Nonviolent protest were the
weapons used by
Mahatma Gandhi and
Martin Luther King to achieve a
revolution for their respective oppressed
peoples. As such, it is a peaceful method of showing
defiance against segregatory,
oppressive and
intolerant acts committed against a
population by a
government. These days the remnants of those protests still carry over in the form of special
protest marches, and was popularised since the 60's
Nonviolent protest draws upon the philosophies of satyagraha and ahimsa. The broad western term for these concepts falls under what is called passive resistance.