Nonviolence Festival

Some Popular Models of Nonviolence

King Asoka, India
His edicts, based on Ahinsa are mainly concerned with the reforms he instituted and the moral principles he recommended in his attempt to create a just and humane society. He was born in India in 304 B.C. Eight years after his coronation, Asoka's armies attacked and conquered Kalinga. The loss of life caused by battle, reprisals, deportations and the turmoil that always exists in the aftermath of war so horrified Asoka that it brought about a complete change in his personality. After the war Asoka dedicated the rest of his life trying to apply Buddhist principles to the administration of his vast empire. He had a crucial part to play in helping Buddhism to spread both throughout India and abroad. Asoka died in 232 B.C. in the thirty-eighth year of his reign.

Jesus Christ, Israel
"Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Matthew 26:52) "You have learnt how it was said: 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.' But I say to you, Offer the wicked man no resistance. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him." (Matthew. 5:38-4) "If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." (John 8:7)

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), US
Essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, renowned for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism (that was amongst other things concerned with the end of slavery) as recorded in his masterwork, Walden (1854), and for having been a vigorous advocate of civil liberties, as evidenced in the essay Civil Disobedience (1849). "One has a moral obligation to refuse to cooperate with an unjust social system.

Jane Addams (1860-1935), US
In 1889, Jane Addams co-founded Hull House in Chicago, the first settlement house in the United States. She became involved in wider efforts for social reform, including housing and sanitation issues, factory inspection, rights of immigrants, women and children, pacifism and the 8-hour day. She served as a Vice President of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1911-1914 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

A. J. Muste (1885 - 1967), US
A. J. Muste was one of the leading nonviolent social activists of his time. Starting as a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, he became a labour union activist, and worked with a wide array of organizations, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Congress of Racial Equality and War Resisters League.
He was widely respected and admired in the movement for social justice for his ability to relate to people of all ages and backgrounds and to bridge distances between peoples.

Aldo Capitini (1899-1968), Italy
Inspired by the teachings of Christ, Buddha, St. Francis, and Gandhi, Aldo Capitini became a leader of the anti-fascists movement in Italy during the reign of Mussolini.
In 1944 he launched the initiative of COSs (Centers of Social Orientation) whose slogan was "To hear and to discuss”.
In 1961 he launched a Peace March bringing together different ideologies, that has since become an Italian tradition.

Gene Sharp (born 1928), US
He is the author of 198 Methods of Non-Violent Action, and various books on nonviolent struggle, power, political problems, and defense policy.
In 1983 he founded the Albert Einstein Institution to promote research, policy studies, and education on the strategic uses of nonviolent struggle in face of oppression.

Mario Rodriguez Cobos, Silo (born 1938), Argentina
A writer and thinker, Mario Rodriguez Cobos (whose pen-name is Silo) has inspired a new current called Universal Humanism and launched a nonviolence movement,that has developed expressions in the political, social and cultural fields. Although Silo has retired from active participation in the Humanist Movement he continues to write and is taking his deeply spiritual Message of Nonviolence and of social and personal simultaneous change to all the corners of the world.

Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945), Burma
For the Burmese people, Aung San Suu Kyi, represents hope that there will be an end to the country's military repression.
As a pro-democracy campaigner she has spent more than 12 of the past 19 years in some form of detention under Burma's military regime.
In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to bring democracy to Burma.

Rigoberta Menchú (born 1959), Guatemala
The 1992 Nobel Peace prize was awarded to Rigoberta Menchú, a Mayan Indian of Guatemala "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples." That Menchú did not turn to violence, but to political and social work for her people is the reason why she received the prize. She became an active member of the Committee for Campesino Unity and then helped found the Revolutionary Christians. Menchú explained that "we understood revolutionary in the real meaning of the word 'transformation.'

...more coming soon.

	King Asoka, India His edicts, based on Ahinsa are mainly concerned with the reforms he instituted and the moral principles he recommended in his attempt to create a just and humane society. He was born in India in 304 B.C. Eight years after his coronation, Asoka's armies attacked and conquered Kalinga. The loss of life caused by battle, reprisals, deportations and the turmoil that always exists in the aftermath of war so horrified Asoka that it brought about a complete change in his personality. After the war Asoka dedicated the rest of his life trying to apply Buddhist principles to the administration of his vast empire. He had a crucial part to play in helping Buddhism to spread both throughout India and abroad. Asoka died in 232 B.C. in the thirty-eighth year of his reign.

	Jesus Christ, Israel "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Matthew 26:52) "You have learnt how it was said: 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.' But I say to you, Offer the wicked man no resistance. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him." (Matthew. 5:38-4) "If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." (John 8:7)

	Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), US Essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, renowned for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism (that was amongst other things concerned with the end of slavery) as recorded in his masterwork, Walden (1854), and for having been a vigorous advocate of civil liberties, as evidenced in the essay Civil Disobedience (1849). "One has a moral obligation to refuse to cooperate with an unjust social system.

	Jane Addams (1860-1935), US In 1889, Jane Addams co-founded Hull House in Chicago, the first settlement house in the United States. She became involved in wider efforts for social reform, including housing and sanitation issues, factory inspection, rights of immigrants, women and children, pacifism and the 8-hour day. She served as a Vice President of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1911-1914 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

	A. J. Muste (1885 - 1967), US A. J. Muste was one of the leading nonviolent social activists of his time. Starting as a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, he became a labour union activist, and worked with a wide array of organizations, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Congress of Racial Equality and War Resisters League. He was widely respected and admired in the movement for social justice for his ability to relate to people of all ages and backgrounds and to bridge distances between peoples.

	Aldo Capitini (1899-1968), Italy Inspired by the teachings of Christ, Buddha, St. Francis, and Gandhi, Aldo Capitini became a leader of the anti-fascists movement in Italy during the reign of Mussolini. In 1944 he launched the initiative of COSs (Centers of Social Orientation) whose slogan was "To hear and to discuss”. In 1961 he launched a Peace March bringing together different ideologies, that has since become an Italian tradition.

	Gene Sharp (born 1928), US He is the author of 198 Methods of Non-Violent Action, and various books on nonviolent struggle, power, political problems, and defense policy. In 1983 he founded the Albert Einstein Institution to promote research, policy studies, and education on the strategic uses of nonviolent struggle in face of oppression.

	Mario Rodriguez Cobos, Silo (born 1938), Argentina A writer and thinker, Mario Rodriguez Cobos (whose pen-name is Silo) has inspired a new current called Universal Humanism and launched a nonviolence movement,that has developed expressions in the political, social and cultural fields. Although Silo has retired from active participation in the Humanist Movement he continues to write and is taking his deeply spiritual Message of Nonviolence and of social and personal simultaneous change to all the corners of the world.

	Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945), Burma For the Burmese people, Aung San Suu Kyi, represents hope that there will be an end to the country's military repression. As a pro-democracy campaigner she has spent more than 12 of the past 19 years in some form of detention under Burma's military regime. In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to bring democracy to Burma.

	Rigoberta Menchú (born 1959), Guatemala The 1992 Nobel Peace prize was awarded to Rigoberta Menchú, a Mayan Indian of Guatemala "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples." That Menchú did not turn to violence, but to political and social work for her people is the reason why she received the prize. She became an active member of the Committee for Campesino Unity and then helped found the Revolutionary Christians. Menchú explained that "we understood revolutionary in the real meaning of the word 'transformation.'