nonviolent resistance
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Mahatma Gandhi urged and practiced nonviolent resistance during the efforts to win independence for India from Britain in the early twentieth century.
African-Americans in the civil rights movement often practiced nonviolent resistance in the South in the 1960s — for example, by sitting-in at segregated lunch counters to provoke arrest and draw attention to their cause. (See segregation and sit-ins.)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The article suggested Christians should embrace nonviolent resistance and the tradition of martyrs.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026
Wong, who spent decades teaching a doctrine of nonviolent resistance, died Wednesday at a hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 69, due to cardiopulmonary failure with complications from endocarditis.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 10, 2025
Add to that the finding of political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan that, historically speaking, nonviolent resistance has been more successful than violent campaigns.
From Salon • Sep. 30, 2025
Participants were not only educated in the principles of nonviolent resistance but went through role-playing exercises to learn how to withstand the worst insults and attacks without succumbing to rage.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 26, 2024
Not every demonstrator had the self-control to obey the discipline of nonviolent resistance championed by Dr. King.
From "Because They Marched" by Russell Freedman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
