Resistance and Revolution are manifestations of the limit of political obligation and reflects a state of affairs when citizens acquire a right to resist and disobey the state. Most of the political resistance could be of intra-systemic while revolution is extra-systemic and seeks extra legal solution. A distinction between revolution and other forms of resistance can be made in terms of the nature and direction of change and their bases. Change within the system, or alteration of government, regime etc., may be the aim of resistance movements, while revolution aims at change of the system or the very nature of the state. For example, Jaya Prakash Narayan’s Total Revolution started in 1970s sought change within the system to cleanse it from alleged corruption and mal-administration and did not aim at questioning either the parliamentary democracy or the economic set-up. On the other hand, the French Revolution, 1789 brought change of the system from feudal to bourgeois-democratic or Russian Revolution, 1917 from royalist-agrarian to socialist-industrial system.
Political resistance may manifest in many forms, such as revolt, insurrection, insurgency, mutiny, coup d’etat, uprising, rebellion, revolution etc. How are they different from each other and what implication they have for political theory from the point of view of political obligation? Various changes have been described as implying revolution. Aristotle in his analysis of the constitutions of 158 Greek city-states termed the cyclical alterations in their constitutions as ‘revolution’. There have been several historical changes brought about by revolutions such as the English Revolution (1688), the American Revolution (1776), the French Revolution (1789), the Russian Revolution (1917), Iranian Islamic Revolution (1979), etc. Locke talks of ‘seditious commotions’ to signify people rising against the government that breaks trust reposed in it, Green concedes that one would be right in resisting without having right to resist, Marx finds revolutionary potential in the very class structure of the capitalist system. These all signify the end of political obligation in a particular system or phase of history.
A distinction between various forms of resistance, such as protest, revolt, insurrection, insurgency, mutiny, uprising, rebellion, coup d’etat and revolution can be attempted here to explore their meaning and relation with political obligation and impact on policy, government, regime, political system and the state (see Table 12.1).
Table 12.1 Various Forms of Resistance
| Base, Nature and Characteristics | Directed Against/ Seeks Changes in/Scope | |
|---|---|---|
| Revolution | Popular uprising involving extralegal mass action; often violent | Against the existing system seeking fundamental and sudden change and replacement of the system, e.g., from capitalist to socialist, authoritarian to democratic or replacing one constitution with another |
| Revolts/ Rebellions | Smaller mass base, resistance and opposition often by a section of people aggrieved with the policy and government or established authority | Directed against particular government or policy and not the political systemRevolts and rebellions are generally heard in military dominate states and erstwhile kingdoms |
| Uprisings | Can be mass uprising or uprising of small section | An act of rebellion or revolt against an authority |
| Coup d’etat | By small political, bureaucratic, police and military elite; forcible seizure of governmental power involving illegal means primarily military force | Directed against the ruling elite and not against the regime or system as suchCoup are more heard of in small and politically unstable countries |
| Insurgency/ Insurrection | Rebellion or uprising of a section of people against the government often involving armed conflict | Directed against the policy, government or domination |
| Mutiny | A rebellion especially by soldiers refusing to obey orders | Directed against legal authority and rank officers |
| Civil disobedience | Deliberate breaking of laws by ordinary citizens as part of passive residence and Satyagraha | Directed against laws, policies and rule, government or regime. It may have end objective as system change |
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