Question

What is civil disobedience and why is it controversial? Under what circumstances, if any, would you support (or commit) civil disobedience? Please be specific.

Answer 1

Civil disobedience, in short, is a form of public demonstration in which you disobey laws which you find to be unjust. Colloquially, civil disobedience tends to refer to peaceful demonstrations, but violence may also constitute an act of civil disobedience: and here is where controversy might arise.

Most proponents of civil disobedience advocate for peaceful demonstrations, because it forces the government/law enforcement authorities to be in the position of the aggressor. Their argument is that those who advocate for direct action against unjust laws, up to and including violent measures, will do nothing except tarnish the image the demonstrators (and their cause) in the eyes of the law-abiding citizens whose opinions they're trying to sway.

Civil disobedience can also be controversial in the public at large due to a belief that it is better to obey an unjust law while working to get it changed rather than risk personal injury or damages to try and alter it with no guarantee of success. Generally speaking, at least in the US, forms of peaceful protest are accepted among the broader population as a Constitutionally protected form of expression - even if Americans at large might disagree with the message being conveyed.

The circumstances, which led to the launching of the Civil Disobedience Movement, can be understood as follows:

1. The anti- Simon agitation

2. The revival of Revolutionary Terrorism.

3. The peasants’ unrest

4. The economic depression of 1929 and resultant political and socio-economic tensions intensified anti-imperialist mood, making Civil Disobedience Movement inevitable.

5. Rejection of Nehru Report by the government.

6. Meanwhile, the demand of complete independence was gaining ground within the Congress. The famous resolution declaring Purna Swaraj (full independence) was adopted on December 31, 1929 at the Lahore Session of the Congress. The Congress also announced the launching of a Civil Disobedience Movement.

7. Before starting Satyagraha, Gandhi made last attempt to avert it through an eleven point demand but this was rejected by Irwin.