E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

102 Contextualising Gandhian Thoughtthe people who partook in it, which has long-term effect ontheir ability to defend their freedom. These ‘colour revolutions’however did not seek to build a new system, but only sought torestore constitutional order and some degree of probity inpublic life. What is significant after the 1989 movements wasthe rejection of violence as a means to revolution, which was areal break with the Jacobin-style violent revolutions of the past.Roberts calls this ‘progressive substitution’, which ‘sees civilresistance in progressive substitution for the use and threat offorce. . . . The hope is that it will replace reliance on forceprogressively in a succession of issue-areas’. 5 Throughprogressive substitution, it is hoped that the relevance of armedforces can be minimised. Stephen Zunes thinks that there is nocorrelation between decline in violence in the Third World andthe emergence of a more tolerable domestic situation. Insteadhe thinks that the mode of expression of grievances haschanged to one of using nonviolent means. This shift has beencaused by the high costs of armed insurrection, realization ofthe greater efficacy of unarmed insurrections and awareness ofthe fact that armed revolts have had problems with creatingstable post-revolutionary societies. 6The most recent series of nonviolent actions in the Arabworld has demonstrated the efficacy of unarmed insurrectioneven in the Muslim countries. The self-immolation ofMohamed Bouazizi, the young Tunisian who was forced toshut down his vegetable stall, served as the trigger for theinitial protests. This was in some ways comparable to the selfimmolationof Czech protester Jan Palach in 1969, over theSoviet invasion of his country. Protests in Prague marking the20th anniversary of Palach's death proved a catalyst for theCzechs' 1989 Velvet Revolution. While the Arab Spring isaimed at overhauling the whole system, Hazare movement isconcerned with an anti-corruption bill and the inclusion of thePrime Minister and the Judiciary in its jurisdiction. Whereas in