Word: satyagraha
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...lawyer, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, had a political discernment of genius: in God-obsessed India the politics of liberation must take the form of a religious struggle. Doffing his European store clothes and donning a dhoti, the little man moved against the British Empire in the name of four principles: satyagraha (acceptance of Truth), ahimsa (non-violence), swadeshi (home industry), swaraj (independence). From then on, the history of Indian-British relations has been a long, painful procession of thousands of nonresisting Indian nationalists passing in & out of British jails, or under the lathis (staffs) of Britain's police...
...Cross. Gandhi still had one more weapon left. If nothing else, Gandhi's powerful personality had escaped from seven months' enforced obscurity in jail. Within his philosophical creed of Satyagraha, which calls on the power of "love and true knowledge" to overcome all difficulties, he might still hope to "melt the hearts" of his enemies...
...Hindu, Gandhi accepts Varna (color), while disavowing the caste system, but stands by the concept of caste in marriage and the profession as the law of heredity. The principle of Swadeshi (home manufacture, i.e., spinning) is akin to the ancient Greek spirit of the hearth and Chinese ancestor worship. Satyagraha was coined by Gandhi from the words Saty (truth and love) and agraha (firmness) as the Hindu interpretation of soul force. Closely akin to this is Christ's admonition to "turn the other cheek...
...Satyagraha in India is not so nonsensical as it appears to Western eyes. It has even more cogency in Hindu India than isolationism once had in the U.S. Gandhi's followers have always regarded Satyagraha as the best way to fight would-be aggressors. It is not a pro-Jap policy except in possible effect. As explained by the Congress: "We may not bend the knee to an aggressor. . . . If he wishes to take pos session of our homes and our fields we must refuse to give them up, even if we have to die in an effort...
...Satyagraha, with its philosophic basis in Buddhism, Indian Mysticism, and also Christianity, has a hold on Hindu imagination. In Hindu eyes, it has proved itself in India's British relations. As to how it might work against an invader, Gandhi Student Krishnalal Shridharani says in a lengthy book on the subject, War Without Violence: "Satyagraha has not had to face an invading army. . . . Drawing upon our imagination-thousands of citizens would throw their defenseless bodies on the earth at the frontier, giving the invading horde a choice of either advancing over a human bloody carpet or staying outside...