Word: satyagraha
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...that has since made history. The young Indian was Mohandas Gandhi, and the nonviolent resistance he was practicing later became a mighty weapon for a weaponless people. To Gandhi himself, nonviolence was much more than a weapon; it was part of a religious way of life which he called Satyagraha. In a short book published this week-Satyagraha (Henry Regnery, $2)-Gandhi Disciple Ranganath R. Diwakar explains this philosophy to Western readers...
...word Satyagraha is Sanskrit in origin-a combination of satya (truth) and agraha (insistence). Gandhi's passion for truth was evident from the beginning of his life. Truth, he once wrote, "became my sole objective." The only way to approach that objective was through love. Evil must always be opposed, but not by making the evildoer suffer. Rather, one must influence the evildoer to change his ways by undergoing suffering oneself-even, if need be, unto death...
...strongest influences in leading Gandhi toward Satyagraha was the New Testament. Said he: "When I read in the Sermon on the Mount such passages as 'Resist not him that is evil, but whosoever smiteth thee on thy cheek turn to him the other also' ... I was simply overjoyed . . ." Gandhi once wrote that a living faith in nonviolence "is impossible without a living faith in God. A nonviolent man can do nothing save by the power and grace of God. Without it he won't have the courage to die without anger, without fear and without retaliation...
...Where We Have the Weapons. . ." Satyagraha (soulforce, or conquering through love) was the name Gandhi gave to mass nonviolent resistance. Potently he applied satyagraha against the British Raj. "The British," he wrote, "want us to put the struggle on the plane of machine guns. They have weapons and we have not. Our only assurance of beating them is to keep it on the plane where we have the weapons and they have...
...passive resistance always erupted into violence. When he saw the bloodshed that followed his call for resistance, Gandhi was overwhelmed with remorse. He called off his campaign in 1922, admitted himself guilty of a "Himalayan miscalculation." His followers were not yet self-disciplined enough to be trusted with satyagraha. To become a "fitter instrument" to lead, Gandhi imposed on himself a five-day fast...