Satyagraha: The Highest Practise of Democracy and Freedom

Abstract

Satyagraha, or non-cooperation or passive resistance, did not begin with Mahatma Gandhi. As Gandhi acknowledged, he did not ‘invent’ satyagraha, he learnt it from the people of India. The contemporary movements against apartheid, separation on the basis of religion and race, are a continuation of the spirit of Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. For Gandhi, satyagraha, the force of truth, was the force not to cooperate with unjust laws that called for a ‘no’ from our deepest conscience. The Champaran Satyagraha against the forced cultivation of indigo and the Salt Satyagraha against the colonial salt law inspired us at Navdanya to start the Bija Satyagraha, which is the Seed Freedom Movement. These seeds have been given freely by nature and by our ancestors who have evolved them. It is our duty to save them and our biodiversity. Navdanya does not cooperate with laws that falsely claim that corporations have ‘invented’ seeds and therefore can take a patent on them: such unconscionable laws aim to criminalise a farmer’s saving and robs them of their seed freedom.