A lecture on nonviolence presented by UTM's Department of Political Science.
Join Karuna Mantena, Professor of Political Science at Columbia University as she explores what Gandhi believed nonviolent action could achieve that violence cannot. This talk examines how discipline, sacrifice, and restraint can creatively disrupt entrenched attitudes and enable political change.
Date: Monday, March 2, 2026
Time: 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM EST
Location: UTM Campus
On Demand: A recording of this event will be available on YouTube for remote viewing.
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Event Description
This talk explores what Gandhi believed nonviolent action could accomplish that violence could not. His aim was to identify a way for the oppressed to recognize their own power and transform entrenched views more effectively than through either traditional liberal politics or armed rebellion. Violence, he argued, undermines the persuasive force of mass protest by hardening identities, escalating conflict, and reproducing the logic of domination.
By contrast, nonviolent action dramatizes discipline, sacrifice, and restraint to demonstrate a different kind of power. It operates not by overpowering or outnumbering opponents, but by creatively disrupting attitudes and political alignments to make transformation possible. Understanding this logic helps clarify both the promise and the limits of nonviolent movements today.
Presenter
Professor Karuna Mantena is Co-Director of the Conference for the Study of Political Thought (CSPT). She is the author of Alibis of Empire (2010) and has published widely on Gandhi’s political realism, Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolence, and the theory and practice of nonviolence in the twentieth century. She is currently completing a book on Gandhi and the politics of nonviolence.
Please contact Alumni Relations if you require information in an alternate format, or if any other arrangements can make this event accessible to you.