Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c5.5

c5.5

The statements about the European or American origin of Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience are many. According to one authority on Thoreau, Thoreau’s ‘essay, *Resistance to Civil Government*, a sharp statement of the duty of resistance to governmental authority when it is unjustly exercised, has become the foundation of the Indian civil disobedience movement.’¹ According to a recent writer, ‘Gandhi got non-cooperation from Thoreau, and he agreed with Ruskin on cooperation.’² According to yet another writer, ‘Gandhi agreed with Seeley only in order to apply the lesson learned from Thoreau, William Lloyd Garrison and Tolstoy. The lesson was that the withdrawal of Indian support from the British would bring on the collapse of their rule.’³