Beautiful Trouble: On the difference between Gandhian, Strategic, and Revolutionary Nonviolence

By now, you've probably seen this viral video, where young Pakistani Malala Yousufzai professes a radical commitment to nonviolence when considering the possibility that the Taliban would again try to kill her for daring to demand education for girls.[youtube=http://youtu.be/YT6xWX1uZx8]

I used to think that the Talib would come, and he would just kill me. But then I said, ‘If he comes, what would you do Malala?’ then I would reply to myself, ‘Malala, just take a shoe and hit him.’  But then I said, ‘If you hit a Talib with your shoe, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty and that much harshly, you must fight others but through peace and through dialogue and through education.’ Then I said I will tell him how important education is and that ‘I even want education for your children as well.’ And I will tell him, ‘That’s what I want to tell you, now do what you want.’

Folks in Buddhist circles seem particularly inspired by Malala's personal commitment to nonviolence – when faced with a threat to herself, she intends to respond with love. Like the overly simplistic story of Rosa Parks just deciding not to give up her seat on the bus one day, we connect with the possibility that we might someday have our own moment to stand up for justice, to confront power with firm refusal to bow to its unjust demands. We are in awe of Malala in part because for many of us, our lives are privileged in such a way that we are unlikely to be staring down the barrel of a gun. We might also check ourselves to see whether we're buying into the favorite Western colonizer's "story of an innocent brown child that was shot by savages for demanding an education and along comes the knight in shining armour to save her." As Omid Safi says, "Malala is not 'ours' to adopt."I pause when examples of personal courage are held up as the ideal way to be nonviolent. While inspiring, they can erase a more collective version of nonviolence – the joining together with others committed to using nonviolent tactics to expose injustice. We tell stories about a tired Rosa Parks, but not a 381-day bus boycott where the Montgomery Black community organized rides and stayed strong together to stand up to systemic injustice.If we're going to get real about nonviolence, we need to tell not only Malala's story, but the stories of collective nonviolent direct action. As part of our latest campaign to continue our study together, I'm excited that we're offering as a perk the book Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution. It's an important book, chock full of theory, strategy, creative tactics, and case studies of what works to create the change we want to see in the world.

[divide style="3"]Donate now to support BPF and get a signed copy of the book. You can get it directly if you donate at the $250 level or we'll be giving away copies to some lucky folks who donate to the campaign at ANY level.[divide style="3"]For example in Beautiful Trouble, Matt Meyer helps distinguish between at least 3 forms of nonviolence. All nonviolent direct action is not the same – when you are talking with other activists, do you know whether you are talking about the same nonviolence?[box type="info"]Gandhian nonviolence is a combination of constructive, base-building programs and satyagraha, often interpreted in the Global North as a form of spiritual direct action.[/box][box type="info"]Strategic nonviolence takes a more tactical tack and focuses on the tactics enumerated by Gene Sharp.[/box][box type="info"]Revolutionary nonviolence suggests that it is better to engage in violence than to do nothing in the face of oppression, and that any popular movement must push beyond mere reformist change that leaves structures of oppression intact, even though this requires active confrontation.[/box]According to Meyer, “The theory of revolutionary nonviolence demands a nuanced view of struggle, one that … neither celebrates passivity nor fetishizes confrontation.” Can we stay open to conversation not only with people who adhere to Gandhian or strategic nonviolence, but also those who advocate more active and potentially violent confrontations?The oft-cited spiritual activist icon Mahatma Gandhi himself advocates an openness to revolutionary nonviolence :  “It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts,” Gandhi said, “than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.” (as stated by Mahadev Desai in Day-to-Day with Gandhi (Secretary’s Diary) Vol. ll, p. 175).

[divide style="3"]Want more brilliance from Beautiful Trouble? Donate to our campaign AT ANY LEVEL for a chance to win your very own pocket sized copy of Beautiful Trouble, or an intimate training with Beautiful Trouble trainers! Check out this news article to learn about the kind of impact a Beautiful Trouble training can have.