Civil Disobedience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

civilian Disobedience - Essay ExampleThe philosophy behind civil disobedience goes back to classical and biblical sources. Perhaps its most influential exposition can be found in Henry David Thoreaus On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849), in which he claims that the individual, who grants the state its power in the first place, must follow the dictates of conscience in opposing unjust laws. (Carton 1998) Thoreaus work had an enormous impact on Mohandas Gandhi and the techniques that he employed first to gain Indian rights in South Africa and later to win independence for India. Gandhi developed the notion of satyagraha Sanskrit holding to truth, acts of civil disobedience marked by Indian tradition and his own naughty moral standards and sense of self-discipline. Attracting a huge number of followers from the Indian public, Gandhi was able to use the technique as an effective political tool and play a key role in delivery about the British decision to end colonial rule of h is homeland. His was one of the few relatively unmodified successes in the history of civil disobedience.Civil disobedience in the United States traditionally has been associated with those on the leftfield of the political spectrum, as were most participants in the anti-Vietnam War movement, but toward the end of the 20th century the scheme also began to be employed by those on the right, for example, by those involved in confron