Violence as a concept and practice has largely been unsuccessful in preventing or resolving conflicts. In fact, violence as an instinct is opposed to the values that build the foundation of human civilization-respecting life, diversity, and interdependence within society. The essays in this volume discuss the concept of non-violence in totality and also recognize its vulnerability, particularly in the context of what can be called ‘learned non-violence’.

Structured around four themes—religion, protest, the modern condition, and the world today—the book stimulates the reader to consider the practical possibilities of non-violence. In the process it tries to develop an engagement between modern discourses and the ancient vocabulary of the concept.

Delving into the enterprise from different perspectives across disciplines, the contributors offer a rich intersection of not only the past and present, but also various approaches that theorize the concept, thereby visualizing the possibilities of a sustainable moral pedagogy of non-violence.