust that if ones soul and conscience was true than he or she was free. Civil Disobedience was galvanized when Henry was arrested for resisting the poll tax in protest for the Mexican American War and slavery. Thoreau believed that an American citizens should follow their own conscience, and for the ones who were against the Mexican American War should not pay taxes because if we do than we would be supporting the government. He believed that the American government's power should be in the hand of the people, not because they are the fairest but because they are the strongest and the majority of America. He asked “Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.” He writes that if there was even one honest man who wants to bring an end to slavery and willingly be locked up for it in prison then there will be an abolition of slavery. It does not matter how small or weak of a person they are “what is once well done is done forever.” Thoreau explains that the government exists because the people chose it to execute their will but the government lacks the purpose for in which it was created for. So as the people, they must express opposition towards the inequitable laws. He emphasizes that an individual must not relentlessly yield to the majority of the State. Standing firm with this moral principle, soon later the Compromise of 1850 which led to the included Fugitive Slave Law. Thoreau educated the people on how a government should act and how they should respond in correspondent of that action. “It is not a man's duty as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous, wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.” He educates the people not to yield to the prejudice laws but to question them and not encourage it. This teaching has inspired reformers internationally such as Tolstoy in Russia, Gandhi in South Africa and India, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights movement.

        One of the most well known prominent leaders of the independence movement was Gandhi. He was great leader that believed in peace and wanted a fair world that would prosper. One of his first act of civil disobedience was the refusal to comply with racial segregations rule on a South African train. Gandhi was once removed from a first class railways compartment and thrown off in England. From there on he decided to fight against the unjust laws that rejects and harms the common the people. Although his teachings were based off peace he believed that an unjust law is the same as violence. Many times was Gandhi thrown into jail for refusing to obey the biased laws. During his time in jail Gandhi read “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau where he read about refusing the law non violently. Gandhi believed that violence does not allow an individual and a country to prosper, it brings his or her doom. He states “An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter- violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.” Rather than the essay “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi preferred the Sanskrit word satyagraha which meant devotion to the truth. In other words in means that one must be prepared to die and suffer himself for the truth. This method was adopted by the people when the common people were opposing barbarous laws of the Government of South Africa. “So long as it is your endeavor to controls us with justice and love, we will let you to do so. But if you wish to strike at us from behind, we cannot permit it.” Gandhi and the people used this method for justice and love. On March of 1930 the spiritual independence leader began a march that fought against the salt laws. This movement was known as the Salt March which was limited my its failures. Despite the failures it announced to the world that Indian masses were strong forces and further continued civil disobedience which inspired many people such as Martin Luther King.

        The great leader of the African American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King had a burning passion for civil disobedience. King fought for good and did not cooperate with the evil laws of the government. King used civil disobedience as a means of generating government change. Just like Gandhi it formed a large scale of people to nonviolently refuse to obey the government's corrupted laws. King believed that there are two types of laws: just and unjust laws. A just law would be a law that go upon morals or the law of God. An unjust law would be a law that is discordant to morals. King had been arrested arrested numerous times for leading protests and march such as the civil rights march through Birmingham. Alabama. He emphasized that one must accept suffering and penalty in order for the right cause. King took more direct non-violent actions that calling for a negotiation because direct actions such as marches and sit-ins because it created more tension which causes the government to confront and deal with the issues itself. He believed that civil disobedience was the one form that can bring a negotiation for the government to change. He has a belief that “One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” A man that is obeying unjust laws is a basically a spiritually dead man. King emphasizes that the people need to stop going along with the government's corrupted laws and that they need to start acting against or else we all will be spiritually dead. Martin Luther King's idea on nonviolence had six very important principles. First was one can resist evil without violence, second was that nonviolence seeks to attain the camaraderie of the opponent rather than to humiliate them, third was that the source of evil should be repressed and opposed not the ones who are causing it, fourth is the satyagraha which is to suffer without retaliation, fifth is that nonviolence avoids physical violence and internal spiritual violence, and the last principle is that the nonviolent must have great faith for a better a future and believe that the universal will eventually will be on the side of justice and morality. “ An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.” Not only did King advocate nonviolence nationally but also soon began to increase the awareness of it internationally.

        Saint Augustine once said, “An unjust law is no law at all.” The primary goal that many of these reformers all around the world were chasing was to speak against unjust laws. That is a responsibility as a citizen and as an individual to do. Henry David Thoreau has sparked up the notion of Civil Disobedience is essay proclaims that even if its a small act or the act is done by a single individual it will last because once done will have been done forever. This inspired other reformers such as Gandhi who believed that supporting unjust laws is the same thing as violence. He believed that there will be sufferings for the truth to come. Finally the word of these people opened up the mind of the civil rights movement leader, Martin Luther King Jr. who nonviolently acted against prejudice laws by going on marches and sit ins in order to create tension and get the government's cooperation rather than waiting for a negotiation. These acts soon led to victories when congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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Mahatma, Gandhi. “On Nonviolent Resistance.” 11 Sept. 1906. Speech