Nonviolence is a philosophy and strategy for social change that rejects the use of violence. As such, nonviolence is an alternative to passive acceptance of oppression and armed struggle against it. Practitioners of nonviolence may use diverse methods in their campaigns for social change, including critical forms of education and persuasion, civil disobedience, nonviolent direct action, and targeted communication via mass media. In personal relationships, the skills of “I” statements, reflective listening, agreeing to disagree, and mediation agreements are used.
Nonviolence has been a powerful tool for social protest. Well-known examples of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent revolution include: a) Mahatma Gandhi leading a decades-long nonviolent struggle to achieve independence in 1947 from British rule in India; b) Martin Luther King’s adoption of Gandhi's nonviolent methods in the struggle to win civil rights for African Americans; c) Cesar Chavez’ campaigns of nonviolence in the 1960s to protest the treatment of farm workers in California; and d) the 1989 "Velvet Revolution" in the then Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government is considered one of the most important of the largely nonviolent revolutions of 1989. Most recently the nonviolent campaigns of Leymah Gbowee and the women of Liberia were able to achieve peace after a 14-year civil war. This story is captured in a 2008 documentary film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.” The 14th and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has said nonviolence is the only way progress can be made with China.
The term nonviolence is often linked with or even used as a synonym for pacifism; however, the two concepts are fundamentally different. Pacifism denotes the rejection of the use of violence as a personal decision on moral or spiritual grounds, but does not inherently imply any inclination toward change on a sociopolitical level. Nonviolence, on the other hand, presupposes the intent of (but does not limit it to) social or political change as a reason for the rejection of violence. Also, a person may advocate nonviolence in a specific context while advocating violence in other contexts. A pacifist will disavow violence in any and all contexts.
