Instead of limiting himself to written criticism and personal noncompliance, he actively organized peaceful protests and coupled Thoreau's methods with passive resistance. He called this strategy satyagraha , which is Sanskrit for "truth and firmness. The empire's response, however, wasn't always so peaceful.
In , British troops opened fire on demonstrators in the city of Amritsar, killing an estimated and injuring 1, [source: Britannica ]. The incident came to be known as the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre , and rather than provoking violent revolution, the bloodbath further committed the Indian people to Gandhi's path of nonviolent resistance. Satyagraha required them to remain passive, even in the wake of violence. The protesters would squat in the streets to block traffic.
Even if kicked and beaten, they refused to move or fight back. If they met violence with violence, they would have been merely inciting a riot. When British forces responded with gunfire in Amritsar, Gandhi called for noncompliance. Indian public officials resigned from the British government, parents withdrew their children from British schools and virtually anything bearing the royal seal was boycotted.
India's struggle for independence paid off in , when nearly two centuries of British rule came to an end. The victim dies and the tormentors are left with only the knowledge of their fruitless and bloody deeds.
They have achieved a physical victory, but a crushing moral defeat. Unsurprisingly, many martyrs stem from times when public execution or torture were used as a means to instill a population with fear.
Today, such displays have largely fallen by the wayside in many parts of the world, giving spectacles of public death far more resonance than in previous centuries. Plus, while past tales of martyrdom had to travel secondhand, the media makes it possible for a death to be witnessed by countless millions. Unlike suicide terrorists, who give their life to take the lives of others, these individual protesters place only their own life on the altar of their cause.
In addition, while not always fatal, prisoners often use hunger strikes to draw attention to their plight and magnify the moral bankruptcy of their captors. Few methods of suicide protest, however, are as dramatic as self-immolation. Mahayana Buddhist monks have long favored this tactic and, in a photo of Thich Quang Duc protesting the South Vietnamese government sent shock waves around the world.
Much of human fear distills down to the genetic need to avoid pain and death -- and, in this iconic photo, one man appears to enter calmly into the jaws of both. Such sacrifice advances a cause in two ways. First, it makes a powerful statement about the severity of the situation.
Second, it further ingrains the importance of the cause to its supporters. If this person is willing to die to achieve this end, shouldn't the rest fight harder for it? Search for the headline "protest turns violent," and you'll likely find some very recent news articles.
In many cases, the circumstances leading up to the breaking point follow a very similar pattern. On one side, advocates gather to promote their cause, picketing or engaging in civil disobedience. On the other, a government sends in police to keep an eye on the situation. The government ultimately enforces all its laws with the threat of violence.
Likewise, the threat of mob mentality quivers at the heart of even the most peaceful protest. One side represents tyrannical rule, the other chaotic rebellion -- and the violence of either is often easily provoked.
One bottle thrown in anger , one police baton leveled out of fear , and the situation can explode. For instance, an antigovernment protest in Sofia, Bulgaria, turned violent in January when the peaceful standoff between activists and police was disturbed by a gang of masked youths. The alleged hooligans threw rocks and ice at the police, who reciprocated with tear gas. On an individual level, protesters in a riot situation allow their frustrations and angers to overflow into violent rage.
A kind of herd mentality takes hold, encouraging an atmosphere of mob violence. Riot ensues. For this reason, proper event planning plays a vital role in any protest movement, but if tensions are running high, the course of events can come down to the foolish behavior of just a few.
Even if protesters and police are on their best behavior, citizens with dissenting viewpoints may get involved. If every large-scale protest, on some level, holds the potential for riot, then you could argue that all protests level the threat of violence against their target.
Certainly, this is one of the reasons police keep a close eye on protests. Yet this is very different from open war or guerrilla warfare, which involves active rebellion. Protest also differs from terrorism, which involves the use of fear to achieve a goal -- generally by using violence against civilians.
That said, MLB is not a democratic organization. The commissioner represents the owners, not the sport generally; demographically, baseball fans tend to be older, wealthier and Whiter than those following other sports.
This incident suggests political scientists may wish to think more expansively about which institutions affect democracy. Even an organization like MLB can be pressured to back pro-democracy measures — like equal access to the vote — because it relies on support of spectators.
Many formal U. The Senate is designed to give an expanded voice to less populous states. Many states have drawn House districts in gerrymandered ways that make it harder to elect Democrats than Republicans.
Unelected judges have immense power. In many ways, the U. The engine of the sport is composed of two players -- the pitcher and the batter.
All of the action in a baseball game revolves around these two combatants. The pitcher stands on a raised mound of dirt, called the pitcher's mound, which is 60 feet 6 inches The batter stands on either side of the home base, called "the plate," holding a bat and facing the pitcher. To set the game in motion, the pitcher attempts to throw the ball past the batter into the catcher's glove or make the batter hit the ball to put it in play.
As the ball is put in play, the eight fielders try to catch it or throw out the batter more on this later so he can't get on base and ultimately score a point a run. The batter's goal is to put the ball in play so that the eight fielders can't catch the ball or throw it to another fielder to record an out. Now that you have a basic understanding of how the game works, let's take a deeper look into the game of baseball, starting with the basic equipment.
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