Chronology of Global Civil Disobedience Movements
LAHORE: Pakistan
Tehreeke Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan has now taken yet another U-turn by
announcing Sunday evening that he and his loyalists would resort to civil
disobedience or non-violent resistance, instead of going for his earlier plan
to confront the Islamabad police and enter the capital’s Red Zone forcibly.
To the sheer dismay of his supporters, a fairly confused Imran Khan
did not announce resigning from the assemblies, something political analysts
thought was necessary before the PTI leader could morally ask Premier Nawaz
Sharif to relinquish charge from office.
Research reveals that by the 1850s, a range of minority groups in
the United States had employed civil disobedience to combat racial
discrimination and slavery. The American blacks, Jews and Catholics etc had
decided not tom pay taxes to their rulers. Few other examples from history:
i) Egyptians had launched a similar campaign against the British
occupation during g the 1919 Revolution.
ii) Later, the world had seen Mahatma Gandhi rebelling against the
British Empire by announcing similar plans.
iii) Marches, sit-ins and boycotts were also characteristics of the
African-American Civil Rights Movement (1954–68).
iv) Civil disobedience was the order of the day throughout the
1987-1991 Singing Revolution in Baltic States and had led to the restoration of
the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Night-singing demonstrations
in these above-mentioned nations had forced the former USSR to grant right of
secession
v) Years later, the November 16 to December 29, 1989 Velvet
Revolution in former Czechoslovakia had witnessed approximately half a million
students and older dissidents revolting against the ruling Communist Party rule
that had lasted over 41 years.
vi) The suppressed residents of East Germany had also stood up
against the in-power Communist regime by coming out on the streets, South
Africans had followed suit during the fight against apartheid.
vii) More recently, during the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia and
the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the populations of these countries had
refused to abide by the commands of their oppressive governments.
