A path to liberty

It was the morning of April 13, 1919 when thousands of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims gathered in the Jallianwala bagh to celebrate the festival of Baisakhi; most even unaware of the political meeting. General Dyer along with fifty riflemen marched in through the narrow gates of the garden that was surrounded from all sides with houses and buildings. He ordered his troops to begin shooting towards the densest sections of the crowd. Fifteen hundred people were killed, including women and children. Gandhi with his fellow countrymen replied with a non violent movement 'Satyagrah'. Indians refused to cooperate with the British. They stopped buying everything that belonged to British, from clothes to salt. The retaliation was of such a magnitude that it brought the Great British Empire on its feet.

It was August 28, 1963; a clergyman inspired by the non violent means of Gandhi and ideas of liberty of Lincoln marched to the Loncoln Square with a dream to bring down the old and rotten pillars of injustice and segregation for the fellow African Americans. He was Martin Luther King Jr. He demanded for what was promised in emancipation proclamation a hundred years ago by Abraham Lincoln - "A world with liberty for all irrespective of the color of the skin one has". King offered non violent means to achieve the goal. 

Nelson Mandela, an anti apartheid activist choose satyagrah as a means to end discrimination on the basis of the color of the skin. Even after serving 27 years in jail, he decided to pardon the fellow white countrymen.

Satyagrah has been the tool used by all these great leaders to bring down some of the most powerful empires of our time. But some people may argue if it would have been possible to convince Hilter by using satyagrah. Would satyagrah saved the world from massive destructions of world war? Even some people may argue that this satyagrah or Non cooperation movement is nothing but a form of 'Anarchy'. To all such critics, I would like to say that if I am suffering with heavy injustice and oppression, it would be nice for you if I choose satyagrah instead of violence.