Nonviolence has two meanings, It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle or it can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action. Much of the general philosophy of nonviolence has active or activist elements, in that they accept the need for a means of struggle to achieve political and social change. Thus, for example, the Gandhian ahimsa is a philosophy and strategy for social change that rejects the use of violence, but at the same time sees nonviolent action (also called civil resistance) as an alternative to passive acceptance of oppression or armed struggle against it. 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 and nonviolent direct action and social, political, cultural and economic forms of intervention. In modern times, nonviolent methods of action have been a powerful tool for social protest and revolutionary social and political change. There are many examples of their use. Fuller surveys may be found in the entries on civil resistance, nonviolent resistance and nonviolent revolution. Here certain movements particularly influenced by a philosophy of nonviolence should be mentioned, including Mahatma Gandhi leading a decades long nonviolent struggle against British rule in India, which eventually helped India win its independence in 1947, Martin Luther Kings and James Bevels adoption of Gandhis nonviolent methods in the struggle to win civil rights for African Americans, and Cesar Chavezs campaigns of nonviolence in the 1960s to protest the treatment of farm workers in California. The 1989 Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government is considered one of the most important of the largely nonviolent Revolutions of 1989. Most recently the nonviolent campaigns of Leymah Gbowee and the women of Liberia were able to achieve peace after a 14 year civil war. This story is captured in a 2008 documentary film Pray the Devil Back to Hell. In an essay, To Abolish War, evolutionary biologist Judith Hand advocated the use of nonviolent direct action to dismantle the global war machine.

About the Author

Ravindra Kumar (born 1959) is a political scientist, peace worker, educationalist and the former Vice Chancellor of Meerut University. Currently he is the editor in chief of the Global Peace International Journal, and has more than a hundred books and four hundred articles,talks,lectures on great leaders of the Indian sub continent, especially Mahatma Gandhi, and on various social, religious, political, educational, cultural and academic issues.Born in 1959 at Kakrauli village of Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh India, he is an M.A. in Political Science & Philosophy, PGD in Gandhian Studies and Ph.D..