Satyagraha and its Relevance
India is commemorating the Centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha, which has no parallel in the world till today. In fact, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Satyagraha are synonymous. The Father of the Nation had launched a unique human rights movement called Satyagraha in Johannesburg in South Africa on September 11, 1906 to resist racial discrimination there.
The movement in Transvaal began with a meeting at the Empire Theatre packed with Indian delegates protesting against the compulsory registration of Asians. Adopting the famous Fourth Resolution, the Indians had solemnly resolved not to submit to the ordinance in the event of its becoming law, and to suffer all the penalties that may follow. That pledge was the beginning of Satyagraha, a novel way and was first of its kind.
Satyagraha Leads
Literally, Satyagraha means holding firm on to the Truth and resisting the Untruth actively but using only through Non-violent means. Gandhi described it, truth force, or soul force. He disliked the English term “passive resistance” saying Satyagraha required activism, not passivity. Gandhi, popularly known as Bapu, led three Satyagrahas in South Africa and ten in India, ending with the final Quit India movement that was meant to perpetuate the eternal spirit of Satyagraha: do or die.
He undertook 18 fasts, including fasts unto death on various issues. He also partook of two great marches - the Great March of November 1913 across Transvaal border, and the Salt March, of March 1930, from Sabramati to Dandi to break the salt law.
Gandhi’s steadfast pursuit of Truth made him perceive clearly not the inequities of British colonial rule in India, but also the dark side of Indian society, particularly the indignity and oppression of the caste system for those at its lowest levels. Gandhi was the first to bring middle class and rural Indian women out of their homes and into the public domain. His strategy of truth and non-violence has had remarkable impact and success outside India.
By means of non-violent tools, Gandhi was not only instrumental in bringing about India’s Independence from the British Rule, but also provided inspiration to the people in British colonies elsewhere in Asia and Africa to work for their own independence and the British Empire ultimately crumbled like proverbial house of cards. His greatness, for which he is remembered as Mahatma (mahan atma) means Great Soul, lies in his strong belief in strong democratic and secular ideas. He had expressed his desire to spend the rest of his life in Pakistan after the partition of the country, though he was opposed to the division. His ideas and convictions had moved the founding fathers of the budding India who incorporated many of them into the Directive Principles of State Policy.
Quest for Truth
Gandhi believed that true education is that which helps us to know the atma, our true self, God and Truth. In July 1932, he wrote that every branch of knowledge should have as its goal - knowledge of the self. There is a science of every type of work - whether it be cooking, sanitation, carpentry or spinning. Everybody, who does his work with the attitude of a student knows its science or discovers it.
Concern for Humanity
Gandhi’s concern for the welfare of humanity across the world can be better understood from two of his letters shot off to Adolf Hitler. In his first letter dated July 23, 1939, Gandhi said “It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world, who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to the savage state. Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you to be? Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success?”
In his second letter dated December 24, 1940, Gandhi said, “We have found in non-violence a force which, if organized, can without doubt match itself against a combination of all the most violent forces in the world. In non-violent technique, there is no such thing as defeat. It is all do-or-die without killing or hurting. It can be used practically without money and obviously without the aid of science of destruction, which you have brought to such perfection. If not the British, some other power will certainly improve upon your method and beat you with your own weapon. You are leaving no legacy to your people of which they would feel proud. I, therefore, appeal to you in the name of humanity to stop the war.”
Impact of Satyagraha Movement
Gandhi’s principles of Satyagraha had inspired generations of democratic and anti-racist activists including Martin Luther King Junior and the legendary South African Apartheid movement leader Nelson Mandela. Gandhi’s non-violent strategy aroused much interest in the US, Europe and other parts of the world, not only among national liberation, civil rights, peace and people’s resistance movements. His advocacy of non-violence extended also to the environment. He called for simple living and high thinking, avoidance of profligacy and waste, economy of every resource and respect for all life.
His doctrine of non-violence has rejected the industrial and material civilization of the West and envisaged a moral regeneration of the Indian people. His own brand of social conservatism sought change through personal reformation rather than popular revolution.
Satyagraha, its Scope and Relevance Today
Gandhi likened Satyagraha to that of a banyan tree with innumerable branches and Truth and Non-violence stood as its parent trunk. Socio-economic and political scientists feel that in the present day world, there is an urgent need to wean the individual away from the influence of money power. The time-tested concept of Satyagraha and the principles of truth and non-violence continued to be fundamental factors for contributing to the peace, harmony and welfare of the whole society.
It is in the interest of the society as a whole, the messages and convictions of Gandhi should be spread among students, work forces in the industrial establishments and even at panchayat levels where disputes can be settled amicably.