2. SATYAGRAHA
• Satyagraha (Sanskrit: सत्याग्रह satyāgraha) — "insistence on truth“
• Satya "truth"; agraha "insistence" or "holding firmly to“ or holding
onto truth or truth force — is a particular form of nonviolent
resistance or civil resistance.
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3. SATYAGRAHA
• The idea of satyagraha emphasised the power of truth and the need to
search for truth.
• It suggested that if the cause was true, if the struggle was against
injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the
oppressor.
• Mahatma Gandhi believed satyagraha could unite all Indians
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4. Principles of Satyagraha
• Nonviolence (Ahimsa)
• Truth – Honesty, but goes beyond it to mean living fully in accord
with and in devotion to that which is true
• Not stealing
• Chastity (Brahmacharya)
• Non-possession (not the same as poverty)
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5. Contd…
• Body-labour or bread-labour
• Control of the palate
• Fearlessness
• Equal respect for all religions
• Economic strategy such as boycott of exported goods (swadeshi)
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6. Experiments of Gandhi’s Satyagraha
• 1916 - Satyagraha against the oppressive plantation system in
Champaran (Bihar).
• 1917 - Satyagraha in Kheda district of Gujarat, demanding
relaxation of the revenue tax owing to the poverty experienced by the
farmers because of the outbreak of plague and crop failure.
• 1918 - Satyagraha against the cotton mill worker in Ahmedabad.
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7. Contd…
• 1919 - Satyagraha against Rowlatt Act - Civil Disobedience
Movement.
• 1921 – Non cooperation movement to resist British rule in India
through non-violence .
• 1930 – Salt (Dandi) march - Campaign of tax resistance non-violent
protest against the British salt monopoly.
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9. Champaran Satyagraha
• Place : Motihari, Champaran district, Bihar
• In Champaran, peasants were forced to grow Indigo in 1/3rd of their
cultivatable land. They were paid less and the value given to the yield
was less. The wages paid to labourers were extremely low and entirely
inadequate.
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10. • Sri Raj Kumar Shukla met Gandhiji and persuaded him to visit the district.
• The Indian national congress in December 1916 passed a resolution at
Lucknow requesting the Government to appoint a committee of both
officials and non-officials to inquire into the trouble facing the district.
• Gandhi visit to Champaran. His visit was opposed by the British rulers.
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11. • After considerable struggle the Government was compelled to lift the ban on
Gandhi's stay. For the first time on Indian soil Satyagraha (Non- Violence) was
successfully put to the test.
• Eventually a committee of inquiry was appointed by the Government under the
chairmanship of Frank Shy. Gandhiji was also made one of the members of the
committee.
• On the basis of valued recommendations of the committee, the Champaran
Agrarian Law (Bihar and Orissa Act I of 1918) was passed.
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13. Contd…
• In 1918, Gandhiji learned that the peasants of Kheda district in Gujarat were in
extreme distress due to the failure of crops, and that their appeals for the remission
of land revenue were being ignored by the government.
• As the crops were less than one fourth of the normal yield, the peasants were
entitled under the revenue code to a total remission of the land revenue.
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14. Contd…
• Gandhiji organised Satyagraha and asked the cultivators not to pay land revenue
till their demand for remission was met.
• The struggle was withdrawn, when the government issued instructions that
revenue should be recovered only from those peasants who could afford to pay.
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was one of the many young persons who became
Gandhiji's follower during the Kheda peasant struggle.
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16. Ahmedabad mill strike
• In 1918, at Ahmedabad an agitation had been going on between the labourers and
the owners of a cotton textile mill for an increase of pay.
• While Gandhiji was negotiating with the mill owners, he advised the workers to
go on strike and to demand 35% increase in wages.
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17. • Having advised the strikers to depend upon their conscience, Gandhiji himself
went on a "fast unto death" to strengthen the workers resolved to continue the
strike.
• The mill owners gave away and a settlement was reached after 21 days of strike.
The mill owners agreed to submit the whole issue to a tribunal.
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18. • The strike was withdrawn and retrieval later awarded the 35% increase that the
workers had demanded.
• Ambalal Sarabhai's sister, Anasuya Behn, was one of the main lieutenants of
Gandhiji in this struggle in which her brother and Gandhiji's friend was one of the
main advisories.
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