Non-Violence, Theory and Practice: The Impacts of Principled Non-Violence on Karachi Movement (1947-1948)
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Keywords

Non-violent Action, People Power, Civil Resistance, Satyagraha, Principled Non-violence, Passive Resistance and Karachi Movement

Abstract

The resistance to save Sindh from division had begun in 1947, when the newly founded federal government of Pakistan had declared to include Karachi, the mega city of the province into federal territory. It was also announced that Karachi would be given the status of capital of the country. Moreover, the capital of Sindh province would be shifted to Hyderabad, the second largest city of the province. On this decision, the people of Sindh outraged and considered it injustice and reacted non-violently against the decision. Gandhi called this public reaction on perceived un-justice as principled non-violence (Satyagraha). In this research paper, it is to see how principled non-violence influenced the movement leaders. Apart from this, the people of the province stood against the division of Sindh. They also declared to launch a peaceful resistance for the annulment of the government’s decision which was perceived as a Sindhi ethnic struggle in Pakistan. There is dearth of academic research on this subject as no scholar has connected theory and practice of non-violence with peaceful resistance to save the status of Karachi. This paper attempts to analyze Karachi Movement as non-violent action in the light of principled non-violence. The paper contributes a different approach to the knowledge regarding association of Satyagraha and Karachi Movement. As, the peace and non-violence theories are gaining much attention in the world. Thus, it is significant to investigate the first non-violent struggle of Pakistan.

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