Civil Disobedience Gandhi Analysis

There are many different opinions on whose moral responsibility civil disobedience is. Who should the responsibility fall to? The moral responsibility of civil disobedience should fall to the citizens being led, ruled, or governed.

According to On Civil Disobedience by Mohandas K. Gandhi, one thing to understand about civil disobedience is that the leader or ruler of a country or group of people is only in charge as long as the people consider themselves to be the leader's subjects. When they do not consider themselves under the leader's rule, the person in power ceases to have power. Therefore, the people have the most power and control.

If the people have more power in a country than the leader, they should have the moral responsibility

of civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest. Gandhi states in On Civil Disobedience that if a sovereign betrays their people by making laws to suppress the people, they will not be obeyed. Then, the people have the moral responsibility to refuse to comply with those laws or pay taxes and fines as a form of political protest that is peaceful; acting with civil disobedience.

Others may argue that the moral responsibility of civil disobedience goes to the leaders of people unhappy with their conditions and leaders.

Examples of these leaders would be Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. These leaders of the people led great things while using acts of civil disobedience but the power and moral responsibility still belonged to the people. The people could have chosen to not join them and live with their conditions. They could have joined the side of their oppressors. But no, they stood up for what they deserved and used civil disobedience to defend their morals.

It was the people's moral responsibility to use civil disobedience to stand up for what was right and join Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement. The people's moral responsibility when they joined Gandhi in the Salt March. When looking at these examples the people used their responsibility of civil disobedience to achieve what needed to be done, the responsibility never fell upon the leaders.

Civil disobedience is a moral responsibility that falls to the citizens being led, ruled, or governed. The people can choose if they want to join others that are using their responsibility, but they have a choice. The leaders of people do not have the responsibility of civil disobedience. Leaders are only leaders of the people as long as the people obey them and respect

them.