Nonviolent Resistances in the Contemporary World

Case Studies from India, Poland, and Turkey

Nalanda Roy, Nalanda Roy

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000555370
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Sociologie

This volume studies nonviolent movements as instruments of change in contemporary global politics. It presents case studies of civilian-led nonviolent efforts in India, Poland, and Turkey and analyzes how they have enabled people's voices, influenced popular resistance cultures, and pushed for change across the world.

The book discusses complex sociopolitical scenarios that challenge democracy, patriotism, and the question of identity across the world. It examines how popular resistance movements have been received by the media, subverted governments across the world, and how they have contributed to the development of new "protest paradigms." The volume brings together leading experts who explore the significant wave of nonviolent mass movements in contemporary global affairs to understand how these discourses can be leveraged to study peace and conflict today. The authors involve extensive pedagogical discussions, new tools, and techniques to map emerging political discourses to identify and explain how contemporary peace-conflict research can study nonviolent resistance and facilitate the development of new narratives in the future.

An invaluable guide to understanding social movements, this book will be a must-read for scholars and researchers of politics, governance and public policy, gender, and human rights.

1 Introduction

Nalanda Roy

DOI: 10.4324/9781003109310-1

A society in which there was no possibility of murder would be a better one, but a society in which there was no possibility of civil disobedience would be much worse.¹

—Leslie Green

1.1 Importance of civil resistance

During the 19th century, the “legal resistance” movement was initiated in Hungary under the Habsburg monarchy. At that time, Hungarians campaigned for more autonomy and national rights within Austria-Hungary, gaining limited success in 1867.

In the early 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) brought civil resistance to wider attention, demonstrating that a new form of struggle is possible, one that has a degree of superiority over other forms. In fact, Gandhi’s work demonstrates the efficacy of civil resistance in producing outcomes such as independence and democracy.

Today, there is a significant need for a systemic investigation of all possible methods of nonviolent action to identify effective strategies for resisting oppressive regimes. Civil resistance is a powerful tool people use to fight for their rights, achieve freedom, and, above all, get justice without the use of violence.² Nonviolent resistance is a civilian-based method used to wage conflict through social, psychological, economic, and political means without the threat or use of force. These methods include acts of omission, acts of commission, or a combination of both. This edited volume, Nonviolent Resistances in the Contemporary World, explores the issue of nonviolent civil resistance and explains how such campaigns are becoming a significant feature of international politics.

In Why Civil Resistance Works, Erica Chenoweth clearly explains that civil resistance campaigns usually attract greater numbers because there is a much lower barrier to participation.³ However, while civil resistance may work well against some adversaries, it has not always proven effective against tougher regimes. For example, the “Arab Spring” uprisings offer several examples of effective nonviolent actions in Egypt and Tunisia as well as failures in Libya or Syria, where the situation turned bloody. In order to create an effective, functioning democracy there are many factors to consider, and civil resistance may be only one.

This volume aims to promote knowledge of how popular resistance has subverted governments across the world and to expand on relevant studies in the field of resistance. Whether it is the Black Lives Matter protest, protests against climate change, protests in Hong Kong, protests for indigenous people’s rights, the Me Too movement, #Justice for Sushant Singh Rajput in the Bollywood film industry, or the Stop AAPI Hate movement, all these efforts have received a great deal of media attention and contributed to the development of the “protest paradigm” across the world. By simply observing contemporary global affairs, it appears that we may be in the midst of a significant wave of nonviolent mass movements in world history.

By focusing attention on these issues, we hope to encourage scholars to expand the range of texts and genres they explore in search of nuanced ideas and debates. The proposed project involves extensive pedagogical discussions to facilitate the development of new narratives. This volume will identify and explain how researchers can incorporate contemporary forms of nonviolent resistance into their research, build on the study of civilian-led nonviolent efforts, and develop the connection between the study of conflict and the study of peace.

This volume brings together leading experts who present significant insights into this extremely important but sensitive topic: the “culture of resistance.”

1.2 Organization

This collaborative, edited volume is a Routledge Focus book. It is organized around a few specific case studies from around the world. Based on our case studies, readers should clearly understand the important and necessary elements of successful nonviolent campaigns. The case studies are focused on India, Poland, and Turkey. They explore complex scenarios that challenge democracy, patriotism, and the question of identity across the world.

Chapter 2 critically examines how, over the last five decades, civil resistance has become quite commonplace as a tool for organizations and a method of deployment by civilians. The author explains that as civil resistance peaked in the early 2010s, it became increasingly apparent that nonviolent campaigns by unarmed civilian groups had become a significant feature in the global arena. However, there is limited research on how civilian groups can influence trajectories of violence and peace. Consequently, the author examines underlying forces of violence as well as civilian-led nonviolent efforts as a means of building the connection between the study of conflict and the study of peace. The chapter draws on the research of peace and conflict studies philosopher Johan Galtung to explain the latter. Finally, the chapter explains how the study and practice of civil resistance has become an avenue for challenging different forms of violence, laying the foundation for peace within societies.

Chapter 3 moves back in time and begins with a discussion of Polish nobility. When the early modern state of Polish nobility disappeared in 1795, it was put down violently by aggressive, militaristic neighbors which met with armed Polish nationalist resistance. Mesmerized by French and American revolutionary mass struggles, leaders like Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746–1817) believed that a truly popular war would deliver independence against the hollow might of empires. The notion that a truly popular war can overcome all obstacles has become a leitmotif of anti-imperial nationalisms and movements around the world, going through several permutations since the 18th century. However, it was not violent struggle that won independence for Poland, but nonviolent resistance, coupled with a measure of pragmatic collaboration with partitioning powers, especially during World War I. The chapter explains how bitter division, not unity, has been the hallmark of the Polish nationalist movement during the partitions period, and similar divisions have been very much in evidence in other movements of national liberation.

Chapter 3 demonstrates that, like all such struggles, the fight for Polish self-determination created its own critical and endless dilemmas regarding the respective virtues of armed resistance vs. unarmed resistance, resistance itself vs. collaboration with the “enemy.” These debates have been faithfully reproduced in the discourses of other nations in similar circumstances. Indeed, it is stunning how many national movements face similar dilemmas, go through the same phases of struggle, ask the same questions, and engage in the same strategic debates, all while seemingly (if not blissfully) unaware that all this has occurred in other nations.

In a stylized form, these debates pit, on the one hand, “violent romantics” (those who celebrate violent resistance as preserving and advancing “the national spirit” regardless of its typically catastrophic effects on the substance of national life) against “nonviolent pragmatists” (those who see most “romantic” actions as unrelieved foolishness). Chapter 3 explains in detail how the “pragmatist” faction can be divided between “pragmatic collaborationists” and “nonviolent resisters.” Similarly, “violent” strategists have their own strategic factions: insurrectionists, partisans of protracted popular war, pragmatic manipulators of geostrategy, and so on. Such divisions on tactics and strategy are often along factional and partisan lines, resulting in bitter and sometimes violently negotiated clashes within the nationalist movement (see: Fatah vs. Hamas in Palestine, Piłsudski vs. Dmowski in Poland).

This chapter also explores specifically nonviolent components of Polish national resistance from a comparative and critical perspective. The author studied 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century national movements in a systematic way to gain policy insights into nonviolent national resistance, past and present. The author raises questions like: What role does nonviolent resistance play in national movements? What strategic and tactical dilemmas does the struggle typically pose? And finally, how can we derive broader lessons from the Polish experience of nonviolent resistance?

Chapter 4 discusses issues of Kurdish identity, resistance, and agenda setting through social media. The chapter explains how the Kurdish people have historically faced a wide range of outwardly hostile policies throughout the region and countries they inhabit. Focusing on Turkey, home to more Kurds than any other single country, the chapter discusses the history between the Turkish state and its Kurdish citizens. It is a history that has been defined by discrimination, cultural genocide, terrorism, and violence. This chapter explains how the current AKP government of Turkey came to power in the early 2000s with policies that seemed set on accommodating Kurdish rights, and how that was not to last. Recent years have seen tensions and hostilities renewed and violence cross national borders. This chapter explores how the primary Kurdish political party in Turkey (HDP), became more than just the voice of Kurdish rights in Turkey, while experiencing extreme governmental repression. The party has effectively used social media for purposes of pushing non-violent democratic inclusiveness, resistance, and agenda setting. A content analysis of HDP’s Twitter communications looks at what issues the party prioritizes and what issues resonate as the organization uses the power of social media to resist Turkish state oppression.

Chapter 5 explains the ghastly 2012 Delhi gang rape incident that sparked unparalleled public outrage in India. Following the incident, protestors demanded that the government take action to ensure reliable public transport, improve security, and improve investigative and judiciary procedures surrounding cases of sexual assault. Importantly, the activities and protests were largely coordinated online, and this chapter examines how these new modes of communication affected resistance during and after the incident. In particular, the author examines whether the scale of the demonstrations managed to change public perception regarding the reporting of sex crimes.

The author has compiled data from annual crime statistics in India that show a spike in registered rape cases in the years following the incident. The chapter also explains how the extensive public discussions regarding the issue of rape, as well as other common sex crimes experienced by women, may have lessened the stigma associated with reporting. However, the author also explains how a growing backlog of pending rape cases and relatively steady conviction rates—despite an increase in reports since 2012—suggests a possible combination of issues related to inefficiencies within India’s judiciary system, the perpetuation of rape myths, and even social perceptions regarding the status of women in society.

Finally, Chapter 6 summarizes the findings of the previous studies, suggests several avenues of future research that can prove fruitful for policymakers and academics, and attempts to answer our key question: Will civil resistance work?

Notes

1. L. Green, “Civil disobedience and academic freedom,” Osgoode Hall Law School of York University 41, no. 2/3 (Summer/Fall 2003): 381–405.
2. G. Sharp (ed.), Waging nonviolent struggle: 20th century practice and 21st century potential (Boston: Porter Sargent, 2005), 41, 547.
3. E. Chenoweth and M. J. Stephan, Why civil resistance works: The strategic logic of nonviolent conflict (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012).

References

• Chenoweth, E., & Stephan, M. J. (2012). Why civil resistance works: The strategic logic of nonviolent conflict. Columbia University Press.
• Green, L. (2003). Civil disobedience and academic freedom. Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 41(2/3), 381–405.
• Sharp, G. (Ed.). (2005). Waging nonviolent struggle: 20th century practice and 21st century potential (pp. 41, 547). Porter Sargent.

2 Civil resistance and building peace within societies

Georgina Chami

DOI: 10.4324/9781003109310-2

2.1 Introduction

With the onset of the new millennium, there is a growing difference in how states, groups, and individuals communicate with each other. From large-scale interstate conflicts to intrastate conflicts, there is growing and greater acceptance of, and obligation to, the approach of nonviolence. As wars continue in different parts of the world, more optimism and encouragement have been created by groups, individuals, and some state agencies that pursue peaceful approaches to the difficult challenges of preserving life and living in peace and unity.¹ Of course, nonviolence is not new, and throughout history there ha...