Reflections on the International Day of Non-violence

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/10/2023 (739 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every year on the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, Oct. 2, the International Day of Non-violence is observed around the globe. The United Nations adopted International Day of Non-violence to affirm the message of non-violence and to strive towards a tolerant and peaceful society.

Throughout Gandhi’s life, he achieved many feats of diplomacy, from fighting for Indian and African rights in South Africa to disobeying British rule in India. He played a key role in gaining Indian independence from Britain.

Perhaps the greatest movement Gandhi started was the Salt March. Gandhi and thousands of Indians marched about 380 kilometres to protest the tax on salt that affected the poorest of the poor as well as the British occupation of India. The protest resulted in nearly 60,000 incarcerated Indians.

During World War II, Gandhi started the “Quit India” movement, which revolted against British occupation of India and Indian aid in the war. It resulted in Gandhi’s arrest. Gandhi’s legacy still stands as a monument of non-violence and peace in society, going beyond the boundaries of race and religion.

Shirin Abadi, an Iranian Nobel Prize laureate, took the idea of a non-violence day from a Hindi professor in Paris. The idea interested members of the Indian Congress Party. The proposal eventually reached the United Nations, which adopted it as an international day on June 15, 2007. Their goal is to spread the message of non-violence through awareness and education. According to Gene Sharp, an American political scientist known for his writings on nonviolence, “Nonviolent action is not an attempt to avoid or ignore conflict. It is one response to the problem of how to act effectively in politics, especially how to wield powers effectively.”

Violence is still a massive problem in Canada. According to Statistics Canada, there were 1,528 police-reported sexual assaults in Manitoba in 2018. With a rate of around 113 sexual violence victims per 100,000 people, the provincial rate was 1.5 times higher than the national rate. These results become even more disturbing when, according to the Government of Manitoba, 95 per cent of assaults aren’t even reported to the police.

Statistics from Statista.com indicate that in 2021, Manitoba had the second-highest violent crimes per 100,000 people out of all the provinces, at 2,226 per 100,000 people. In addition, a RCMP report states that between 1980 and 2012 there were 1,017 murdered Indigenous women and girls, roughly 4.5 times the rate of non-Indigenous women in Canada. The report doesn’t tell everything, though. The RCMP didn’t distinguish between Inuit, Metis, and First Nations women. It is likely that there are still unrecorded homicides because of inconsistent reporting and verification of the victims’ identities. The RCMP report doesn’t express the voices of the communities and families who have been affected.

What can we do as individuals? First, become informed of what is happening and what the problems are, and share what you’ve learned with others. Second, acknowledge the missing and murdered Indigenous women and the resilience of their family members and communities. Acknowledge Indigenous history and the effects of residential schools. Third, involve yourself within the community, participate in protests or activities, and show your support while being respectful. It should be noted that you shouldn’t be acting out of guilt, but rather out of true interest in the problems at hand. As Gandhi once said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

» Colin Shaw is a Grade 10 student at École secondaire Neelin High School