A Philosophical Appraisal of Nonviolent Resistance Movement

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Nonviolent resistance action has become a strong force against foreign rule, oppressive government, injustice, bad government policies and illegitimate regimes. It is in this regard that this work set out to address this issue by attempting some moral justifications for nonviolent resistance action. This work subjected the conceptions of nonviolence by some scholars to critical evaluations and conceptual analyses. These scholars include David Henry Thoreau who linked civil disobedience with the individual’s conscience, as well as Hannah Arendt who believed that it must take the collective efforts of the masses to attain a successful nonviolent resistance action and the thoughts of Gene Sharp, Erica Chenoweth, Kathleen Cunningham, Stephens Zunes, Iain Atack and Oseremen Felix were taken into consideration. It discusses the practicality and outcomes of nonviolence in India by Mahatma Gandhi during British rule in India and Nelson Mandela in the erstwhile apartheid South Africa.  Also, it has been observed that over the years that most discourses on nonviolent resistance action has focused more on its practicality, failure and success, while paying less attention to its moral justification. In light of the recent development of nonviolent resistance action across the globe, there is no doubt that such an act of civil resistance can be consistently applied in any political settings or society to bring injustice, foreign and oppressive rule, illegitimate and tyrannical regimes to it end.

KEYWORDS;  Nonviolent resistance action, Civil resistance, David Henry Thoreau, Hannah Arendt, India, South Africa.