Why Is Civil Disobedience Effective

As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Peace is the most powerful weapon of mankind”, when Gandhi said this he meant that violence is not the answer and that we should make peace instead of fighting against each other in a violent manner. And an example of following this statement is the using the act of civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest. However, some argue that civil disobedience this is an ineffective way to change laws and/or make social change, but when you look at the facts, civil disobedience is clearly effective. Civil disobedience is effective for many reasons, few are such as there is no violence on one side, it gets results,
For example, in August 1906 the British administration in the Transvaal passed the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance, the Black Act. This was passed to control the entry of Indians into the Transvaal, more specifically, it made every Indian man, woman, or child older than 8 years, register with the Register of Astiatics. Those who did not register by a certain date would not be allowed to stay in Transvaal, they also had to have their fingerprints taken for their registration certificates. Gandhi almost immediately set up a campaign to oppose the new law. On September 11th, thousands of Indians attended the meeting at the Empire Theatre and vowed not to submit to the Black Act, no matter what the consequences and the government’s threats were. This vow is now known as the Satyagraha Oath. Jan Smuts did not repeal the Black Act as he had promised. His breaking of the agreement angered the Indian community and Gandhi sent a letter to Parliament, reminding Smuts of their agreement. In the letter, Gandhi warned that if Smuts did not repeal the act as promised the Indians would burn their registration certificates. By the closing date of registration in terms of the Black Act, only 511 Indians had registered out of the total Indian population of over 13,000 in the Transvaal. Gandhi gave Smuts until August 16th, 1908 to respond. A
For example, on November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony went to the polls to vote in the presidential election. But due to the fact that she was a woman, she was not allowed to vote. As a result, a poll watcher who saw her going to vote objected and told her to stop. She protested that as a citizen of the United States and of New York she was entitled to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment, so they gave up and let her vote. Later, she was arrested for a federal crime and brought to court(“The Woman Who Dared to Vote The Trial of Susan B. Anthony” 2). There, the U.S. Supreme Court fined her $100. However, she would refuse to pay, she asked if it was “a crime for a citizen of the United States to vote?”. She also said, “I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.” Thus, she then started a petition to lift the fine, and in January 1874, Congress finally did(“Susan B. Anthony found guilty of voting, June 19, 1873” 1-2). This made the U.S. Government and Court look bad due to that it made them look like they were forced Susan B. Anthony to pay a fine even though she did nothing wrong, but be a woman and trying to vote like every other