Abstract
For the last few years, dissents and protests are being seen almost everywhere in the world. Some of them were violent and occupation movements against consumerism, traditional institutions, and capitalism, with little success; while some were peaceful protests against racism, corruption, and the state’s policies. Peaceful protests are often characterized as Gandhian movement; but many of such peaceful movement turns violent or disrupted from the notion of Gandhian dissent, for instance, Black Lives Matter movement—a protest against racism—in the US. Many peaceful protests are being organized in the name Gandhian way of dissent across the world without understanding Gandhi's eternal spirit of Satyagraha, and this has led to the flood of critiques against limits of success about it. Scholars of subaltern studies criticize Gandhian Satyagraha as surrender and subordination of poor and oppressed that can never pose real challenges to India's elites. But this is not reality. Gandhi's Satyagraha is based on the purity of soul and theory of persuasion. There is a kind of social construction, not enmity in Gandhian dissents. This research paper attempts to redefine the Gandhian notion of dissent and protest in the twenty-first century. It also analyses some contemporary so-called peaceful movements in India that have been labelled as Gandhian movements—whether they were or not?
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amin, S. (2006). Event, memory, metaphor: Chauri chaura, 1920–1922. Delhi: Penguin.
Apoorvananda (Ed.). (2018). The idea of university. Delhi: Context.
Banerjee, S. (2008). In the wake of Naxalbari. New Delhi: Shishu Sahitya Samsad Pvt. Limited.
Burrowes, R. J. (1996). The strategy of nonviolent defense—A Gandhian approach. Albany State University of New York Press.
Chandra, B. (1993). Indian national movement—The long dynamics (p. 18). New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.
Chatterji, P. (1984). Gandhi and the critique of civil society. In R. Guha (ed.), Subaltern studies III. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Chatterji, P. (2003). The politics of the governed: Reflections on popular politics in most of the world. Delhi: Permanent Black.
Chenoweth, E., & Stephan, M. J. (2011). Why civil resistance works: The strategic logic nonviolent conflict. New York: Columbia University Press.
Dutt, R. P. (1994). India To-Day (pp. 307–308). New Delhi: People’s Publishing House.
George O. (2021). Nineteen Eighty-Four (Edited with an introduction and Notes by John Bowen). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gramsci, A. (1998). Selections from the prison notebooks (p. 12). Chennai: Orient Longman. (Reprint), p. 12.
Gudavarthy, A. (2018). India after Modi: Populism and the right. Delhi: Bloomsbury.
Gudavarthy, A. (2021, 20 February). Populism and rhetoric amidst farmers’ protest in India, E-International relations. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from https://www.e-ir.info/2021/02/20/opinion-populism-and-rhetoric-amidst-the-farmers-protest-in-india/.
Guha, R. (1992). In ‘discipline and mobilize’ subaltern studies (Vol. VII). Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Guha, R. (1993). Discipline and mobilize. In P. Chatterjee & G. Pandey (Eds.), Subaltern studies VII: Writings on south asian history and society (pp. 69–120). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Guha, R. (1997). Dominance without hegemony history and power in colonial India. Harvard University Press.
Habib, S. I. (Ed.). (2017). Indian nationalism: The essential writings. Delhi: Aleph Book Co.
Hardiman, D. (2013). Towards a history of non-violent resistance. Economic and Political Weekly, 48(23), 41–48. Retrieved August 24, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23527210.
Harman, C. (1988). The fire last time: 1968 and after. London: Bookmarks.
Hobsbawm, E. (1973). Peasants and politics. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 1(1), 3–22.
Hobsbawm, E. J. (1995). Age of extremes: The short twentieth century, 1914–1991. London: Abacus.
Rudé, G. (1964). The crowd in history. A study of popular disturbances in France and England, 1730–1848. New York: Wiley.
Rudé, G. (1980). Also, ideology and popular protest. New York: Lawrence & Wishart.
Sharp, G. (1973). Politics of non-violent action, Part 3: The dynamics of non-violent action (pp. 594–810). Boston: Porter Sargent.
Siedman, M. (2004). The imaginary revolution: Parisian students and workers in 1968. Berghahn.
Thapar, R. (2020). Voice of dissent: An essay. Delhi: Seagull Books.
Thapar, R., et al. (2016). On nationalism. Delhi: Aleph Book Co.
Jahanbegloo, R. (January 30, 2020). Gandhi, the Dissident. The Hindu. Retrieved January 13, 2021, from https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/gandhi-the-dissident/article30686019.ece.
Kaur, S. (February 17, 2021). India’s farmers are protesting authoritarianism disguised as capitalism. Sounds familiar?’ NBC News. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/india-s-farmers-are-protesting-authoritarianism-disguised-capitalism-sound-familiar-ncna1258028.
Kesavan, M. (June 24, 2021). Missing Gandhi. The Telegraph. Retrieved June 25, 2021, from https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/mahatma-gandhi-political-mobilzation-should-be-a-lesson-for-future-protests-and-dissent/cid/1736956.
Kumar, R. (2021). Here’s what really happened during the republic day tractor rally. The Wire, January 27, 2021. Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://thewire.in/agriculture/farmers-republic-day-tractor-march-eyewitness-account.
Marx, K. (1977). The bourgeoisie and the counter-revolution, Neue Rheinische Zeitung, 15 December 1848, in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Collected Works, vol. 8, 1848–1849. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Nair, J., et al. (2017). What the nation really need to know: The JNU nationalism lectures. Delhi: Harper Collins.
Negri, A., & Hardt, M. (2004). Multitude: War and democracy in the age of empire. New York: Penguin.
Ober, J. (1998). Political dissent in democratic Athens. Princeton University Press.
Orwell, G. (1945). Animal farm: A fairy story. London: Secker and Warburg.
Raina, B. (2021). A Republic Day like no other: Not the State but ‘we the people’ will take centre-stage. The Wire. January 26, 2021. Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://thewire.in/rights/republic-day-2021-we-the-people-centrestage-farmers-tractor-rally.
Roy, A. (2020). Azadi: Freedom, fascism, fiction. Delhi: Penguin.
The Hindu. (2017, 27 August). Anarchy in Panchkula: Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s Conviction. Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/anarchy-in-panchkula/article19571267.ece.
The Hindu. (2021, 28 January). A wrong turn: On Republic Day violence. Retrieved on May 10, 2021, from https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/a-wrong-turn-the-hindu-editorial-on-violence-at-farmers-republic-day-tractor-rally/article33679024.ece.
Vajpeyi, A. (2017). India dissents: 3000 years of difference, doubt, and argument. Delhi: Speaking Tiger.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 National Institute of Advanced Studies
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tripathi, A.K. (2022). Dissent and Protest Movements in India: Revisiting Gandhi’s Ideas of Peaceful Protest. In: Behera, A., Nayak, S. (eds) Gandhi in the Twenty First Century. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8476-0_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8476-0_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-8475-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-8476-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)