Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/930

 SIU MISOBLLANKOUU not open to the weak, it does not exclude its use if, in the opinion of a passive resistor, the occasion demands it. However, it has always been distinguished from armed resistance and its application was at one time confined to Christian martyrs. Civil Disobedience is civil breach of unmoral statu- tory enlctments, The expression was, so far as I am aware, coined by Thoreau to signify his own resistance to the laws of a slave state, He has left amasterly treatise on the duty of Civil Dlsohedience. But Thoreau was not perhaps an out and out champion of non- violence. Probably, also. Thoreau limited his breach of statutory laws to the revenue law, i.e., payment of taxes. Whereas the term Clvil·Dlsobedlence as practised in l9l9 covered a breach of any statutory and unmoral law. It signified the resister’s outlavvry in a civil, i.e., non·violent manner. He invoked the sanctions of the law and cheerfully suffered imprisonment. It is a branch of Satyagrab. Non·co operation predominantly implies with- drawing of co-operation from the State that in the non·co·operator's view has become corrupt and excludes C¤vil·D.s0bedience of the fierce type described above. By its very nature, Non-co-operation as even open to children of understanding and can be safely practised by the masses. Civil-D.sobedien ce pre-supposes the habit of willing obedience to laws without fear of their sanctions. It can therefore be practised only as a last resort and by a select few in the first instance at any rate, Non cooperation, too, like Civil·D¤sobedience is a branch of Satyagrah which includes all ncn·violent resistance for the vindication of Truth.