[ViktorRay]

”This interpretation reeks of Western naivete.”

The essay you are responding to was written by a historian.

The ideas actually described in the essay were not developed by a Western person. They were first implemented successfully by a non-Western person.

Mahatma Gandhi.

And Gandhi developed these ideas from reading the writings of another non-Western person. Leo Tolstoy.

More information can be found here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Letter_to_a_Hindu

As you can see in this article the non-Western Tolstoy was influenced by many non-Western religious and philosophical figures. Tolstoy then influenced the non-Western Mahatma Gandhi to successfully implement these ideas.

[ghc]

I'm sure European aristocrat Leo Tolstoy would be astonished to find himself lumped in with an Indian as being non-western.

[ViktorRay]

Tolstoy was Russian. Russia is not a Western country. And Tolstoy was influenced by non-Western philosophical and religious figures.

[Gud]

…against a western government.

[odiroot]

> Mahatma Gandhi.

I daresay the Brits were not as willing to gun down peaceful protesters as today's regimes are.

[dugmartin]

You should look up the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

(Full disclosure - I had to look up the name after remembering it portrayed in the movie Gandhi)

[pinewurst]

Gandhi also suggested, “But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife.”