Gandhi

Diana Magnani
September 16, 2012
Professor Middleton

Strengths and Weaknesses of Satyagraha

        Satyagraha is a practice set forth by Gandhi.  It emphasizes the importance of self-sacrifice and self-suffering.  Many people have compared Satyagraha to the practices of civil disobedience and passive resistance.  In this chapter from Gandhi's book, Gandhi makes a clear distinction between passive resistance and Satyagraha. Passive resistance allows for the use of brute physical force for the purpose of reaching the end of a protest; Styagraha, on the other hand, excludes the use of violence in any shape or form for any conceivable purpose.  This, as well as the other core tenants of Gandhi's teachings make it very controversial in terms of its effectiveness.  There are many strengths and weaknesses with the practice of Satyagraha. This blog is intended to further explore the strengths and weaknesses with the practice.
        One of the biggest strengths of Satyagraha is that it quickly draws a lot of attention and sympathy to the protesters, thus drawing attention to the cause.  Satyagraha is intended to inflict only self-suffering.  If you were walking down the street and watched a group of peaceful protesters being arrested, would you stop to see what they are so gratefully giving up their rights for? Most of us would, and Gandhi knew this and used ti to his advantage.  Another strength is that Satyagraha is a great way to get your point across without doing harm to any person or property.  It might not be as efficient as scorched earth policy, but it peacefully gets the job done.
       One major weakness of Satyagraha is that it takes a much longer time to get noticed than any form of violent protesting.  For example, if one man was sitting on the corner with a sign saying that he demands fewer taxes, and another man was standing at the opposite corner with a machine gun saying that he demands lower taxes, chances are the man with the sign would not be looked at twice while the machine gun wielding man would be taken notice of right away.  The same logic applies to Gandhi. It probably would have been more efficient, and maybe more successful, to go with a more violence ridden approach to his protests, however, being more successful doesn't necessarily mean it is the better thing to do.  Gandhi valued morality over desires, and he was more concerned with the right thing than the most successful thing.
       Overall, there are both strengths and weaknesses within Satyagraha.  I believe that it is always better to take a non-violence approach to almost anything; however, I am aware that being non-violent may be taking the longer route.  I, like Gandhi, would rather put my head on my pillow at night knowing that I did the right thing by humanity than the right thing by my desires.