The Origins of Satyagraha

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The Origins of Satyagraha
Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
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The Origins of Satyagraha

• 1. Indian traditions of nonviolent protest
• Hinduism
• Jainism
• Buddhism
• Nonviolent protest in the Kathiawar region
• The Bishnois
• Benares in the early 19th century

• 2. Gandhi in South Africa
• Was Satyagraha born in South Africa?
• How successful was it?

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Religious Traditions of Nonviolence

• Hinduism

• Himsa (violence)
• Ahimsa (non-violence)
• Hinduism takes no clear stance on ahimsa.

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Religious Traditions of Nonviolence

• Hinduism

• Karma
• -According as one acts, so does he become. One
  becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad
  action.Yajur Veda, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
  4.4.5
• Bhagavad Gita
• Sanskrit poem consisting of 700 verses
• a philosophical dialogue between the God Krishna
  and the warrior Arjun

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Religious Traditions of Nonviolence

• Jainism

• Clearer guidelines in Jainist teaching
• 5 principles of morality
• Ahimsa
• Satya (truth)
• Asteya (nonstealing)
• Brahmacarya (celibacy)
• Aparigraha (nonpossession)
• As the means to attain Moska (liberation).

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Religious Traditions of Nonviolence

• Buddhism

• Nonviolence forms the core of Buddhist teaching.
• Even if thieves carve you limb from limb with a
  double-handed saw, if you make your mind hostile
  you are not following my teaching.
• Kamcupamasutta, Majjhima-Nikkaya I 28-29

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The Origins of Satyagraha

• Western Traditions

• Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
• Cited refusal to pay taxes as an important
  political method
• Boycott
• Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You
• Need for individuals to act according to their
  conscience
• Followed the doctrine of nonviolence when faced
  by conflict
• Valued the ideals of chastity

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Religious Traditions of Nonviolence

• The Bishnois

• Bishnois Twenty-Nine
• Jeev Daya Palni (be compassionate to all living
  beings)
• Runkh Leelo Nahi Ghave (do not cut down green
  trees)
• 1778 Khejarli
• Bishnois forest fiercely protected by the
  villagers
• Amrita Devi and her three daughters hacked to
  death
• 363 Bishnoi killed in total
• The king made all cutting of green trees and
  hunting of animals illegal within the borders of
  Bishnoi villages

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A painting of the 1778 massacre
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Indian Traditions of Nonviolence

• The Kathiawar Region

• Dharna - sitting and fasting at the doorstep of
  an offender until death or until the demand is
  granted
• Carita - fasting or inflicting wounds
• Dhandak - march to see the monarch

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Indian Traditions of Nonviolence

• Civil Disobedience and Noncooperation

• The fact is that, in India, the nation at large
  has generally used passive resistance in all
  departments of life. We cease to cooperate with
  our rulers when they displease us. This is our
  passive resistance, Gandhi, Hind Swaraj, p. 60.
• Benares 1810
• Series of new taxes for homes and shops
• To be collected every 3 months
• If it was not paid, the authorities would take
  the belongings of the occupant and sell them for
  the amount owed
• I am given to understand that considerably above
  20,000 persons are sitting (it may be called
  Dhurna) declaring that they will not separate
  till the tax shall be abolished

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Indian Traditions of Nonviolence

• Civil Disobedience and Noncooperation

• Closing of all shops
• Large numbers of people continually sitting in
  dhurna and saying they would not move until the
  tax was removed
• Close link of artisans and craftsmen with the
  protest
• Protestors bound together by oath to never
  disperse
• Individuals from every class
• Protest posters about the streets
• Dharampal, Civil Disobedience and Indian
  Tradition, pp. L-LI

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Gandhi in South Africa

• David Arnold, Gandhi-Principles in power

• South African Years 1893-1914
• Devised his satyagraha technique
• Deepened his acquaintance with Hinduism as well
  as Christianity
• First experimented with communal living and
  jail-going
• Adopted celibacy
• Began to lose faith in the British empire

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Gandhi in South Africa

• Gandhi studied at University College London
  1888-1891.
• 1891 South African population
• 41, 000 Indians
• 47, 000 Europeans
• 456, 000 Africans
• 1904 population in Transvaal
• 11,000 Indians
• 229,000 Europeans
• 945,000 Africans

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Gandhi in South Africa

• Gandhis experience of Racism

• 1893
• Ejected from the train at Pietermaritzburg
  station. Despite holding a first class ticket
• Refused to remove his turban in a court in
  Durban.

I discovered in South Africa that as a man and
an Indian I had no rights. More correctly, I
discovered that I had no rights as a man, because
I was an Indian. Gandhi, CWMG, 23 115
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Gandhi in South Africa

• First passive resistance campaign

• Passive Resistance satyagraha is a method of
  securing rights by personal suffering it is the
  reverse of resistance by arms.
• - Gandhi, Hind Swaraj, p. 90

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Gandhi in South Africa

• Satyagraha 1907-9

• First satyagraha campaign 1907-9
• Against the Draft Asiatic Law introduced by
  General Smuts
• Mass meetings, writings in the Indian Opinion,
  jail-going
• Gandhi registered under the act - intensified
  divisions within the Indian community in
  Transvaal
• Struck by Mir Alam Khan, 10 February 1908
• The act remained in force

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Gandhi in South Africa

• Grievances

• Satyagraha 1910-14

• Act 36 of 1908
• New legislation in 1913 had placed fresh
  restrictions on Indian immigration and movement
  within South Africa
• Hindu, Muslim and Parsi marriages were invalid in
  the yes of the law
• 3 tax on exindentured labourers

• A handful of Satyagrahis sought arrest
• Strike supported by between 4000 and 5000
  Indian workers in northern natal within two weeks
• Smut took the policy of non-intervention
• Moral advantage cancelled a second protest
  march
• Mass arrests
• Indian Relief Act

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Gandhi in South Africa

• Criticisms

• What must be noticed is that in his concern
  for Indian disabilities he held his people apart
  from and above Africans, to the extent that for
  Indians to be classified and treated as Africans
  was a basic grievance against Europeans law and
  custom.
• - Paul F. Power, Gandhi in South Africa,
  Journal of Modern African Studies 7, 3 (1969), p.
  445.
• David Arnold, Gandhi (Profiles in Power),
  (Harlow, 2001)
• Anti-Indian prejudice continued

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Gandhi in South Africa

• Conclusions

• South Africa important for
• First developing and putting into practice his
  ideas on satyagraha
• Developing his political skill
• The introduction of the Indian Relief Act of 1914
  is still considered to be one of Gandhis major
  achievements.

1891
1914
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The Origins of Satyagraha

• It was Mahatma Gandhi's genius and indomitable
  courage and unmatched organisational capacity
  that he could visualise and make effective use of
  instrumentalities originally fashioned for
  internal situations, to face alien power
• Dharampal, Civil Disobedience and Indian
  Tradition, p. LIX.