Satyagraha can take many meanings and shapes, and is very hard to define in a word or sentence. But to generalize it, it is “non-violent resistance”. It is the technique developed by Gandhi, purposely created to bring a about change, be it political or social, and do so without means of violence from the person applying Satyagraha,

even though they themselves may be inflicted pain. Gandhi applied Satyagraha to many of his campaigns, but they weren’t all the same, some were marches, others boycotts, but all followed the same rules and procedures, such as no coercion “violent persuasion”, complete honesty and a willingness to suffer.

The first time Gandhi introduced India to Satyagraha on a local scale was at Champeran, a small town on the north west border of India, which was in strife because, the Indian peasants were being forced to produce Indigo, a blue powder, for their British landlords,

In 1920, Gandhi claimed that the British Government had done two wrongs to the Indians. They were the Hunter Report, which was an investigation into General Dyers attack on the protesters. IN the views of the Indians, the investigation was not a success and did not expose the injustice Dyer caused. The other “wrong” was the Khilfat issue. This was where the British Government had attained power over many of the Muslims holy lands in the Middle East. This made many Muslims resentful of the British and united the Hindus and the Muslims. This is when Gandhi decided on his next form of Satyagraha, which was non co-operation. Gandhi warned the British Viceroy that unless the holy lands were given back to the Muslims, he would call upon a Satyagraha. The request was declined so in late 1920 the campaign begun. Gandhi asked for all Indians to renounce their title that the British gave o them, and there was to be a swadeshi, which was a boycott of all foreign goods. Indians were urged to wear homespun clothes made from the new symbol of Indian freedom ‘the spinning wheel’. Throughout the campaign, Gandhi would not tolerate violence, which was later to be the major downfall on the non co-operation, because Muslims were unable to maintain non-violence and saw it as foolish. Soon the inevitable happened and in 1922 22 Indian policemen, employed by the British were hacked to death by Indians. For Gandhi, this was the end, the Satyagraha was called off. Gandhi was shortly after imprisoned for six years, due to his involvement in the non co-operation acts, and although the act was seen to be a failure; the imprisonment made Gandhi a Maytr.

Gandhi’s last campaign in this period took place in Ahmedabad, when in 1918, mill workers had been locked out by the owners when they refused to accept the withdrawal of a bonus that they had received due to a plague outburst. Hearing of the events, Gandhi went on a hunger strike or “fast” where he refused to eat any food until, the workers were let in and given their pay rise. The method was successful, because the owners were afraid he might die from a lack of food. There was a couple of major differences though from this campaign and the last two which were that this Satyagraha was aimed at Indians rather th

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