Essay On Civil Disobedience And Rebellion

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND REBELLION

“Civil disobedience and rebellion becomes a sacred duty of a person when the state becomes lawless and corrupt”. These are the words spoken by Mahatma Gandhi; a leader of the independence movement in the British ruled India. Civil disobedience is disagreeing with the government in a peaceful way whereas rebellion is doing the same thing in a violent way. These actions are provoked when the people don’t like something that the government is doing. They are necessary ways to help protect people’s treasured rights, to publicize an issue and overthrow an unjust government or gain independence. For these reasons, civil disobedience and rebellion are both equally necessary to obtain an effective democracy.

People use civil disobedience and rebellion to claim freedom and denied rights. It is also used to overthrow a tyrannical government. According to principle no. 3 from the declaration of independence; it is the government’s duty is to protect the people’s unalienable rights. The government is not to seize or deny people of their rights and liberty or the government is classified as tyrannical. In the 1700s American colonies were under the rule of the British government. The colonists lived under the British monarch, King George III. The king then started to take an

advantage of the colonists. He used the colonies to pay off the British’s debts in the French and Indian war which took place between the French and the British. The British gained land but they owed more than 2 million dollars. To pay it off, the king taxed the colonists. The colonists had the right of taxation with representation which was violated since the colonies had no representation of the government. The colonists were unhappy and they used civil disobedience; wrote letters to King George, organized rallies and boycotts to show that they didn’t like King George taxing them. The taxations continued anyway. The king further took away the colonist’s freedom to trade by ordering that the colonies could only trade with Great Britain. The colonists now started getting angry. They were leaning towards rebellion to get their rights back. King George paid no heed to the colonists but instead took away their rights to vote for their state representative. He also sent soldiers to their homes so that people would not rebel. The colonists were furious, the rebelled against the British. After seven years of war the colonists gained independence. This is evident in source 5 which has a picture of the colonists pulling down the statue of King George to show that they were done with the king. This also showed them as being independent. They regained their rights and freedom and transitioned to a government who was going to protect their rights like it was meant to do, or transferred from monarchy to democracy. The colonists used rebellion i.e. American Revolution to make the government better since they were able to create a government by the people, of the people and for the people which was not possible under the rule of King George, monarchy. People were also much happier after the rebellion.

Rebellion and civil disobedience will help publicize an issue. Most of the time, publicity will help bring justice to an unjust situation. It will make the people aware about the actions of the government. This will result in people actively participating in the issue. This will also result in the government being corrected if necessary. This is well supported by the case of Freddie Gray that took place recently. On April 12, 2015, four officers on bicycles attempted to stop Freddie Gray and another man, who ran after seeing police at the intersection of W. North Avenue and N. Mount Street. Police caught and arrested Gray in the 1700 block of Presbury Street. Police said Gray stopped voluntarily and they did not use any force. The officers asked for a van to take Freddie to the police station. At that time Freddie asked for an inhaler but it was not provided to him. Freddie is placed in leg irons and put back in the wagon. Multiple witnesses tell The Sun (a newspaper) they saw Gray beaten but the police says evidence including an autopsy disputes their accounts. Under police care, Freddie Gray was severely injured. His spine was 80% damaged. This incident showed police negligence and brutality. This atrocious behavior from the police department caused series of outbreaks. The people who heard of this incident made sure Freddie and his family got justice. They also became more violent, rebelled as incident similar to this occurred. This publicity made the government better because now, people are aware of the unfair and brutal behavior of the police department. The civil disobedience and rebellion have made the law take action against injustice, thus making united states a better place.
Rebellion and civil disobedience is extremely useful in obtaining rights, overthrowing a tyrannical government and publicizing an issue.

However, there are major disadvantages to rebellion and civil disobedience. First, rebellion and disobedience will cause destruction. It will harm property and may even claim lives. In spite of that the benefits of rebellion and civil disobedience outweigh its disadvantages. Through civil disobedience and rebellion we can gain peace and also be happy. Besides, many people also think that you are not really living your life without your rights. To sum up, civil disobedience and rebellion will certainly help structure an effective

democracy.