How is nonviolent conflict different from “nonviolence” or passive resistance?
A. Most of those who have used nonviolent action have not primarily been motivated by a desire to be nonviolent or to make peace. They have wanted to fight for their rights or interests, but by means other than guns or bombs – either because they have seen that violence had been ineffectual or because they had no violent force at their disposal. Gandhi called nonviolent action “the greatest and the activist force in the world.” He knew that when a nonviolent movement follows a strategy aimed at mobilizing the people and undermining its opponents’ pillars of support, it has the potential to wield decisive power and achieve victory. There is nothing passive about marshalling that kind of power.
