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ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 8(05), 471-476 Journal Homepage: - www.journalijar.com Article DOI: 10.21474/IJAR01/10950 DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/10950 RESEARCH ARTICLE THOREAU’S CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: A VOICE OF NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE TO DISSENT AN UNJUST POLITICAL CONTEXT Dr. C. Masilamani Asst. Professor of English Kristu Jayanti College Bangalore, India-560077. …………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Manuscript Info Abstract ……………………. ……………………………………………………………… Manuscript History This article reviews Henry David Thoreau‟s social and political Received: 12 March 2020 philosophy of Civil Disobedience, which rebels against government‟s Final Accepted: 14 April 2020 brutality and it suggests fighting against tyranny to get freedom, Published: May 2020 breaking with conventional customs, rejecting the social traditions and values and unjust law and policies affecting the democrats. This study Key words:- Civil Disobedience, Political also reviews some of the writings of political situations which display Philosophy, Transcendentalism, Slavery, the political meanings and aspirations. The purpose of the article is to Literature of Politics, Mass of Men, explore the power and importance of individual over groups, especially Rebellion, Rationalism, and Non-Violent government through Thoreau‟s Civil Disobedience. In addition, it also Resistance tries to discuss how people‟s taxes are misused by the government for an unnecessary war and dispute with other countries instead of taking good care their own citizens. Therefore, this article seeks to discuss and eventually justify the relevance of civil disobedience as a catalyst of positive change for the stability and sustainability of the democratic process and system of government in a state. It also evaluates his open call for every citizen to sacrifice oneself for the nation‟s cause not to pay taxes and avoid colluding with government by refusing to play an active role. Finally, this study justifies that his resistance against the government is not anarchic impulse or ideological motivated hatred of the state, but from a more pragmatic understanding of how tax dollars enable the continuation of oppressive government policies. Copy Right, IJAR, 2020,. All rights reserved. …………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Introduction:- It is impossible to provide a comprehensive picture of the many forms of political voice, but it is worth highlighting some dimensions that have a particular resonance today. The proliferation of protests, uprisings, and social mobilization worldwide in recent years that include established democracies reflects profound dissatisfaction with the quality of democratic representation. Political literature sometimes can be contentious and disruptive. Politics has always been a fascinating subject for literature. The „Literature of Politics‟ reveals some of the writings of political situations that display the political meanings and aspirations. One needs a deep insight why writers rebel against government‟s brutality for a specific need to abolish unjust law and policies affecting the democrats. Many writers use literature as a medium to speak politics through which they dictate their political visions. Typically, anarchism is used in the English language to imply chaos and disorder, as if a world without government would devolve into dog-eat-dog violence. Alain Robbe-Grillet, a French novelist associated with the concept of the Nouveau Roman (New Novel), asserted that the author must serve political causes. The fear of inserting ideology into the literature is rampant among critics and authors, who believe politics has an unfavorable effect on a Corresponding Author:- Dr. C. Masilamani 471 Address:- Asst. Professor of English Kristu Jayanti College Bangalore, India-560077. ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 8(05), 471-476 literary work. Political writers would find difficulty since he or she no longer uses “original” sources. The idea of putting heavy political content into literary pieces is the subject to controversy and resistance. Syofyan in his Essay: Literature and Politics suggests three ways of sociopolitical notion into writings as 1. First, social ideas are presented in a straightforward manner in a novel. 2. Secondly, a certain idea is not expressed in a straightforward manner, but should clearly show the intention of luring people toward it. Leo Tolstoy‟s War and Peace, is a good example of propagandizing history. Though not through history, DH Lawrence achieves a similar effect in his work, Lady Chatterley‟s Lover. 3. Third, a certain idea is proffered as a convention. It seems reasonable and is not seen as propaganda. Readers will judge it as common sense or universal human experience. (10) Rebellion is an act of disobeying, resistance, revolting, fighting against, rejection to submit or to bow to any authorities that the person thinks they are against his/her goal. It can be fighting against government‟s tyranny to get freedom, declining boss‟s unfairness, breaking with conventional customs and rejecting the social traditions and values. Parks comments on Doctrow‟s neutral stand: “Doctorow seeks a fiction that is both politically relevant and aesthetically complex and interesting. By blurring the distinction between fact and fiction, [Doctorow] seeks to disclose and to challenge the hegemony of enshrined or institutionalized discursive practices” (454-455). Review of Literature:- One needs to understand the significance and influence of political climate on which the following works are written and different notions behind them. To trace out how political ideas have been expressed from ancient times, here are some of the notable writers and their works that set a base for the study. Plato‟s Republic (375 BC) and Aristotle‟s Politics (4th Century) have been one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory both intellectually and historically. Thomas More‟s Utopia (1516), against censorship, Jan Kochanowski‟s Political commentary The Dismissal of the Grecian Envoys (1578), Jonathan Swift‟s Gulliver‟s Travel (1726), Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal (1729),Voltaire‟s Candide (1759), Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz‟s The Return of the Deputy (1790) Harriet Beecher Stowe‟s Uncle Tom‟s Cabin (1852) George Orwell's 1984 (1949), Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange (1962), and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) have set tone of democratic expression. The following writers‟ works are against the politics of kingship such as: Shakespeare‟s Richard II (1597), Julius Caesar (1599), Richard III (1633), Henry V (1599), Thomas Dekker‟s The Shoemaker's Holiday (1600) Christopher Marlow and Nathaniel Lee‟s Massacre at Paris (1593), Aphra Behn's The City Heiress (1682) and Love Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister (1684). There are other writers who wrote against the Ruler or the Empire in their respective works such as: Jonathan Swift‟s Gulliver‟s Travels (1726) Jane Austen‟s Manfield Park (1814), Joseph Conrad‟s The Heart of Darkness (1902), Rudyard Kipling‟s The White Man‟s Burden (1899), Charles Dickens‟s A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1861) Derek Walcott‟s In a Green Night: Poems 1948-1960 (1962), and Gorge Orwell‟s Burmese Days (1934). There are some other writers whose writings are centered on the horror of war in their works such as: Charlotte Barrett‟s Essay on World War I, Wilfred Owen‟s Anthem for Doomed Youth (1917), Edward Thomas‟s As the Team‟s Head Brass (1916), Isaac Rosenberg‟s 'Returning, We Hear the Larks (1922). Political fiction often applies satires in an Utopian and Dystopian 20th century that include Jack London‟s The Iron Heel (1908), Sinclair Lewis‟s It Happens Here (1935) George Orwell‟s Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty Four (1949) where he addressed some of the major political movements of his time such as: imperialism, fascism, and communism. Graham Greene in his The Quiet of American (1955), questions the America‟s involvement in Vietnam in the 1950s and American foreign policy. Edmund Burke‟s Reflection on the Revolution in France (1790) is considered as an intellectual attack on French Revolution and he made his essays as a part of his political credo and his protest against the British conduct of American affairs through the following works On American Taxation (1774) and On Moving His Resolution for Conciliation with the Colonies (1775). Richard Hendry Horne‟s Orion (1843), Arthur Hugh Clough‟s Bothie of Tober-Na-Vuolich (1848), George Meredith‟s Sandra Belloni (1881) and Beauchamp‟s Career (1875), William Morris‟s Sigurd the Volsung (1876) demonstrate political and literary intelligence working in harness to produce fine political literature. E.L Doctrow‟s The Book of Daniel (1971) a political genealogy of the American Old Left and Don DeLillo‟s Libra (1988) develop some sense of the underlying historical and political themes which affect the literature of contemporary America. Finally, Robert Alter in his brilliant study The American Political Novel (1984) divides the political novel into two classes-the conventional political novel and the adversary political novel. 472 ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 8(05), 471-476 Transcendalism as Response to Rationalism: Transcendentalism is an American literary, philosophical, religious, and political movement of the early nineteenth century 1836 in response to rationalism. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are the central figures. This taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and
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