'Satyagraha the Root of Global Peace’ is reflected in Indian novels in English’

Indian Writing is soaked in to the colours of the ‘Satyagraha’ and the ‘Prominent movement for the liberation of the soul’ which has the root of the Global Peace. It reflects not only the mass courage but also the burning desire of getting back the birth right of the Nation which they belong and in which they exist, having dreams and acts of becoming human being with the whole meaning for which one gets birth. ‘Satyagraha’ is the Sanskrit word which divides the two extreme valuable meanings ‘Satya’ means ‘Truth’ and ‘Agraha’ means the ‘ Hold firmly’. Gandhiji himself said this ‘Satyagraha’ is as the ‘Soul force’. Satyagraha is also concerned with the ‘Universal Force’. Essentially it doesn’t make any difference between the child and an adult, men and women, rich and poor. Satyagraha seeks to eliminate without harming the antagonists. Gandhian Satyagraha revealed the aim of treating the enemy too with, peace and compassion. Satyagraha doesn’t mean of presenting the ‘self’ as weak but something with firmness that can never be demolished but grows more like inner fire of soul. Global peace can be achieved through the inculcation of the creative virtues like compassion, mercy, moderation, modesty, forgiveness and non-violence. Global peace doesn’t mean the absence of violence or removing of violence and all kinds of the disturbances such as war, environmental destructions, violation of human rights, cruelty against women and children, exploitation and oppression of the weak and poor and illiterate but replacement of all these through the equality domination by autonomy.

Mahatma Gandhi was a key to the revolutions of our time, which took place in different continents. Gandhi alone offered hope for reform both within and without, physical and spiritual, without destruction. Gandhi brought the unbroken and unforgettable revolution in that age which was called the age of imperialism. The most potent legacy Gandhi left for India is the technique of Satyagraha. There was in this instrument of action power to effect change. Satyagraha had become the cry of all those who felt aggrieved and popular agitation however organized and whatever their objectives were widely described as “Satyagraha movement”.

The word ‘Satyagraha’ is derived from ‘Sat’ means ‘Truth’ which means being and nothing is or exist in reality except truth. And ‘Agraha’ means ‘ Hold firmly’. It is the force of soul which positively leads the person to get the justice by the excess of faith and tolerance. ‘Sat’- which implies openness, honesty and firmness of truth. Ahimsa is the root of Satyagraha which means refuse to injury on others. ‘Satyagraha’ is like ‘Tapasya’ the willingness of self sacrifice. Mahatma Gandhi himself believed that ‘Satyagraha’ is the search of ‘Satya’ the ‘Truth’ which doesn’t admit of violence being inflected on one’s opponent but he must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy. ‘Satyagraha’ is the relentless search for the Truth which needs the total devotion and determination of one’s self.

Global Peace is the Earthly Peace. In the modern time this seems too difficult to gain because the world is passing through the crucial traumas of terrorism, environmental destructions, gender unequality, social political religious and the communal riots, the cruelty towards the mankind, exploitation of their life and the destroy of their values and the ideals, the rather uncertainty of the human life depicts the Global Peace as something seems imaginatory matter and a kind of illusion yet not impossible to be built up and designed out. Global Peace is not something can be achieved by the removal of the violence or the absence of the disturbing issues but something can be replaced by the healthy approach, development of the creative virtues like compassion, mercy, moderation , modesty, forgiveness, generosity and the non-violence. Gandhian Satyagraha is transparently related to the mental peace of the mankind which is the ultimately destination of the Global Peace. That peace by which the human race can live peacefully and grow widely with lots of creativity. Satyagraha means the voice of the soul that has been followed by any rate which can’t be pressed hidden or suppressed by force.

Global Peace highly concerned with the achievement when the exploitation and the discrimination will be replaced by the equality domination by autonomy, fragmentation by solidarity, marginalization by participation in policy-making and vertical relationship among the Nations and horizontal relationship. Although Mahatma Gandhi was not the originator of the principle of non-violence, he was the first to apply it in the field of politics on a large scale. The concept of ‘Ahimsa’ and non-resistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Jewish and Christian context. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth he quoted as : “ When I despair, I remember that all through the history the way of Truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fell—think of it always.”

“What a difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?”

“There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.”

Mahatma Gandhi himself believed that science of war leads one to dictatorship, pure and simple. The science of non-violence can lead one to pure democracy...power based on love is thousand times more effective and permanent than the power derived from the fear of punishment.... it is a blasphemy to say non-violence can be practiced only by individuals and not by nations which are composed of individuals...the closest approach to purest anarchy is the democracy based on non-violence and a society can be as the purest anarchy. However Gandhi realised that this level of Non-violence required incredible faith and courage which can’t be possessed by each and everyone as it were used as a cover for cowardice. Gandhi guarded against attracting to his Satyagraha movement those who feared to take up arms or felt themselves incapable of resistance “I do believe that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advice violence.” Satyagraha is like combating against the opponents not by harming him but by force to surrender and stop what he does wrong.

Gandhian period is recognised as the Gandhian Era of the freedom movement. The literature itself had become the medium of reflection of the Gandhian ideals, thought, views, principles, attitude of life and approach towards the Nation. Indian writing in English has largely focused on the impact of Gandhian ideals and their impacts in the Indian society on the people of India. Writers like Raja Rao, Mulkraj Anand deeply focused the prominent movement of India. India passed through the evaluation time period, having the struggle of independence against the British Imperialism. Raja Rao’s Kanthapura is the reflection of the leaving breathing freedom movement having the realistic picture of the Indian Society. Kanthapura is the story of the impact of Mahatma Gandhi and Satyagraha movement on a small south Indian village which is a microcosm of rural India. The legendry story of the legendry struggle for liberation is shown through this novel. The time of writing this novel is 1920 to 1930s when Mahatma Gandhi was the pivotal figure in India’s struggle for freedom. The freedom started for the right of liberation, with the means of Satyagraha to lead the Global peace of the whole Nation but Rao has given the true picture of the reality concerned with the hostility between village folk and the British colonial authority at a time when colonialism had become intensely heavy-handed in its responses to the Civil Disobedience Movement. Rao’s novel has the specific impact in the Indian Writing, especially focuses on the cultural tract which rewrites true history against the “inauthentic” historical accounts by the European. Satyagraha is a mass movement which shows the one voice of non-corporation, fight for the equal right which resembles the equal aims and motives. Kanthapura evokes that sense of community and freedom, construed as a spiritual quality which overcomes all bounds and barriers. Gandhiji believed that Satyagraha is that power which doesn’t keep any barriers for any caste, creed, breed, religion but it is something related to mental status. Gandhi himself was the supreme communicator who brought the ignorant out of the doors; make illiterate sing one song, gather all the women at a venue and make children chant his name as God, at his single call. Satyagraha brought the huge change in terms of the strong revolution in terms of women who, from centuries were kept under the four walls, without education and kept silent, were summoned to come out and take part in the Satyagraha because Gandhi believed that women have much more potential inner power, having strong inner elf desires which can help a lot to lead the Satyagraha strongly without fail. Under the term of Satyagraha Gandhi motivated social reforms-‘nagri sabhas’, ‘pathsalas’(vernacular schools), ‘gaushalas’(asylums for cattle), ‘sewa samities’(social services leagues) and ‘sudrak sabhas’(reform associations) of various sorts provided the support and cover for nationalist activity all baked by popular Gandhi belief even in the rural villages and undeveloped regions. Satyagraha was the call for the independence both individually and of mass from the force of imperialism. Yoga, Bhajans, chanting of God’s name,Yagya, Meditation, Spreading of education , make women aware of their strength , Ramlilas and melas all these are related with the Satyagraha which gives strength to the human being, and Gandhi did so even supported so and the people accepted that with whole heart. Gandhi was considered as the sage of the Indian Satyagraha. The inspiration and influence which our literature of all languages have imbibe from him is well noted in the theatre , folk, activities and literary writings based on his life, preaching, and ideologies and of course his welfare activities nationwide. Characters like Murthappa (hero of Kanthapura), Rangamma and Ratna followed Gandhian path of Satyagraha even though they didn’t faced Gandhi. They empowered the women education by reading newspapers, meditations, preaching, women folk of the village who went on chanting stories and singing songs about the Mahatma without even properly understanding them; such is the scene in R.K Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma, where we find the hero Sriram who is a blind follower of Gandhiji and joining the freedom movement but not at all understanding what Gandhian is actually about. The force of soul worked in the real sense of the Indians because the Indians never stopped once they joined in to the Satyagraha and who still remained Gandhian even if their leader left them or their landlords exploited them or the Sahibs put them behind the bars.

In R.K Narayan’s The Vendor of Sweet, Jagan considers himself a staunch Satyagrahi, spin charkha regularly, and equates himself by achieving Nirvana like Buddha by following the path of Gandhi and the principles of Gandhi. In Kanthapura too Moorthy faced a lot of beating and harassing by the police. He too go on fasting. He gives Spinning Wheel to everyone to spin Khadi and giving them cotton free by the help of the Congress league. He gathered people for preaching, singing bhajans and listening the effect of Satyagraha in the whole Nation and the influence of Gandhi. He goes to the Sudra people’s home, take milk and food too at their home. He sprays knowledge among them and tries to spray the equality and breaking the curse of untouchability. In Kanthapura, Jayramchar tells the Harikatha and while telling that he addressed Gandhi as the Krishna and Rama who killed the demon just as Mahatma began to fight against the demon called Britishers. He says about Gandhiji that..... “Love all, says he.....He is a saint, the Mahatma, a wise man and a soft man, and a saint. You know how he fasts and prays. And his enemies fall at his feet.” (p.18).Satyagraha had become like self consciousness, the reawakening of the people from their life and towards their existence. It is the greatest weave of cleaning the dirt from the mind of people to remove the curse of untouchability, inequality, oppression of the outcastes or the low castes and make them equal.

Indian history never saw such an upsurge of faith, unity in action, united will, community feelings and social development, without any expensive spending as in the Gandhian age from the grass root level. Satyagraha doesn’t marginalize the role of women but highlights their individual contributions. The police beat them mercilessly, rape them, burnt their houses, exploit them yet they stick over the Satyagraha. The village community moves from an insulated towards the National identity. Satyagraha had become the global struggle for the global peace and the global right, in this novel.

Peace is something related to the inner state of mind. Peace must be understood in all its dimensions, theoretically differentiated as personal or mental peace such as inner state of calm or tranquillity, social peace, the state of social justice and development. Peace at national state of stability progress and freedom from civil disorder. Peace is indivisible and has to be global it has to be established on an enduring basis. It must be global because it is the foundation of the mankind.

Mental peace reveals a state of unshakable quiet and composure which is cultivated through friendliness love, compassion, mercy, moderation, forgiveness, non-violence etc... Most of these virtues imply that “peace carries with it a surpassing of personality” or abandonment of egoism. Today the world is passing through the critical crises such as terrorism, population-explosion, denial of human rights, economics inequality, racial discrimination , vanity of cultural superiority, ideological extremism, religious intolerance, nationalism, social injustice, poverty , starvation exploitation of nature, oppression of weaker ,section by powerful and rich, ecological imbalance, natural calamities which are not natural. We live in the world of cruelty, torture and violence. The issue of global peace is highly related to each one of the world. Global peace is mutually dependent on the global ethics which is quite dependent on politicians, scholars, philosophers, religious authorities, thinkers, median military personnel, scientists, as well as ordinary citizens of the world.

Peace is something that comes through the inner that can be felt in to inner. So inner self should be fulfilled with the positivity, healthy and the healthy understanding which can be come through the education. Education makes the understanding clear that “what is right and what is wrong?” Both Satyagraha and the global peace is inter connected terms with each other. Both related to the peace and something firm as peace of soul. But in the present time Satyagraha is considered as the term of weakness where the calm and silent person is considered as the coward. And that who doesn’t reply of the attack is beaten the more or attacked the more. To have peace in every walk of life, we must educate ourselves and others in ideal of human conduct, for ultimately man himself is the insurmountable barriers in the accomplishment of peace, since alternatives of war and peace, of progress and regress , of construction and deconstruction are matter of human choice; they are not the historical phenomenal choices. “To have knowledge of virtues” is not sufficient but “To be virtue” is more important. The vices should be denounced.

Global peace can be brought through the comprehending of mind alike and by having one agreement united together which will spray the peace for permanent time period and the happiness too. The Indian writing in English reflects the both terms under the impact of Gandhian Era where the virtues of peace were seeded in the minds of Indians.