E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi and Contemporary… 101One can see four types of nonviolent action incontemporary world. There are Pro-democracy movements orresistance against authoritarian/semi-authoritarianregimes: examples include Portugal 1974, Argentina 1977-81,Iran 1978-9, Philippines 1986 (People Power movement) and2001 (People Power II), Chile 1983-89, Poland 1983-9, Haiti1985, Burma 1988 and 2007 (Saffron Revolution), China 1989,Czechoslovakia 1989 (Velvet Revolution), East Germany 1989,Hungary 1989, Mali 1989-92, Nepal 1990 and 2006, Thailand1992, Serbia 2000, Georgia 2003 (Rose Revolution), Ukraine2004 (Orange Revolution), Kyrgyzstan 2005 (TulipRevolution). Maldives (2008), Iran (Twitter) 2009 Arab Spring(2010-11). The second focuses on Demands for civil rights ina multicultural state. Examples are Black people in the USA(1950s and 1960s) and South Africa (1950-1990). The third aremovements seeking national self-determination or resistingexternal occupation: examples include India 1919-1945,Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, Tibet 1987-9, Palestine1987-93(first intifada), Kosovo 1990-99, East Timor 1988-99,Lebanon 2005 (Cedar Revolution). Finally, there areLivelihood- related movements often against forces ofinternational capital, often in complicity with the state, andtheir number is increasing. A notable example is the Movementfor the Survival of the Ogoni People in Nigeria led by late KenSaro-WiwaSince 1989 the conventional violent logic of revolutionseems to have changed irrevocably in many parts of the world.Revolutions are now no longer what they used to be. TheGeorgian Rose Revolution in 2003 and the Ukrainian OrangeRevolution of 2004 had only limited goals to restore somesemblance of order in the polity which was realized through acarnival type action. This later led to the replacement of one setof leadership with another through elections. But themobilization itself would have generated the self-confidence of