A satyagrahi is a person who is dedicated to truth (sat, or satya), or more specifically one who offers satyagraha or participates in a satyagraha campaign. The requirements Gandhi laid down for his satyagrahis include: Having a firm commitment to nonviolence, simplicity, honesty, chastity, and self-discipline in thought, word, and deed. Holding firmly to the truth… read more
Tag Archives: gandhi
Structural Violence
The term structural violence was coined by Johan Galtung to articulate the hidden violence in our midst, built into the structure of society itself and therefore more difficult to pinpoint and eradicate. It causes much suffering and can lead to conflict, war, and genocide. While direct, physical violence gets much more attention, the injustice that… read more
Shanti Sena
Shanti Sena, or peace army, was Gandhi’s proposed solution for the management of conflict through nonviolence, as opposed to the more traditional “threat power” employed by officers of the law and the State. His idea was to have trained volunteers living in the communities they would serve acting as trusted third parties. The volunteers could,… read more
Swadeshi
The word swadeshi derives from Sanskrit and is a conjunction of two Sanskrit words. Swa means self or own and desh means country. So swadesh means own country. Swadeshi, the adjectival form, means of one’s own country, but can be loosely translated in most contexts as self-sufficiency. Like many of Gandhi’s terms, swadeshi can be… read more
Strategic Nonviolence
Strategic nonviolence refers to the kind of commitment that regards nonviolence as a strategy, to be adopted because it is thought to be more likely to “work” than violence (see “work” vs. work) or because violence is not a practical possibility. Strategic nonviolence, for example, still presupposes that the means can justify the ends, whereas for… read more
Principled Nonviolence
Principled nonviolence is not merely a strategy nor the recourse of the weak, it is a positive force that does not manifest its full potential until it is adopted on principle. Often its practitioners feel that it expresses something fundamental about human nature, and who they wish to become as individuals. (See strategic nonviolence.) To adopt… read more
Charkha
The charkha, or spinning wheel, was the physical embodiment and symbol of Gandhi’s constructive program. It represents Swadeshi, self-sufficiency, and at the same time interdependence, because the wheel is at the center of a network of cotton growers, carders, weavers, distributors, and users. . It also embodied the dignity of labor, equality, unity, as all volunteers were… read more
Fasting
Fasting in Satyagraha is a hunger strike undertaken in protest. It is not a fast undertaken for purification, penitence or health. The goal of this type of fast is to persuade rather than coerce. Among the tools of the Satyagrahi, Gandhi considered fasting the ultimate, and one that should not be entered upon lightly. Gandhi carried out… read more
Dharma
Dharma is a Sanskrit word, based on the root √dhŗ, (uphold, support), and can be defined as the law, duty, religion, responsibility, path, or nature, which upholds the underlying order of the universe. Sri Eknath Easwaran has defined it, intriguingly, as “that which makes us secure.” Dharma is a key component of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and… read more
Trusteeship
Trusteeship is a key component of Gandhian economics that could be called the nonviolent equivalent of ownership. Gandhi borrowed the concept from English law. It means that one is the trustee, not the owner, of one’s possessions, or ultimately one’s talents or capacities. All must be used for the good of society as a whole,… read more
