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Impact Of Civil Disobedience

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Civil disobedience is an active refusal to adhere to the set of rules established by the government. There are copious amounts of people who believe that civil disobedience negatively impacts our now free society. However, on the other hand there are many people that consider civil disobedience has a way of change for the greater good in a community and acknowledge the positive impact of it throughout a society. Civil disobedience actions clearly demonstrate the positive impact in our free society.

The positive impacts of civil obedience is even believed by a notable philosopher, known as Henry David Thoreau. An essay, titled Civil Disobedience composed by Thoreau has principles explaining how a person’s moral sense and conscience should always overcome the dictatorship of the government along with the laws imposed by them. In Section 1 of his essay, it is stated that, “That government is best which governs least. That government is best …show more content…

According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, when the Boer legislature passed a law requiring that all Indians have to register with police with fingerprints Gandhi and other Indians had refused to obey the law. For the disobedience, Gandhi was arrested and imprisoned for years because he did not believe in those unjust laws. Though, after he got released, he still continued to protest the registration law and help non-violent marches. Eventually, this caused the Boer government to end the “objectionable parts” of the law. Even though Gandhi had been in jail for an abundance amount of times, he came out every time to start new peaceful protests. At the end, with the help of Gandhi and his satyagraha (peaceful revolt), India had finally gained independence from Britain. Consequently, this again demonstrates how civil disobedience can have positive impact and can change a society for its greater

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