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used by the military. Non-violence seeks to establish a human bond between the resister and those being resisted. In the long run this changes the oppressor and can transform the system which has created the oppression in the first place.
According to Robert Seeley (1986), -the most basic assumption of non-violent theory, and especially of non-violent civilians defence, is that government-and, by extension, occupation-functions only with the consent of the governed. This means literal physical cooperation. But this does not mean that non-violent resisters will not suffer terribly. Gandhi's movement and King's movement accepted great suffering on the price of their freedom. But in the end, both prevailed because it became impossible to enforce repression against people who would not respond to it with violence.
What is exactly mean non-violence? To answer this question Homes (1990) says-To answer this requires looking beyond a few specific acts on specific occasions; it requires considering how people would act under various kinds of circumstances, and why. Particularly relevant here are circumstances in which people are confronted with violence.
Acharya Mahaprajna (1994), a great thinker of non-violence—says that the members of the family and friends do not normally fight with or torment one-another. Is it true non-violence? It certainly is not, for even the slightest case involving selfish interests explodes the relationship. Thus we must distinguish between what we have called practical non-violence and true spiritual non-violence. Practical non-violence is based on the principle of Utilitarianism. Under normal circumstances when we discover amity and fellow feeling among the members of the same family or community, or among neighbours, we are led to believe that there is plenty of non-violence in society, but once this principle of utilitarianism comes under strain, violence erupts. In fact, human interactions in general are non-violent. It is when confronted with self-interests, lawlessness, injustice, violence, threats or oppression then most people think violence is justified.
Spiritual non-violence is based on the unity and equality of all soulssouls of all sentiments. Once we know that every living being is subject to pain and pleasure in the same manner as we and that therefore we must never inflict any pain on them, never oppress and exploit them, never rob them of their rights, we are on our way to realizing the meaning of spiritual
तुलसी प्रज्ञा जुलाई-सितम्बर,
2008
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