Chronology of Global Civil Disobedience Movements

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.

Via The News