In the book “The Law” by Fredric Bastiat he defines what law actually is. Law is a established mode organized by a collective body of people to make sure justice prevails by punishing injustice. Law is a good thing because it helps maintain the general safety.
In Gandhi's court case they ask him the question, “Of what value is it to insist non-violence if you preach overthrowing the law of the land?” The English believed that British rule in India was good because the English enforced the laws, and law is always good right? Though Law is good it can sometimes be twisted away from its original purpose, that's what happened in India. The English’s so called “laws” were not laws at all because they were being used for the benefit of the government not the people.When there are laws that are not for the benefit of the people it is lawlessness or in other words unjust, and as St. Augustine says “an unjust law is no law at all.” As Gandhi put it systems that start terrorizing the people instead of protecting them are not government systems but systems “of terrorism and an organized display of force.” So according to Gandhi tyrannous government is about the same as organized crime, and when has it ever been wrong to stand against organized crime?
There once was a country that was being oppressed by the British Empire the same as India was. This country realized that government was not meant to oppress people and they decided to throw off oppressive Britain and start their own government. In their Declaration of Independence from Britain they acknowledged that the main reason governments are organized is to protect the rights of the people and when the government goes beyond that it is the right of the people to get rid of such government:“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Governments are made up of people and sometimes people tend to stray from the path of truth and right and must be corrected. Let us not be stopped by the “legality” of the government, many horrible things have and do happen under the name of legality. May we be reminded that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal, the millions of Jewish deaths were legal, the horrible cruelty in the concentration camps were legal. Everything Hitler did was justified by Germany's “law”. There is no stability in legal things unless they are in tune with natural law. The natural result of usurping government is pain, cruelty and fraud. America had a usurping government and because they threw it off they prospered and good things happen.
I believe it is true patriotism to go against usurping acts by the government but when you go against the government you must be prepared to accept the consequences of your actions. You cannot get anything in this world without giving something in return. In Gandhi's case it was imprisonment and other physical discomfort. In Christ’s case it was bearing the sins of the world. If we are to effect this world in any way at all we must stand up for what is right and then have the endurance to fight on.
