passive resistance and satyagraha

In the application of satyagraha, I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and compassion. A satyagrahi therefore does not seek to end or destroy the relationship with the antagonist, but instead seeks to transform or "purify" it to a higher level.

"The theory of satyagraha sees means and ends as inseparable. While in passive resistance there is a scope for the use of arms when a suitable occasion arrives, in satyagraha . They are like the two sides of a coin, or rather of a smooth unstamped metallic disk. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but on oneself.Gandhi distinguished between satyagraha and passive resistance in the following letter: To those who preached violence and called nonviolent actionists cowards, he replied: "I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence....I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour....But I believe that nonviolence is infinitely superior to violence, forgiveness is greater than punishment.

Judith Brown has suggested that "this is a political strategy and technique which, for its outcomes, depends of historical specificities. If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy, we cannot afford to be intolerant. Ahimsa and Truth are so intertwined that it is practically impossible to disentangle and separate them. He deployed satyagraha in the Indian independence movement and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa for Indian rights. I therefore adopted the phrase civil resistance. Gandhiji made a distinction between Satyagraha & passive resistance. And for doing this I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance, but would have confidence that in the end the rest were bound to follow my example. Passive resistance is often looked upon as a preparation for the use of '-once while satyagraha can never be utilized as such. I thus began to call the Indian movement Satyagraha, that is to say, the Force which is born of Truth and Love or non-violence, and gave up the use of the phrase “passive resistance”, in connection with it, so much so that even in English writing we often avoided it and used instead the word “satyagraha” itself or some other equivalent English phrase.In September 1935, a letter to P. K. Rao, Servants of India Society, Gandhi disputed the proposition that his idea of The statement that I had derived my idea of civil disobedience from the writings of Thoreau is wrong. Gandhi first used the term "Satyagraha" in South Africa to describe his philosophy of active nonviolent resistance as opposed to "passive resistance." Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 2001. But I would consider that cost very cheap and victory won at that cost glorious.

"The essence of satyagraha is that it seeks to eliminate antagonisms without harming the antagonists themselves, as opposed to violent resistance, which is meant to cause harm to the antagonist. physical force is forbidden even in the most favourable circum- stances.

Therefore, in the non-violent technique I am asking India to risk no more than other countries are risking and which India would have to risk even if she offered armed resistance.Nagler, Michael N. The Nonviolence Handbook: A Guide for Practical Action. Passive resistance is often look upon as a preparation for the use of force while Satyagraha can never be side by side with the use of arms. Genesis of Satyagraha. But he would observe any obligatory rule of this kind, if only to escape the inconvenience of facing a prosecution for a breach of the rule. Means to be means must always be within our reach, and so ahimsa is our supreme duty.Assessing the extent to which Gandhi's ideas of satyagraha were or were not successful in the Indian independence struggle is a complex task.