Satyagraha and Non-violent Resistance

 Disclaimer: ppl can protest however they want. But they should also be prepared to have other ppl react...however they want. 

Story: 10 yrs ago I was a National Black Theatre "I am Soul" fellow playwright. I was asked to design a program for the community. I pitched a workshop on non-violent resistance and non-violent art based upon the roots of it: Satyagraha. I wanted to create a program about the actual practice b/c a lot of what I was seeing back then was not rooted in any text or truth. It was performative protest and therefore ineffective. 

Nonviolent resistance is rooted in Hindu and Buddhist's concept of mental seeds, aka karma. I am seeing something that needs to be purified in my own heart. I will be the agent of that purification by being the thing I want to see. It is not based on thinking the oppressed and oppressor are separate from each other.  Therefore it is not the duty of the oppressed to teach someone else. It is a religious task of fasting and purification one's own heart in order to see the change outside of yourself. 

Gandhi developed the idea of 'Satyagraha' which means being a 'truth force.' You show love where there is hatred b/c you want the world to be love. You plant the seeds for love by your actions. The action has to match how you want the world to be.  Gandhi's fasting was a religious/political fasting to purify. It was not a hunger strike, like a child refusing to eat their vegetables until the parents gave them candy. It was/is spiritual purification. 

Unfortunately, the West interpreted Gandhi's actions as...hunger strike to force the British to give them what they wanted. Most Westerners did not understand the religious/spiritual aspect or mental seeds. They only saw the outward performance and without the intention and began imitating the performance. And then came Martin Luther King Jr...

In college, MLK studied Satyagraha and he wanted to bring that actual form with all its intention and power to the United States for the civil rights movement. Before MLK, there were non-violent protests for blk civil rights. But he was one of the first that was actually practiced with the intention of planting the seeds through non-violent acts of love...to counteract the hatred. Needless to say, he was the most successul. But once again and unfortunately, most Americans misinterpreted MLK's action as performance without karmic intention. So across America college students took up the aggressive, angry, 'yell at the officer' with hatred form of non-violent protest, the 'I'm right, you're wrong, change your views.' And needless to say, non-violent protests have been having diminishing returns every since then. 

SATYAGRAHA PRINCIPLES

Nonviolence (ahimsa)

Truth – this includes honesty, but goes beyond it to mean living fully in accord with and in devotion to that which is true

Not stealing

Non-possession (not the same as poverty)

Body-labour or bread-labour

Control of desires (gluttony)

Fearlessness

Equal respect for all religions

Economic strategy such as boycotts of imported goods (swadeshi)

On another occasion, he listed these rules as "essential for every Satyagrahi in India":

Must have a living faith in God

Must be leading a chaste life and be willing to die or lose all his possessions

Must be a habitual khadi weaver and spinner

Must abstain from alcohol and other intoxicants

RULES FOR A SATYAGRAHA CAMPAIGN 

Harbor no anger.

Suffer the anger of the opponent.

Never retaliate to assaults or punishment, but do not submit, out of fear of punishment or assault, to an order given in anger.

Voluntarily submit to arrest or confiscation of your own property.

If you are a trustee of property, defend that property (non-violently) from confiscation with your life.

Do not curse or swear.

Do not insult the opponent.

Neither salute nor insult the flag of your opponent or your opponent's leaders.

If anyone attempts to insult or assault your opponent, defend your opponent (non-violently) with your life.

As a prisoner, behave courteously and obey prison regulations (except any that are contrary to self-respect).

As a prisoner, do not ask for special favourable treatment.

As a prisoner, do not fast in an attempt to gain conveniences whose deprivation does not involve any injury to your self-respect.

Joyfully obey the orders of the leaders of the civil disobedience action.

Now...you can go back to thinking, protesting, counterprotesting however and whenever. I just wanted to post about the actual roots of non-violent resistance and how it's suppose to change the world (through planting the seeds of the change through our action.)