204 A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE
which includes all non-violent resistance for the vindi-
cation of Truth. Non-co-operation in itself is more harm-
less than Civil Disobedience but in its effect it is far more
dangerous for the Government than Civil Disobedience.
Non-co-operation is intended so far to paralyse the Gov-
ernment as to compel justice from it. If it is carried to
the extreme point, it can bring the Government to a
standstill
49. Non-co-operation is not a passive state, it is an
intensely active state. Passive resistance is a misnomer,
50. My non-co-operation is with methods and sys-
tems, never with men. *fi
51. Behind my non-co-operation there is always tile?
keenest desire to co-operate on the slightest pretext even,
wiih the worst of opponents. To me,, a very imperfect
mortal, ever in need of God's grace, no one is bejTond
redemption.
Civil Disobedience — A Constitutional Weapon
52. Civil Disobedience is civil breach of unmoral
statutory enactments. The expression was, so far as I am.
aware, coined by Thoreau. Civil Disobedience is not a
state of lawlessness and licence, but presupposes a law-
abiding spirit combined with self-restraint. Satyagraha
consists at times in Civil Disobedience and other times in
Civil Obedience.
53. Nor is it necessary for voluntary obedience that
the laws to be observed must be good. There are many
unjust laws which a good citizen obeys so long as they
do not hurt his self-respect or the moral being.
54. A Government that is evil has no room for good
men and women except in its prisons. As no government
in the world can possibly put a whole nation in prison,
it must yield to its demand or abdicate in favour of a
government suited to that nation.
55. Disobedience to the law of the State becomes a
peremptory duty when it comes in conflict with the law
of God.
56. A satyagrahi is nothing if not instinctively law-
abiding, and it is his law-abiding nature which exacts-