Pacifism is opposition to war, militarism, and violence. Mahatma Gandhi propounded the practice of steadfast nonviolent opposition which he called "satyagraha", instrumental in its role in the Indian Independence Movement. Its effectiveness served as an inspiration to Martin Luther King and many others in the civil rights movement. Some pacifists follow principles of nonviolence, believing that nonviolent action is morally superior or most effective. In general, advocates of an activist philosophy of nonviolence use diverse methods in their campaigns for social change, including critical forms of education and persuasion, mass noncooperation, civil disobedience, nonviolent direct action,
… Read more and social, political, cultural and economic forms of intervention.
Some, however, support physical violence for emergency self-defense. Others support the destruction of property for conducting symbolic acts of resistance like pouring red paint to represent blood on the outside of military recruiting offices or entering air force bases and hammering on military aircraft. Not all nonviolent resistance is based on a fundamental rejection of all violence in all circumstances. Many leaders and participants in such movements, while recognizing the importance of using non-violent methods in particular circumstances, have not been absolute pacifists. Sometimes, as with the civil rights movement's march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, they have called for armed protection. The interconnections between civil resistance and factors of force are numerous and complex.
Nonviolent resistance, or nonviolent action, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, or other methods while being nonviolent. The term "nonviolence" is often used as a synonym of pacifism, but this equation is rejected by nonviolent advocates. Nonviolence specifically refers to the absence of violence and it is always the choice to do no harm or the choice to do the least amount of harm, and passivity is the choice to do nothing. Sometimes nonviolence is passive, and other times it isn't.
Major nonviolent resistance advocates include Mahatma Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Stewart Parnell, Te Whiti o Rongomai, Tohu Kākahi, Leo Tolstoy, Alice Paul, Martin Luther King Jr., Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, James Bevel, Václav Havel, Andrei Sakharov, Lech Wałęsa, Gene Sharp, Nelson Mandela, Jose Rizal, and many others.
In 1950, China invaded Tibet and seized control by force. Tibetans have lived under China’s military rule ever since. Tibetans attempted to take back their country in an enormous uprising in March of 1959. The protests were crushed with brutal force. Fearing for his safety, the Tibetan’s young leader, the Dalai Lama, was forced to flee across the mountains to India, where he still lives today. Tibet was divided up and incorporated into Chinese provinces. The largest of these is the so-called “Tibet Autonomous Region” or TAR. Despite its name, the TAR is anything but autonomous. China rules with an iron fist, and Tibet is ranked amongst the “worst of the worst” for human
… Read more rights violations. Tibetans have never stopped resisting the destruction of their culture and way of life. Their protests continue to be guided by their non-violent principles.