satyagraha, noun

/satˈjɑːɡraha//satjaˈɡraha/
Origin:
SanskritShow more Sanskrit, ‘insistence on truth’, satya truth + agraha firmness, perseverance.
Passive resistance as formulated by Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi. Also attributive.
Note:
Used in English throughout the world. The satyagraha movement originated in South Africa in demonstrations led by Gandhi in 1906–7 (see quotations 1928 and 1957).
1920 M.K. Gandhi Non Co-Operation (1921) 46All the painful experience that I then gained did not in any way shake my belief in Satyagraha or in the possiblility of that matchless force being utilised in India.
1928 V.G. Desai tr. of M.K. Gandhi’s Satyagraha in S. Afr. 1The Satyagraha struggle of the Indians in South Africa lasted eight years. The term Satyagraha was invented and employed in connection therewith.
1928 V.G. Desai tr. of M.K. Gandhi’s Satyagraha in S. Afr. 173I..began to call the Indian movement ‘Satyagraha’, that is to say, the Force which is born of truth and love or non-violence, and gave up the use of the phrase ‘passive resistance’.
1950 H. Gibbs Twilight in S. Afr. 116At a meeting at the Empire Theatre, Johannesburg, at which the slim little lawyer presided, a large audience took the Satyagraha Oath, refusing to carry the compulsory passes introduced by the Transvaal Government, [etc.].
1957 M.K. Gandhi Autobiog. 318I could not for the life of me find out a new name [for ‘passive resistance’], and therefore offered a nominal prize through Indian Opinion to the reader who made the best suggestion...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 Gujurati as a designation for the struggle.
1982 H. Seedat in Sunday Times 10 Apr. (Extra) 2The beginning of what later became known as Satyagraha was Gandhi’s unexpected discovery of the beauty and power of a pledge taken with God as witness, to suffer all the penalties of nonsubmission to a bad law. This was at a Mass Meeting held in Pretoria on the 11/9/1906.
1983 S. Afr. Panorama Jan. 30It is not generally known that the world’s first public demonstration of satyagraha — passive resistance — was led by Gandhi in Johannesburg in 1907.
1984 Bhana & Pachai Documentary Hist. of Indian S. Africans 111The energies of South African Indians, mobilised in the 1890s against growing anti-Indianism in various parts of South Africa, were channelled into a concentrated movement which aimed at eradicating the various disabilities from which Indians of all castes, classes and creeds suffered. The documents show the dramatic way in which the satyagraha campaign unfolded from 1906–1914. Gandhi..explained satyagraha as ‘soul force, pure and simple, a weapon for those in search of truth’.
1988 Laband & Haswell Pietermaritzburg 1838–1988 196M.K. Gandhi, H. Kellenbach, Mr Glask and Mrs M. Polak, all leading figures in the Satyagraha (Passive Resistance) campaign.
1990 R. Stengel January Sun 77Gandhi, a young lawyer who arrived in South Africa in 1893, was then evolving his technique of satyagraha, which consisted of peaceful resistance to the government’s restrictions on Indian residential and trading rights.
Passive resistance as formulated by Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi. Also attributive.
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SATV, nounn.SAWAS, nounn.
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