the policy of nonviolent resistance adopted by Mahatma Gandhi from about 1919 to oppose British rule in India
any movement of nonviolent resistance
1915–20; < Hindi, equivalent to Sanskrit satya truth + āgraha strong attachment, persistence
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It was on a ministry mission to India in the ’50s that Lawson learned about Satyagraha, the method of resistance through nonviolence, developed by Mahatma Gandhi.
From Slate ● Dec. 22, 2020
Satyagraha, which presumed a basic commitment to dialogue on all sides, was likely to be impotent against Nazism or any other genocidal ideology.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 15, 2018
Satyagraha LA Opera mounts the Philip Glass opera about Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi’s years as a young attorney in turn-of-the-last-century South Africa; Grant Gershon conducts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2018
When all the elements and the singers are balanced, like in the superb Carsen Onegin, or the recent Satyagraha, we are in for true magic.
From New York Times ● Dec. 28, 2017
A person who believes in Satyagraha will not fight physically, but instead resists through his or her own inner courage, knowing he might be jailed or beaten.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
Sakshi Malik has not hesitated to compare their marches with those of Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent anti-colonialism, labeling their struggle as a form of satyagraha.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2023
The march ignited a major campaign of civil disobedience, and focused international attention on Gandhi and his advocacy of satyagraha, or nonviolent resistance.
From New York Times ● Jan. 30, 2023
Gandhi calls his particular doctrine satyagraha, or embodying or holding to the truth.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022
Gandhi claimed that those engaged in satyagraha were “true warriors,” fearless enough to never resort to arms—as opposed to the cowards driven by fear to violence.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 15, 2018
When the party voted to approve the "Quit India" resolution, demanding immediate independence and launching a satyagraha civil-disobedience campaign in support of that goal, the British responded by going after Gandhi.
From Time ● Aug. 9, 2017
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
