Satyagraha ‘biggest weapon’ against oppression: Mahatma Gandhi

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Sep 14, 2020

11:41AM

Satyagraha ‘biggest weapon’ against oppression: Mahatma Gandhi

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In our Series on Mahatma Gandhi, today we have a brief story about Mahatma's biggest weapon against oppression, THE SATYAGRHA.

The term Satyagraha was coined and developed by Mahatma Gandhi. Satyagraha is a Sanskrit word, which means holding onto truth, firmly. It is a form of nonviolent civil resistance.

Mahatma Gandhi firmly believed that means and ends are inseparable from the theory of Satyagraha. According to Gandhiji, the means used to obtain an end are wrapped up in and attached to that end. Therefore, it is contradictory to try to use unjust means to obtain justice or to try to use violence to obtain peace.

Mahatma Gandhi had said that all satyagraha and fasting is a species of tyaga. It depends for its effects upon an expression of whole - some public opinion shorn of all bitterness. Gandhiji insisted that that nonviolence is infinitely superior to violence, and that Satyagraha can rid society of all evils, political, economic and moral.

Gandhiji’s grandson Arun Manilal Gandhi explains it beautifully saying Satyagraha is the pursuit of truth. He had said, Mahatma Gandhi believed that truth should be the cornerstone of everybody's life and that we must dedicate our lives to pursuing truth, to finding out the truth in our lives.