Guidelines from Mahatma Gandhi

“Something so unexpected and unusual is happening…
We must question ourselves, for the governments are at a loss…”

Ladies and Gentlemen: help us proclaim our right for all people to be treated with equality. Even if we are a small minority at first, the truth is the truth; and the truth is that there are unjust laws, just as there are unjust people.

If we wish to be among the just, we must be committed to use peaceful means; and we must be determined that justice will be done!

So let us light up the minds of the public and the authorities with our defiance of injustice. The function of a civil resistor is to provoke a response, which we can easily do. That is the power of civil resistance. Fortunately there are many, many sympathetic people around who will support and nourish the efforts of those who free others from bondage, poverty, fear and/or apathy.

Poverty is a terrible form of violence. In order for us to be secure, we need to address the poverty in our midst. When I was a child, most of the families made their own cloth and grew their own fresh food. Now many people are unemployed, because of those who buy packaged food and imported clothes. Ironically there is very little health or beauty in the finest clothes when they make hunger and unhappiness in our community. I have learned that happiness does not come from things. However, happiness can come from work and pride in what we do. Poverty can only be removed if local skills can be revived and improved.

I praise your willingness to make appropriate sacrifices for justice. In this cause I am prepared to die, but my friends there is no cause or reason in which I am prepared to kill. Whatever the current authorities do to us, we should refrain from hurting or killing anyone. They may imprison us, they may fine us, they may even seize our belongings; but they can not take away our self respect unless we give it to them. I am asking you to ‘fight’ in a different way without striking a single blow. It may hurt, as all fighting hurts, but we will succeed if we fight to change things instead of fighting to take revenge.


I have found that there are much better ways to change things than to mobilize troops or to throw stones! If we are ready for independence, we must be willing to stand up for our freedom even if we are sent to jail in large numbers. We may accept such outrageous hospitality if it helps our cause. When they arrest us, they will expect us to lose heart or to fight back. But if we are peaceful and wise, whatever moral ascendancy the current authorities thought they held over us will be lost. The old authorities are clinging to old dreams, trying to protect their old ways. But their will is dying and justice will prevail. It is just a matter of when and how. Please keep in mind that throughout history, the way of truth and love has always won eventually. Some tyrants and murderers may seem invincible but in the end, they always fail. The truth is that evil is running around in our own hearts and that is where all our battles ought to be fought and focused through self control. Therefore I hope and pray that in every church, synagogue and mosque, the people will pledge to die before they lift a hand against another.

Guidelines from Henry David Thoreau

“It is our duty to wash our hands of indifference and inaction
and withdraw our support from every injustice…”

Ladies and Gentlemen: In the last two hundred years, we have seen a great deal of progress in the direction of individual rights. This is a direct result of the evolution of governments from heavy handed dictatorships to monarchies with limited powers, to our current attempts at democracy. Obviously there are still significant improvements that can be made.

At best, a government is a tool to organize public services; unfortunately most governments are terribly inefficient organizers. So much time is wasted on elections and each year more integrity is lost in the process. Unfortunately honest people and patriots accomplish little more than a cheap vote or a weak petition, often choosing to hesitate, while waiting for the politicians to remedy their own evils. Truth be told, the character of one good person can easily accomplish more than a weak government. Ironically the best government is one which has to govern the least. Furthermore the only rights a government should have over a group of people or their property are the rights which they concede.

In the US Declaration of Independence, there is a clear understanding that citizens have the right to refuse allegiance to the government when corruption or inefficiency becomes intolerable. Unfortunately unjust laws still exist. Shall we try to amend them and in the meantime obey them until we have succeeded? Or shall we transgress them immediately?

It is far better to cultivate a respect for what is right than to cultivate absolute respect for the law; therefore we should be ethical human beings first and only afterward be good citizens. A common result of the undue respect for law is when a soldier marches off to war against his/her common sense. When this occurs, that person becomes a mere shadow of humanity, like a zombie buried under arms. Ironically even soldiers without conscience are esteemed as ‘good citizens’ when in truth, they deserve little more respect than a horse, a dog, a scarecrow or a lump of clay. Furthermore the objections against fighting are many and carry serious weight. In the end conscientious objectors deserve to prevail.

Instead of arguing with politicians about any of this, it is far more effective to cut off our business with the actual enterprises and merchants who lobby for unfair advantages. Practically speaking these are the ones who oppose legitimate legal reforms because they are more interested in commerce than they are in humanity. The problem is that government officials and many of the people who elect them are often unsure what their real goals are, so many potential improvements are slow in coming.

Fortunately civil disobedience can speed up the process of legal reform and reduce public reliance on the false security of the existing government. Furthermore it costs more in every sense to pledge allegiance to a corrupt State and her stagnant forms of security than it would to incur the penalty of non violent civil disobedience.

Let every one of us make known what kind of government would command our respect and that will be a big step toward obtaining a positive, useful and functional State.