ABSTRACT

Satyagraha literally means insistence on truth. This insistence arms the votary with matchless power. This power or force is connoted by the word Satyagraha. Satyagraha, to be genuine, be offered against parents, against one's wife or one's children, against rulers, against fellow-citizens, even against the whole world. Such a universal force necessarily makes no distinction between kinsmen and strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend and foe. The force to be so applied can never be physical. The only force of universal application can, therefore, be that of ahimsa or love. In other words it is soul force. Therefore, a satyagrahi, a civil resister will joyfully suffer even unto death. It follows, therefore, that a civil resister, whilst he will strain every nerve to compass the end of the existing rule, will do no intentional injury in thought, word or deed to the person of a single Englishman.