XXVI. THE BIRTH OF
SATYAGRAHA
Events were so shaping themselves in Johannesburg as
to make this self-purfication on my part a preliminary as
it were to Satyagraha. I can now see that all the
principal events of my life, culminating in the vow of brahmacharya,
were secretly preparing me for it. The principle called
Satyagraha came into being before that name was invented.
Indeed when it was born, I myself could not say what it
was. In Gujarati also we used the English pharse 'passive
resistance' to describe it. When in a meeting of
Europeans I found that the term 'passive resistance' was
too narrowly construed, that it was supposed to be a
weapon of the weak, that it could be characterized by
hatred, and that it could finally manifest itself as
violence, I had to damur to all these statements and
explain the real nature of the Indian movement. It was
clear that a new word must be coined by the Indians to
designate their struggle.
But I could not for the life of me find out a new
name, and therefore offered a nominal prize through Indian
Opinion to the reader who made the best suggestion
on the subject. As a result Maganlal Gandhi coined the
word 'Sadagraha' (Sat=truth, Agraha=firmness) and won the
prize. But in order to make it clearer I changed the word
to 'Satyagraha' which has since become current in
Gujarati as a designation for the struggle.
The history of this strugle is for all practical
purposes a histroy of the remainder of my life in South
Africa and especially of my expriments with truth in that
sub-continent. I wrote the major portion of this history
in Yeravda jail and finished it after I was released. It
was published in Navajivan and subsequently
issued in book form. Sjt. Valji Govindji Desai has been
translating it into English for Current Thought,
but I am now arranging to have the English translation
published in book form at an early date, so that those
who will may be able to familiarize themselves with my
most important experiments in South Africa. I would
recommend a perusal of my history of Satyagraha in South
Africa to such readers as have not seen it already. I
will not repeat what I have put down there, but in the
next few chapters will deal only with a few personal
incidents of my life in South Africa which have not been
covered by that history. And when I have done with these,
I will at once proceed to give the reader some idea of my
experiments in India. Therefore, anyone who wishes to
consider these experiments in their strict chronological
order will now do well to keep the history of Satyagraha
in South Africa bfore him.
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