This short five-part audio series (each talk is under seven minutes) gives those who are new to nonviolence a quick but rich study of this positive power for personal and social transformation.

To download these talks: right click the links, select “save as” and save the MP3s to your desktop.

Talk 1: What is Nonviolence?

Talk 2: When Can Nonviolence Be used?

Talk 3: Who Can Use Nonviolence?

Talk 4: How Can Nonviolence Be Built Up Into a Major Movement?

Talk 5: Is Nonviolence More Effective than Violence?

Please send any questions that arise for you during these talks to [email protected] with “Nonviolence for Beginners” in the subject line.

It is recommended you review this video every 3-4 months as a refresher. Old habits die hard, but reviewing this quarterly helps us eliminate our behaviors that do not serve us and help us bond more closely with others.

Extracts from Marshall Rosenberg books: “Nonviolent Communication: A language of life” “Nonviolent Communication: Companion workbook” “Speak Peace in a world of conflict”

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If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty.

~ M.K. Gandhi

Much has been learned since the days of Gandhi and King about how to carry out nonviolence resistance more safely and effectively. We know that is cannot rely too much on mere symbols or empty protest, that a successful nonviolent campaign needs courage and strategy no less than a conflict waged with conventional means. We hold, as Gandhi did, that nonviolence is not the best way to overcome the reluctance to compassionate and rational change: it’s the only way. And it will not fail us in this great struggle.  

Truth: The Backbone of Nonviolence

“The world rests upon the bedrock of satya, or truth. Asatya meaning untruth also means non-existent, and satya, or truth, also means that which is. If untruth does not so much as exist, its victory is out of the question. And truth being that which is can never be destroyed. This is the doctrine of Satyagraha in a nutshell.” 

~ M.K. Gandhi

By the year 1908, Gandhi realized that he needed a new term for the transformative force he was introducing into politics. “Passive resistance” was misleading and nonviolence, the direct translation of the ancient Sanskrit term ahimsa, was not yet in vogue (that would come some 20 years later). He held a contest and sadagraha or “clinging to the Real” was selected, but then modified for grammatical reasons to Satyagraha. The great benefit of this term lay in the deep meaning of satya in Indian languages: not just “true” as opposed to false, but also “real” as opposed to unreal, and “good” as opposed to harmful.

The term Satyagraha is used in two senses. For one, it can stand for the entire principle of nonviolence, or the active and resistant dimension of it, as opposed to mere petitioning or constructive program. Secondly, we speak of individual campaigns such as the Salt Satyagraha, the Temple Road Satyagraha or we could coin the Budrus Satyagraha in Palestine today. The struggle for civil rights by various groups, from the GBLTQ community to women’s rights and indigenous autonomy, all contain essential elements of Satyagraha in so far as they are nonviolent and attempt to “speak truth to power.”

Satyagraha is sometimes contrasted with its opposite, duragraha, or “clinging to the bad,” which implies the use of coercion. The ultimate aim of Satyagraha is always to bring parties closer together, and so in “clinging to truth” one prefers persuasion to coercion wherever possible. (If you haven’t yet read it, see Introduction for a story about the power of persuasion).

Satyagraha is sometimes contrasted with its opposite duragraha “clinging to the bad,” which implies the use of coercion or force. The ultimate aim of Satyagraha is always to bring parties closer together, and so in one’s “clinging to truth” one prefers persuasion to coercion wherever possible.