Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c5.s3.15

c5.s3.15

The new opposition and dissent has, however, been more complex and somewhat less vehement. Most of it has not rejected non-cooperation and civil disobedience completely. Only it finds it irrelevant and injurious in what K. Santhanam calls ‘democratic government’. According to him, subject to some marginal cases ‘general *satyagraha* against a democratic government cannot be justified.’ According to U.N. Dhebar in 1955 (President of the Indian National Congress at the time): ‘In the context of democracy or democratically run institutions, there is, generally speaking, very little occasion for *satyagraha*.’ But even persons like Santhanam visualise the need of individuals resorting to it only in particular situations requiring the defense of fundamental rights. A former Chief Justice of India, P.B. Gajendragadkar, also seems to share such views and, as recently as March 1967, stated: