passive resistance

noun

1. opposition to a government or to specific governmental laws by the use of noncooperation and other nonviolent methods, as economic boycotts and protest marches.

passive resistance

noun

1. resistance to a government, law, etc, made without violence, as by fasting, demonstrating peacefully, or refusing to cooperate

passive resistance

1. A technique of demonstrating opposition to a government's activities simply by not cooperating with them. It is particularly associated with Mahatma Gandhi , who opposed violent revolution in his own country's fight for independence. ( Compare civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance .)

Other Words From

• passive re·sister noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of passive resistance¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Then he goes into a passive resistance mode.

From Los Angeles Times

She was also reading James Baldwin, listening to the news, and seeing American racial politics shift from civil rights-era passive resistance to a newly assertive Black power.

From New York Times

The nonviolence of the civil rights movement had nothing to do with “passive resistance.”

From Salon

The United States was different, too, deprived of the eloquence and passive resistance against racism that King espoused and burdened with the war in Vietnam for five more years.

From Washington Post

The group’s fliers, quoting from Goethe, Schiller, Aristotle, Lao Tzu and the Bible, urged passive resistance and sabotage of the Nazi project.

From New York Times