Moser-Puangsuwan, Yeshua

Moser-Puangsuwan, Yeshua

Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan

3 September 2003Comment

From Amritsar to Depayin, Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan offers a comparison between the experiences and methods of the Indian liberation struggle by the Congress Party and Mahatma Gandhi and the nonviolent campaign waged by the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma.

Although not forseen by the political pundits of the time, the salt campaign launched by Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party in India became the key nonviolent direct action campaign to achieve freedom from British rule.

At the outset of the campaign, a New York Times correspondent asked Gandhi what he hoped to achieve by the campaign, and what would happen if he were arrested at the beginning of the campaign. Gandhi answered that it wasn't a matter of winning or losing that…