Abstract

Reflections on Nonviolence

This article discusses the role of non-violence in politics with references to the lives of Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and African-American leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The death of Gandhi and the death of King leaves the basic questions about nonviolence unanswered. One may begin by suggesting that the truly fundamental questions have seldom been asked. To contemporary U.S. the posing of such questions, and the shifting of focus which that necessitates, has now become imperative. For those who believe, as did Gandhi's assassin, that power can' come through retaliation are promoting "confrontations" in streets, seeking the repression which such action elicits in the hope that by building upon the reaction to such repression they can generate power which, they say, is to be used to effect political and social change.