Non-violence (from Sanskrit ahimṣā, ‘ack of desire to harm or kill’) is the personal practice of being harmless to self and others under every condition.

It comes from the belief that hurting people, animals or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome.

And iy refers to a general philosophy of abstention from violence based on moral, religious or spiritual principles.

Non-violence also has ‘active’ or ‘activist’ elements, in that believers accept the need for Non-violence as a means to achieve political and social change.

Non-violence methods of action have been a powerful tool for social protest and revolutionary social and political change.

There are many examples of their use. Fuller surveys may be found in the entries on civil resistance, nonviolent resistance and nonviolent revolution.

Here certain movements particularly influenced by a philosophy of Non-violence should be mentioned.

Mahatma Gandhi lead a successful decades-long Non-violence struggle against British rule in India.

I want to welcome you all. Every one of you.  We have no secrets.

Let us begin by being clear about General Smuts’ new law: All Indians must now be fingerprinted, like criminals. No marriage, other than a Christian marriage, is considered valid. Under this Act, our wives and mothers are whores, and every man here is a bastard.

And our policemen, passing an Indian dwelling – I will not call them homes – may enter and demand the card of any Indian woman whose dwelling it is. Understand, he does not have to stand at the door. He may enter.

I praise such courage. I need such courage because in this cause I, too, am prepared to die. But, my friend, there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill. Whatever they do to us, we will attack no one, kill no one, but we will not give our fingerprints – not one of us.

They will imprison us, and they will fine us. They will seize our possessions, but they can not take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.

I am asking you to fight! To fight against their anger, not to provoke it.

We will not strike a blow, but we will receive them. And through our pain we will make them see their injustice, and it will hurt – as all fighting hurts. But we can not lose. We can not.

They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me. Then, they will have my dead body – not my obedience.