According to Gandhi, “Non-co-operation implies withdrawing cooperation from the State [or other power] that in the non-cooperator’s view has become corrupt.” The non-cooperator must be prepared to renounce the benefits and the conveniences provided by the system in question, and by this renunciation, along with the acceptance of punishment (as in all Civil Disobedience) can begin to undermine the system’s authority over the individual. Draft resistance has been a prominent form of non-cooperation throughout history.
When even one person is empowered to act against an unjust system and decides no longer to cooperate with it, with its duties, titles and honors, she or he gains a form of integrity and power that draws in others who share the weight of that oppression and eventually can awaken the opponents.
Non-co-operation with evil is, however, incomplete without co-operation with good. For instance, in Gandhi’s India, non-cooperation in the form of boycotting British cloth was balanced by the daily application of the charkha, or spinning wheel, to make one’s own cloth through cottage industry and indigenous Indian networks.
Source: M.K. Gandhi Nonviolent Resistance–Satyagraha, p. 4.
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By: Metta Center
We provide educational resources on the safe and effective use of nonviolence, with the recognition that it’s not about putting the right person in power but awakening the right kind of power in people. We advance a higher image of humankind while empowering people to explore the question: How does nonviolence work, and how can I actively contribute to a happier, more peaceful society?
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