ABSTRACT
The history of how people have tried to change society is often presented as a history of war and violent revolution. Nonviolent society can be created by meeting everyone's basic needs. In considering that the motivation of nonviolence derives from the desire to create a more desirable and caring world, the efforts have to be ultimately directed toward abolishing the institutions of oppression. The word 'nonviolence' popularly appeared in the 20th century, while this term was often equated with 'nonresistance' and 'passive resistance' between the 17th and mid-19th centuries. Nonviolent action translates courage, dignity and assertiveness into an effective form of struggle. The traditions and practices in nonviolence can be traced back to religious pacifism, Leo Tolstoy's anarchism and the Gandhian struggle. Contemporary nonviolence has to concern itself with the whole social fabric in that violence breaks the sense of a community. Pervasive violence circumscribes social existence beyond physical survival.
