Satyagraha @120: by Rajni Bakshi Lecture at Hope as Practice at G5a on 2nd October, 2026
Do you see humans as being innately aggressive and potentially violent? Or do you see us as being inherently compassionate, nurturing and caring? we know that all these traits together make up the human condition. there is a choice to be made. You can believe that the oppressors can only be defeated by stronger counter-violence.Or you can acknowledge the futility of violence and look for other solutions.
Strive for the courage , a courage rooted in the strengths of solidarity, fraternity and Love.
There is a choice to be made.
Do you see humans as being innately aggressive and potentially violent?
Or do you see us as being inherently compassionate, nurturing and caring?
This may be seem absurd.
Because we know that all these traits together make up the human condition.
But what are the dominant traits?
How you feel about this is all important.
For this determines whether you see Satyagraha as Aspirational or as a Reality that is accessible to ordinary human beings.
Does 2nd October, Gandhiji’s birthday and the International Day of Nonviolence, represent just a feel-good wishful sentiment or does it stand for that which works?
Again there is a choice to be made.
We can focus our attention on the many violent revolution that ripped through societies in the 20th century.
Or we can focus on the fact that from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals – mostly in overthrowing oppressive regimes. This is the finding of a study by two American scholars, titled Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict.
But, you might say, what about the wars and genocide happening even now.
Again, there is a choice.
You can believe that the oppressors can only be defeated by stronger counter-violence.
Or you can acknowledge the futility of violence and look for other solutions.
And here the choice does not depend on any of us being either a saint or mahatma.
When Gandhi first came up with the concept of Satyagraha he was an ordinary lawyer.
It was September 11, 1906, and Gandhi was standing before some 3000 British Indians, who had gathered at the Empire Theatre, in Johannesburg to oppose a “galling, tyrannous” ordinance which was prejudicial to Asiatic people in South Africa. They resolved to oppose the oppressive law and expressed willingness to go to jail for this cause.
What Gandhiji said on that day conveys the essence of the ideal and the dynamic of Satyagraha.
“It is merely a question of one ounce of practice which is worth whole tons of speeches and writings.
There is only one course open to me, namely to die, but not to submit to the law, even if everyone else were to hold back, leaving me alone.
I am confident that I should never violate my pledge.”
Here was the spirit of Ekla Chalo Re in action. Tagore had written the song exactly one year earlier.
The gathering in Johannesburg made history because it was a multi-faith, multi-lingual group of individuals making a firm personal resolve and a promise to each other that they would COLLECTIVELY strive for courage in the face of oppression AND do this through nonviolence in thought, speech and action.
THIS is what, later, the struggle to free India from colonial rule achieved. It created space for us to see democracy as a duty, yes, a duty that we mutually owe each other. But even more so it taught us that true democracy is an ethos of seeking to understand and listen to others and resolving differences upon a bedrock of mutual respect.
This is why ‘satyagraha’ mean “the force which is born of truth and love or nonviolence”.
There IS a choice to be made.
Is it more human to fight injustice by feeding justified rage and use any means available?
Or is it more human to strive for the courage required for Satyagraha.
Courage even in moments of doubt.
For this is courage rooted in the strengths of solidarity, fraternity and Love.
This is courage that is not limited by the binary of hope and despair.
It is the effervescent JOY of Vidrohi Utsah – Defiant Enthusiasm.
Vidrohi Utsah Zindabad!!