Satyagraha

American  

[suht-yuh-gruh-huh, suht-yah-gruh-] / ˈsʌt yəˌgrʌ hə, sətˈyɑ grə- /

noun

(sometimes lowercase)

1. (in India) the policy of passive resistance inaugurated by Mohandas Gandhi in 1919 as a method of gaining political and social reforms.

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satyagraha British  

/ ˈsɔːtjɑːɡrɔːhɑː /

noun

1. the policy of nonviolent resistance adopted by Mahatma Gandhi from about 1919 to oppose British rule in India

2. any movement of nonviolent resistance

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Etymology

Origin of Satyagraha

1915–20; < Hindi, equivalent to Sanskrit satya truth + āgraha strong attachment, persistence

Example Sentences

It was on a ministry mission to India in the ’50s that Lawson learned about Satyagraha, the method of resistance through nonviolence, developed by Mahatma Gandhi.

From Slate • Dec. 22, 2020

Satyagraha LA Opera stages this Philip Glass opera about Gandhi’s years as a young attorney in South Africa.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 2, 2018

Satyagraha, literally translated as “holding fast to truth,” obliged protesters to “always keep an open mind and be ever ready to find that what we believed to be truth was, after all, untruth.”

From The New Yorker • Oct. 15, 2018

When all the elements and the singers are balanced, like in the superb Carsen Onegin, or the recent Satyagraha, we are in for true magic.

From New York Times • Dec. 28, 2017

While the goal of violence is to defeat and vanquish the enemy, the goal of Satyagraha is to convince or convert the opponent.

From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson