January 19^th, 2014: The Religion of Ahimsa.

Passive Resistance is the religion of AHIMSA. It is therefore everywhere and always a duty and is desirable. Violence is Himsaand has been discarded in all religions. Even the devotees of methods of violence impose elaborated restrictions upon their use. Passive Resistance admits of no such limits. It is limited only by the insufficiency of the passive resisters’ strength to suffer.

 No one else but a passive resister can answer the Question whether his passive Resistance is Lawful or otherwise. The public can only judge after the passive resister has begun his work. He cannot be deterred by public displeasure His operations are not founded upon arithmetical formulae. He may be considered a clever politician or a thoughtful man who commences his so called passeve resistance only after having weighed chances of success and failure. But he is by no means a passive resister. The former acts because he must.

                                ---Excerpts from Mahatma Gandhi’s writings