Civil Disobedience And Thoreau's Analysis

In Civil Disobedience, Henry Thoreau questioned whether a citizen should “resign his conscience to the legislator” and stated that “the only obligation which [one has] a right to assume is to do at any time what [one thinks] right”.[1] Moreover, he advocated for a “right of revolution”, which should always be exercised when we disagree with the law.[2] These two ideas are at the core of what is known as civil disobedience, or the belief that we should peacefully disagree with the regime if its laws seem unfair or contrary to our views. During his lifetime, Mahatma Gandhi used civil disobedience to show his disagreement with the British presence in India.[3]

Both thinkers, Gandhi and Thoreau, were imprisoned for protesting a government decision