Non-Violence: The Most Successful Movements

Throughout the history of the world, there have been many fights, movements, and wars. The thing about these, though, is not all can be successful. Now, we can look back in history to all of these disputes and find that the most successful movements are missing one thing- violence. This has been shown through leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr, and Mahatma Gandhi. Even though these great leaders live in vastly different locations, that one missing tactic helped each achieve their own goals. Non-violence as a tactic has historically been successful, but a few things are required in order to make it work. Complete submission, unity (through the leaders), and respect for their enemies are just a few things that helped them achieve their goals.

When you say ‘non-violent’, you might only

think of no guns, and no offensive attacks.

But you would never think that such a large group of people could agree on not fighting back whatsoever. If you are being arrested, beaten, or even being prepared to be shot in the head, participants in the movement weren’t allowed to fight back. At all. The three major leaders who used the non-violence tactic made it crystal clear that if your purpose was to be violent to the enemy, that you didn’t have a place in the movement they were leading. Document 5 gives a good example of this; it says that Martin Luther King Jr. would ask for volunteers, but would not accept any that didn’t agree to the idea of no violence at all. “We proved that we had the most formidable weapon of all- the conviction that we were right”. This quote (also from Document 5) shows that the leaders of the Civil Rights movement would refuse to take on anyone who would be

violent. However, it wasn’t just the leaders who agreed to and promoted these tactics. As most everyone knows, Gandhi was imprisoned for a significant amount of time, and the non-violence tactic wouldn’t have worked at all if everyone had disbanded while he was in jail. In Document 4, it talks about how just before the Salt March, everyone got together and prayed, “You will be beaten but you must not resist; you must not even raise a hand to ward off blows”. They reminded each other that they are strong even without weapons. They reminded each other that they didn’t need violence in order to achieve their goals. They all accepted the chance that they would die, but they also accepted that they wouldn’t do anything about it; and every single one of them did so.
Even though every single person in each and every movement was fighting for the same goal, they might not see it that way. One person might want to approach it this way, and another that way. Without an organized leader, it would just lead to a cacophony of ideas. When Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi stepped up to the plate, they knew exactly what to do. Turn those raggedy kids into national champions. While this may sound like a plot from a Hollywood baseball movie, that’s exactly what they did. They found a way to make everyone understand that they were all fighting for the same goal, and any time they voiced their hatred of one another, it was the movement that took a step backwards. During the Indian Nationalist movement, there were a few huge protests that changed the course of India’s history, one being the Salt March. You may have heard of it. Beforehand, they got together and prayed for one another, saying, “Gandhi’s body is in jail but his soul is with you. India’s prestige is in your hands” (Document 4). They used his name in prayer to remind them what they were ultimately fighting for- the independence of their country. But it wasn’t only before marches that this sense of unity shone through. Hundreds of people were arrested during or after the Montgomery bus boycott, and the policy posted a list of those who were arrested, and some were even disappointed when their names weren’t on the list. “A once fear-ridden people had been transformed” (Document 8). The fact that many, many more of their people were arrested with them meant that no one was scared. They took being jailed to mean that they were successful, all thanks to the unity that Martin Luther King Jr. provided to the Civil Rights movement.
One might wonder why these major movements chose not to fight back. Was it that they were scared? Doubtful? As we look back, we can see that it was neither of those. The reason that, in each movement, they didn’t fight back was because they had respect for the people they were fighting. From the beginning of the movement, no one wanted to be better than them. In the South, India, and South Africa, no one wanted to become superior to their enemies. They just wanted to be equal. On the campaign button for the March on Washington, it portrays a white person and an African American person shaking hands (Document 11). At the bottom of the document, it gives one of the most famous quotes by Martin Luther King Jr., “I have a dream … the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood”. They didn’t want to be subversive and overthrow the government; all they wanted was to end segregation. To not have to drink out of a separate drinking fountain. To not have to sit at the back of the bus. So all citizens of America would be treated like one. But it wasn’t just in America, a democracy, where this happened. Document 12 portrays the winners of a boxing match holding up their hands, with two people’s hands on one glove- one black, and one white. “And the winners are… South Africa’s new democracy”. The fact that two people of different races have their hands in the same glove signifies how far the movement had come. One thing about the movement that Mandela lead was that they not only achieved their original goal of equality, South Africa eventually became a democracy because of his leadership. Even though South Africa wasn’t a democracy before the movement like America was, Nelson Mandela made the country understand that equality was a necessity; and all because of that one missing piece that they didn’t need to finish the puzzle- violence.