Satyagraha: The Gandhian Technique of Resistance

During the campaign.

1. No violence, no insult, no provocation.
2. No exploitation of the opponent's weakness or embarrassment. If the opponent is in difficulty for an unrelated reason, the campaign is suspended.
3. Accept arrest and punishment without evasion, and do not seek bail or reduction as a tactic.
4. Never escalate the demand because the campaign is going well.
5. Suspend the campaign if the participants turn violent, however costly. Gandhi did this after the violence at Chauri Chaura in 1922, when the movement was at its strongest, and was severely criticised within his own movement for it.

Concluding.

1. Accept a settlement that meets the stated demand, and do not press for more.
2. The opponent is not humiliated. The aim is to convert, so a defeated opponent is not the object.

The forms satyagraha takes

Worth listing, because a question may ask for the technique's methods rather than its philosophy.

Non-cooperation. Withdrawing the cooperation on which an unjust arrangement depends: resigning offices and titles, withdrawing from official schools and courts, boycotting elections.

Civil disobedience. Deliberately breaking a specific law regarded as unjust, publicly, and accepting the penalty.

Hartal. A voluntary suspension of work and business, for a defined period, as a mark of protest and mourning.

Boycott. Refusal to buy or use particular goods or services.

Fasting. The most contested form, used as self-purification, as penance for the failings of one's own side, and as an appeal. Gandhi imposed conditions on it: it must never be used against a person who does not care, and must not be used to coerce those with whom no bond of affection exists, because used against a stranger it is coercion by threat of one's own death.

Picketing. Non-violent persuasion at the point of the activity.

Constructive programme. The work done alongside the resistance: spinning, village industry, sanitation, education, and the removal of untouchability. Gandhi treated this as essential rather than incidental, because a movement that only resists has not built anything to put in place of what it opposes.

Three campaigns, worked

Champaran, 1917. The grievance was the system under which indigo cultivators in Bihar were compelled to plant a portion of their land with indigo on terms fixed by the planters. Gandhi went to investigate, was ordered to leave the district, and refused, offering to accept the penalty. The order was withdrawn, an inquiry was appointed with Gandhi on it, and the arrangement was ended by legislation. What the case shows: the technique's first use in India, the centrality of establishing the facts, and the fact that the campaign's demand was specific and limited.

The salt satyagraha, 1930. The grievance was the salt law, under which the manufacture and sale of salt was a government monopoly and a tax was levied on a necessity that anybody living near the sea could otherwise make. Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy setting out the demand and the intention, walked to Dandi over about three weeks, and made salt from sea water in breach of the law, after which the breach was repeated across the country and tens of thousands were arrested. What the case shows: the choice of a law that was simple, universal, visible and morally indefensible; prior notice to the authority; and the deliberate courting of arrest.

Chauri Chaura, 1922, and the suspension of non-cooperation. During the non-cooperation movement a procession at Chauri Chaura was fired on, and the crowd set fire to a police station, killing the policemen inside. Gandhi suspended the entire movement. What the case shows, and it is the most important of the three for this topic: rule 9 is real. The method was not a strategy to be maintained while it worked; it was a discipline that failed when its own participants used violence, and the discipline was enforced against the movement's own interests.

The criticisms

It is slow, and the suffering falls on the resisters.

It presupposes an opponent capable of shame, which is chapter 440's objection in its sharpest form.

Fasting is coercive. Even Gandhi's own conditions do not fully answer the objection: a fast by a person whose death would be a catastrophe for the other side applies pressure that has little to do with persuasion. Ambedkar made exactly this objection about the fast that preceded the Poona Pact of 1932.

Suspension is costly and can destroy momentum. The 1922 suspension was criticised by leaders within the movement as throwing away a position that had taken years to build.

Ambedkar's larger objection. That for the most oppressed, the opponent is not a distant government but the surrounding society, and a technique which depends on appealing to the conscience of those who benefit from a hierarchy leaves them in control of the timing and extent of any concession. His preference for enforceable constitutional guarantees over moral appeal is the standing alternative and belongs in any full answer.

It requires exceptional leadership and discipline. Every element of the technique depends on participants who will not retaliate, and that is difficult to sustain at scale, which is what Chauri Chaura demonstrated.

A worked example

A State requires every fisherman to sell his catch only at a government auction centre, at prices fixed there, and a cooperative of fishing families in one village believes the arrangement is ruining them.

Before. They petition the Fisheries Department, ask for arbitration and get no reply for months. They state one precise demand: the freedom to sell up to half the catch directly. They write to the Collector saying that from a stated date they will sell directly, in the open, outside the centre, and will not resist any action taken. They hold a meeting at which those who cannot promise not to retaliate withdraw.

During. They sell openly at a stall beside the centre. When officers seize the fish, nobody obstructs them. When arrests are made, nobody resists, and nobody applies for bail as a tactic. A newspaper photograph of women being led away from a fish stall does more than any petition did.

The discipline tested. A group of young men from the village stone the centre one night. The cooperative suspends the campaign, states publicly that it has done so and why, and does not resume until it has re-established the pledge. This is rule 9, and it is the point at which most movements abandon the method.

Concluding. The Department offers direct sale of forty per cent. The cooperative had demanded fifty and accepts the offer, because the object was the substance of the demand and not the defeat of the Department.

Distinctions that carry marks

What satyagraha is NOT

It is not passive. Gandhi abandoned the English phrase for exactly this reason.

It is not a technique for the weak. Gandhi's claim is that it demands more courage than fighting, since the satyagrahi faces force without the relief of returning it.

It is not a bargaining strategy. The demand is not inflated to be traded down, and it is not escalated when the campaign is winning.

It is not compatible with evading the penalty, with secrecy, or with exploiting the opponent's difficulties.

It is not merely a political method. The constructive programme, and the requirement of self-purification, mean the technique makes demands on the resister's own conduct, which is what most distinguishes it from every other form of protest.

Quick revision

1. Satya truth plus agraha firmness. Gandhi coined it because "passive resistance" suggested weakness.
2. Three foundations: satya, ahimsa, tapasya (self-suffering). Truth supplies the case, non-violence removes the opponent's justification, self-suffering communicates.
3. Before: exhaust other means; state a precise and minimal demand; give notice; prepare and pledge the participants.
4. During: no violence or insult; no exploitation of the opponent's weakness; accept arrest without evasion; never escalate the demand; suspend if your own side turns violent.
5. Concluding: accept a settlement meeting the stated demand; do not humiliate the opponent.
6. Forms: non-cooperation, civil disobedience, hartal, boycott, fasting (with conditions), picketing, and the constructive programme.
7. Champaran 1917 established the facts and won a limited demand. Salt 1930 chose a simple, universal, visible and indefensible law, with notice given in advance. Chauri Chaura 1922 is the proof that rule 9 was real.
8. Criticisms: slow; needs an opponent capable of shame; fasting is coercive; suspension is costly; Ambedkar preferred enforceable guarantees to moral appeal; and it needs discipline that is hard to sustain at scale.

Test yourself

1. What does satyagraha mean, and why did Gandhi coin the term? It is formed from satya, meaning truth, and agraha, meaning firmness or holding fast, so it is holding fast to the truth. Gandhi coined it because he had first used the English phrase passive resistance and came to dislike it: it suggested weakness and implied a method for those unable to fight, whereas he considered his method to demand more courage than fighting, since the resister faces force without the relief of returning it. Nothing about the technique is passive except the refusal to strike back.

2. Set out the three foundations and explain how they work together. Satya, truth, requires that the case be true and stated honestly, including what tells against it, and requires the satyagrahi to abandon a case discovered to be wrong. Ahimsa, non-violence, requires the absence of ill-will in act, word and thought, not merely the avoidance of blows. Tapasya, self-suffering, requires acceptance of the consequences of refusal without retaliation. Truth supplies the case, non-violence deprives the opponent of any justification and keeps reconciliation possible, and self-suffering is what communicates, since a person who accepts loss rather than inflicting it cannot easily be charged with self-interest.

3. Give the rules a satyagraha campaign must follow. Before: exhaust petition, negotiation and arbitration; state one precise and minimal demand; give notice to the authority of what will be done and when; and prepare and pledge the participants, withdrawing those who cannot maintain non-violence. During: no violence, insult or provocation; no exploitation of the opponent's unrelated difficulties; acceptance of arrest and punishment without evasion; no escalation of the demand; and suspension if one's own side turns violent. At the end: accept a settlement meeting the stated demand, and do not humiliate the opponent.

4. Why is Chauri Chaura the most important of the three campaigns for this topic? Because it shows that the discipline was real rather than tactical. During the non-cooperation movement a crowd at Chauri Chaura set fire to a police station and killed the policemen inside, and Gandhi suspended the entire movement at the moment of its greatest strength, drawing severe criticism from leaders within his own side. It demonstrates that satyagraha was not a strategy to be maintained while it was working but a method that fails when its own participants use violence, and that the failure was enforced against the movement's own interests.

5. State the principal criticisms of satyagraha. That it is slow and loads the suffering onto the resisters. That it presupposes an opponent capable of shame and a public able to be moved, which the Rivonia case denies for some conditions. That fasting is coercive, since a fast by a person whose death would be a catastrophe for the other side applies pressure unrelated to persuasion, an objection Ambedkar pressed about the fast preceding the Poona Pact. That suspension destroys momentum built over years. That for the most oppressed the opponent is the surrounding society rather than a distant government, so a technique of moral appeal leaves the beneficiaries of hierarchy in charge of the timing of any concession. And that it requires a level of discipline that is very hard to sustain at scale.