Nonviolence 4 Equality

• An Autobiography - The Story Of My Experiments With Truth (PDF) – Gandhi, M.K. and Mahadev Desai (trans). An Autobiography - The Story Of My Experiments With Truth (PDF). GandhiServe Foundation, http://www.forget-me.net/en/Gandhi/autobiography.pdf [accessed March 19, 2009]. First published serially in Gujarati from 1925-1928 in Gandhi’s weekly Navajivan and a few years later in English in Young India, The Story Of My Experiments With Truth was Gandhi’s attempt not only to describe his life from early childhood through 1921, but was also his effort to “give an account of various practical applications of these principles [Satyagraha]”.

• A Letter to a Hindu – Tolstoy, Leo. A Letter to A Hindu. Project Gutenburg, http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/hindu10.txt [accessed March 19, 2009]. In 1908, Tolstoy addressed this letter to Tarak Nath Das, an Indian revolutionary who advocated violent uprising against the British. In it, Tolstoy advocated the use of nonviolent resistance and asserted its incalculable value as India’s inheritance from Hindu religious tradition. Upon reading a copy of A Letter to A Hindu, Gandhi wrote to Tolstoy requesting permission to have it translated into English and published. This led to an exchange of written correspondence between the two men which lasted until shortly before Tolstoy’s death in 1910.

• Constructive Programme - Its Meaning And Place – Gandhi, M.K. Constructive Programme - Its Meaning And Place. GandhiServe Foundation and The Navajivan Trust, http://members.tripod.com/~ascjnu/const.txt [accessed March 20, 2009]. First published in 1941, Constructive Programme - Its Meaning And Place may be considered one of Gandhi’s most important published works. In it, he lays out the central importance of community organizing, of constructing a vital public space and viable social structures from which a disenfranchised group may successfully challenge an oppressive regime.

• Gandhi, M. K. and Mahadev Desai (Trans.). Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1908, 1909, 1938. His first major tract, Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj during the second phase of his South Africa period after he had adopted non-resistance as the primary method of the movement. Hind Swaraj was a remarkable recapitulation of the ideas he had acquired from Tolstoy and other Western thinkers and a startling, unconditional rejection of Western civilization. In it, Gandhi very cleverly connected the concept of individual self-control with social responsibility and political sovereignty: “It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves.” (47)

• Letter from Birmingham Jail – King Jr., Dr. Martin Luther. Letter from Birmingham Jail. The King Center and The Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., http://www.thekingcenter.org/prog/non/Letter.pdf [accessed March 20, 2009]. Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail may be the most concise and succinct expression of the principles of nonviolence ever written. Elegant and riveting in both form and content, Dr. King first penned this now classic treatise on April 16, 1963. It was later published in 1964 as part of his extended argument Why We Can’t Wait advocating the use of nonviolent resistance during the African-American struggle for civil rights.

• On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (annotated) – Thoreau, Henry David. On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (annotated). Iowa State University and Thoreau Society, http://eserver.org/thoreau/civil.html [accessed March 19, 2009]. Thoreau’s classic 1849 essay arguing the moral necessity to “resist civil government” when the state is pursuing unjust objectives.

• Pilgrimage to Nonviolence – King Jr., Dr. Martin Luther. Pilgrimage to Nonviolence. The King Center and The Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., http://www.thekingcenter.org/prog/non/pilgrimmage.pdf [accessed March 20, 2009]. In Pilgrimage to Nonviolence Dr. King explained how he came to embrace Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent “soul force”. The essay was first published in Stride Toward Freedom in 1958 and was later reprinted in Christian Century in 1960.

• Satyagraha in South Africa (.PDF) – Gandhi, M.K. and Valji Govindji Desai (trans). Satyagraha In South Africa (PDF). GandhiServe Foundation, http://www.forget-me.net/en/Gandhi/satyagraha.pdf [accessed March 19, 2009]. Gandhi began writing Satyagraha In South Africa in late 1923 while imprisoned in the Yeravda Central Jail. The book is Gandhi’s account of his work in South Africa, and is therefore an important resource in understanding how he formulated and worked out the “soul force” principles of nonviolence.

• The Kingdom of God is Within You – Tolstoy, Leo and Constance Garnett (trans). The Kingdom of God is Within You. Project Gutenburg, http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/8tkhw10.txt [accessed March 19, 2009]. First published in 1893, Tolstoy’s exposition and advocacy of the doctrine “non-resistance” would “overwhelm” Gandhi when he read it in 1894, very early during his South Africa phase. In his writings, Gandhi attributed the inspiration of Satyagraha to three influences: Raychandbhai, Ruskin… and Tolstoy.

• The Words of César Chávez – Chávez, César and Richard J. Jensen and John C. Hammerback (eds). “César Chávez’s relentless campaign for social justice for farm workers and laborers in the United States marked a milestone in U.S. history. Through his powerful rhetoric and impassioned calls to action, Chávez transformed as well as persuaded and inspired his audiences… In this first published anthology, Richard J. Jensen and John C. Hammerback present Chávez in his own terms.” (back cover)

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