The Gandhi Project by Nashid Fareed-Ma’at

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Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 253, excerpt from Young India,

April 3, 1930.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 143, excerpt from Young India,

August 11, 1920.

change or remove that government. This method is easier said than done among groups with

continuing histories of conflict and tension, one of the reasons oppressive governments seek to

foster and continue conflict and tension among oppressed groups. Even in India, Gandhi had to

repeatedly explain to the various groups who stood against British colonization, “without the co-

operation of all communities, there is no independence.”

In response to the ongoing in-fighting

among these groups, he wrote: “A nation, that is bent on forcing justice from an unwilling

Government, has little time for engaging in mutual quarrels.”

This does not mean that groups should ignore disagreements. Gandhi clearly advocated

that groups and individuals should settle their own quarrels among themselves in accordance to

the ways of Truth. He realized such quarrels left the Indian people open to manipulation by third

parties, particularly the British. In the following quote, he commented on this dynamic as it

played out in the British-run court system in colonized India:

“Do you think that it would be possible for the English to carry on

their Government without law courts? It is wrong to consider that

courts are established for the benefit of the people. Those who

want to perpetuate their power do so through the courts. If people

were to settle their own quarrels, a third party would not be

able to exercise any authority over them. Truly, men were less

unmanly when they settled their disputes either by fighting or by

asking their relatives to decide for them. They became more

unmanly and cowardly when they resorted to the courts of law. It

was certainly a sign of savagery when they settled their disputes by

fighting. Is it any the less so, if I ask a third party to decide

between you and me? Surely, the decision of a third party is not

always right. The parties alone know who is right. We, in our

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule), 1938 reprint from original publication in 1909,

p. 42, Chapter XI: The Condition Of India: Lawyers.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 149 - 150, excerpt from Young

India, September 22, 1921.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 238, excerpt from Young India,

March 27, 1930.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 122, excerpt from Young India,

July 28, 1920.

simplicity and ignorance, imagine that a stranger, by taking our

money, gives us justice.”

(emphasis mine)

Just as Gandhi, in the above quote, is against the people using violence to resolve their

quarrels, he upheld this standard in being against citizens using violence to resolve quarrels with

unjust governments. Remember that for Gandhi violence includes words, thoughts, and actions.

In this vein, he wrote:

“In the programme of non-violence, we must rigidly exclude the

idea of gaining anything by embarrassing the Government. If our

activity is pure and that of the Government impure, the latter is

embarrassed by our purity, if it does not itself become pure.”

He also discouraged people from walking down the path of holding anger at the government.

Below are two of the many warnings he gave the Indian people to avoid pursuing this path:

“The remedy therefore naturally is, not being enraged against the

administrators and therefore hurting them, but to non-co-operate

with the system by withdrawing all the voluntary assistance

possible and refusing all its so-called benefits.”

“It is easier to oust a Government that has rendered itself unfit to

govern than it is to cure unknown people in a mob of their

madness.”

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule), 1938 reprint from original publication in 1909,

p. 56 - 57, Chapter XVII: Passive Resistance.

Despite these warnings, Indian protests sometimes erupted into acts of violence, even mob

violence. These eruptions, even sometimes from those who pledged to be non-violent, remained

a constant threat in Gandhi’s years of organizing. It forced him to be more resolute in educating

people about the tenets of Satyagraha, and to be more selective in who was allowed to join

protest efforts.

Gandhi was also against using compulsion to transform or change governments. Earlier

chapters explored how Satyagraha seeks to convert one’s opponents. But another element of the

compulsion dynamic is the role of statistical minorities standing up to larger majorities. Gandhi

explained:

“It is a superstition and ungodly thing to believe that an act of a

majority binds a minority. Many examples can be given in which

acts of majorities will be found to have been wrong and those of

minorities to have been right. All reforms owe their origin to the

initiation of minorities in opposition to majorities.”

This lesson is even relevant for those engaged in social change: that statistical minorities within

such groups may have relevant points that larger majorities of those engaged in such change do

not realize. Groups seeking Swaraj must see that statistical minorities within their groups are

provided ways to have their points considered by larger majorities.

CLOSING WORDS

There are other methods of transforming and removing unjust governments that fall

within the pillars of Satyagraha and civil disobedience: topics the following chapters will address

in depth. And Gandhi firmly placed Swaraj within Satyagraha. He acknowledged there would

be periods of progression and regression, success and failure, lessons learned and lessons to be

applied to the practice of self-governance along the pursuit of Truth. But he didn’t delay the

embrace of self-governance until people reached Truth or a certain proximity to Truth. It was

something he felt should be practiced in the present, within the context of seeking Truth.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 266, excerpt from Young India,

May 1, 1930.

Much of how Gandhi dealt with the issues of Swaraj was informed by him living under

British colonization. Yet much of his words are still very relevant in today’s forms of neo-

colonialism. Social perceptions may differ in how much the fundamentals of colonialism still

exist in present economic and political systems, particularly in a corporate-dominated global

economy (instead of one dominated by governments in the past). But the dynamics of economic

exploitation of the masses by elite groups and governments continue on. This book won’t

explore how these dynamics operate today, but I will say that principles of colonization do not

apply only to so-called “third world” countries: the mass of people living in America today will

find many similarities between their socio-economic situation and that of the masses living in

British-colonized India. Yet despite how you choose to view your economic situation, economic

factors must be addressed as part of any efforts toward Swaraj (self and collective self-

governance). And in particular, I will challenge readers to examine how their own economic

participation in exploitative systems sustains the oppression of themselves, their communities,

and others throughout the world.

“But the Swaraj of my -- our -- dream recognizes no race or

religious distinctions. Nor is it to be the monopoly of lettered

persons nor yet of moneyed men. Swaraj is to be for all,

including the former, but emphatically including the maimed,

the blind, the starving toiling millions.”

˜˜˜

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 199, excerpt from Young India,

September 24, 1925.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1957, p. 380.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 72, excerpt from Young India,

September 22, 1927.

CHAPTER FIVE

A Force More Powerful than Violence

“It is not any single isolated act which can be called Satyagraha

apart from the spirit behind [it].”

“It is my duty to place before the people all the legitimate

remedies for grievances. A nation that wants to come into its

own ought to know all the ways and means to freedom.

Usually they include violence as the last remedy. Satyagraha,

on the other hand, is an absolutely non-violent weapon. I

regard it as my duty to explain its practice and its limitations. ...

I have no doubt also that Satyagraha is a sovereign remedy.”

“I have never claimed to be the one original Satyagrahi. What I

have claimed is to have made the application of that doctrine

on an almost universal scale, and it yet remains to be seen and

demonstrated that it is a doctrine which is capable of

assimilation by thousands upon thousands of peoples in all ages

and climes.”

Blessings to those who have come this far in the book. This chapter is heavily based on

understanding what has been covered in the previous chapters. Therefore, I strongly encourage

that if you have not truly understood what has been covered so far in this book that you take time

to review the previous pages before continuing. It may also be beneficial to take a pause to

reflect on what has already been explored, especially if you’ve been overwhelmed (even slightly)

by what was addressed in the earlier chapters. Patience is a virtue of the Satyagraha way. This

doesn’t merely mean the willingness to steadily and consistently work toward just and beneficent

outcomes; it also includes taking the necessary time to cultivate yourself fully to the present state

of maturity you find yourself within along the quest for Truth.

With that said, I will explore some of the fundamentals of the Satyagraha way.

WHAT IS IN A NAME

The term Satyagraha was conceived in South Africa. Gandhi went there for work as a

young lawyer and became involved in efforts to better the plight of Indians living and working in

apartheid South Africa. He had previously used the term “passive resistance” to describe the

organizing work he and other Indians there engaged in. His use of the word “passive” referred to

the explicit tenet to refrain from violence of any form in fighting the oppression Indians faced.

But he was moved to find another term to describe the work he and his Indian compatriots were

engaged in:

“When in a meeting of Europeans I found that the term ‘passive

resistance’ was too narrowly construed, that it was supposed to be

a weapon of the weak, that it could be characterized by hatred, and

that it could finally manifest itself as violence, I had to demur to all

these statements and explain the real nature of the Indian

movement. It was clear that a new word must be coined by the

Indians to designate their struggle.

“But I could not for the life of me find out a new name, and

therefore offered a nominal prize through Indian Opinion [an

Indian newspaper in South Africa] to the reader who made the best

suggestion on the subject. As a result Magnalal Gandhi coined the

word ‘Sadagraha’ (Sat = truth, Agraha = firmness) and won the

prize. But in order to make it clearer I changed the word to

Mohandas K. Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1957, p. 318 - 319.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 64, excerpt from Young India, June

5, 1924.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 354, excerpt from Young India,

February 30, 1930.

‘Satyagraha’ which has since become current in Gujarati [an

Indian language] as a designation for the struggle.”

The importance of Truth highlighted in the name is obvious. In fact, Gandhi was

forthright in saying: “There is nothing in Satyagraha that I know whereby we may under certain

circumstances tell untruths or practise other deception.”

Satyagrahis always stand upon Truth

and think, speak, and act in ways in accordance to Truth. There is no room for “little white lies”

or misleading or concealing acts geared toward attaining victory -- usually through gaining a

supposed advantage through these means over one’s opponents. Gandhi rejected such when he

wrote:

“Those who know my past should know that I hold it to be

contrary to Satyagraha to do anything secretly or impatiently. ... A

Satyagrahi has no secrets to keep from his opponent or so-called

enemy.”

The connection of such an approach to Truth may not seem obvious to some, but a number of

spiritual and religious teachings proclaim: there are truly no secrets in the universe and that

Truth can be perceived by all who develop the means to perceive it. If Truth does not hide itself

from anyone, why should those who seek Truth hide things about themselves or their actions?

Now this doesn’t mean putting all your business in the street or require that you tell your entire

life story (including your deepest revelations) to everyone you meet. But it does require walking

with a straight-forward openness to all -- friends, opponents, and strangers. And it certainly

disdains all acts of concealment, which Gandhi would regard as deception since it does not tell

the truth (honesty). A careful study of past and present resistance groups will show that efforts

at concealment, even trying to keep secrets from one’s enemies and possible infiltrators / spies,

often do as much internal damage to these organizations as acts by their opponents. The mere

dynamic of trying to figure out who can be “trusted” often rips organizations apart. Gandhi

avoided this by simply stating publicly, and often directly to his opponents, what he was going to

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 6, excerpt from Young India,

January 14, 1920.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 201, excerpt from Harijan, April

15, 1933.

do. He realized the advantage to be gained by “surprising” an opponent is minuscule to having a

pure approach based in the potency of Truth.

One very relevant, and often overlooked, component to the formation of the name

Satyagraha is Gandhi’s wish to distinguish the work of the Indian organizing efforts from other

groups with conflicting values. He explained this intent in regards to the European passive

resistance movements going on in Britain and South Africa at the time (late 1890s to 1920s):

“Satyagraha differs from Passive Resistance as the North Pole

from the South. The latter has been conceived as a weapon of the

weak and does not exclude the use of physical force or violence for

the purpose of gaining one’s end, whereas the former has been

conceived as a weapon of the strongest and excludes the use of

violence in any shape or form.

“The term Satyagraha was coined by me in South Africa to

express the force that the Indians there used for full eight years and

it was coined in order to distinguish it from the movement then

going on in the United Kingdom and South Africa under the name

of Passive Resistance.”

Gandhi would later encounter similar problems in India, with groups fighting against British

oppression through different (sometimes violent) means claiming their work fell under the

banner of Satyagraha or non-violence. He wrote concerning this point:

“I should also remind correspondents that the word Satyagraha is

often most loosely used and is made to cover veiled violence. But

as the author of the word I may be allowed to say that it excludes

every form of violence, direct or indirect, veiled or unveiled, and

whether in thought, word or deed.”

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 6, excerpt from Young India,

January 14, 1920.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 289, excerpt from Young India,

May 21, 1931.

It was not only important to define Satyagraha in ways that spoke to what this path entails, but to

also distinguish it from things that are not (and are sometimes contrary to) what Satyagraha is.

The importance of this may be made more obvious when I deal with public opinion in Chapter 6.

Another important element of the Satyagraha name is its relation to the soul or spirit.

This is an example of the challenges of cultural translation, of the less tangible elements of

words getting lost in conversion from one culture to another. Gandhi explained about the

meaning of the term Satyagraha: “Its root meaning is holding on to truth, hence truth-force. I

have also called it Love-force or Soul-force.”

Understanding the relation between Truth and

soul, a connection not obvious in some Western cultures, is important to comprehending the

following point:

“It is a fundamental principle of Satyagraha that the tyrant whom

the Satyagrahi seeks to resist has power over his body and material

possessions but he can have no power over the soul. The soul can

remain unconquered and unconquerable even when the body is

imprisoned. The whole science of Satyagraha was born from a

knowledge of this fundamental truth.”

The soul can only be conquered if one surrenders it to be so. This is one of the bases for

Satyagraha being a spiritual path, even if this path is pursued through the specifics of one’s

religion. Gandhi encouraged Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians, and people of other

religions to pursue this path through their specific religions. Also note, for some spiritual /

religious schools in India, there is a strong (some say undeniable) connection between the soul

and mind -- in fact, some schools explicitly seek to fulfill the purpose of the spirit / soul through

cultivating the mind. Thus, the cultivation of soul and mind are prominent responsibilities in

Satyagraha and are expected of every Satyagrahi. And this tenet was clearly conveyed to many

in India, within its cultural contexts, simply through the name Satyagraha.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 342, excerpt from Young India,

March 1, 1928.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 347, excerpt from Young India,

February 18, 1926.

Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 133, excerpt from Young India,

August 11, 1920.

100

The soul / spirit factors of Satyagraha made it, in Gandhi’s eyes, an universal tool. He

explained:

“In referring to the universality of Satyagraha I have time and

again observed in these columns that it is capable of application in

the social no less than in the political field. It may equally be

employed against Government, society, or one’s own family,

father, mother, husband or wife, as the case may be. For it is the

beauty of this spiritual weapon that when it is completely free from

the taint of himsa and its use is actuated purely and solely by love

it may be used with absolute impunity, in any connection and in

any circumstance whatever.”

Satyagraha also acknowledges another universal law connected to the power each

individual has via one’s soul. Gandhi observed:

“No power on earth can make a person do a thing against his will.

Satyagraha is a direct result of the recognition of this great Law

and is independent of numbers participating in it.”

Upon realization of this law, Gandhi always talked about Satyagraha in terms of strength. For

him, “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

repeatedly stated that Satyagraha is intended for the strong-willed and is unfit for the weak, as

reflected in the following two quotes: