Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c5.s3.7

c5.s3.7

But this is really no new controversy. It started at the same time that the idea of non-cooperation and civil disobedience was revived in India early in this century. Besides men in the governmental apparatus, those who opposed it then included persons like Srinivas Sastri and Rabindranath Tagore. Sastri felt he could not but be apprehensive of ‘any movement which has the tendency to over throw, the tendency to disestablish, the tendency to bring about a stage of anarchy in the country, the tendency which destroys law, the tendency which destroys order and ordered government.’²⁵ Tagore regarded it as inconsistent with the dignity of India and was fearful of the dangers inherent in its practice.²⁶