Religion: Courage Without Anger

The young Indian held a first-class ticket, but the guard ordered him to sit on the floor. When the Indian politely refused, the guard began to beat him furiously. The Indian showed no anger, made no attempt to defend himself, but he stuck to his seat.

This incident on a South African coach in 1893 foreshadowed a movement that has since made history. The young Indian was Mohandas Gandhi, and the nonviolent resistance he was practicing later became a mighty weapon for a weaponless people. To Gandhi himself, nonviolence was much more than a weapon; it was part of a religious way of life which he called Satyagraha. In a short book published this week—Satyagraha (Henry Regnery, $2)—Gandhi Disciple Ranganath R. Diwakar explains this philosophy to Western readers.

The word Satyagraha is Sanskrit in origin—a combination of satya (truth) and agraha (insistence). Gandhi's passion for truth was evident from the beginning of his life. Truth, he once wrote, "became my sole objective." The only way to approach that objective was through love. Evil must always be opposed, but not by making the evildoer suffer. Rather, one must influence the evildoer to change his ways by undergoing suffering oneself—even, if need be, unto death.

For those unable to drink of this heroic cup, violence is preferable to cowardly submission. "When there is choice between cowardice and violence," said Gandhi, "I advise violence ... I cultivate the quiet courage of dying without killing. But to him who has not this courage I advise that of killing and being killed, rather than of shamefully fleeing from danger."

One of the strongest influences in leading Gandhi toward Satyagraha was the New Testament. Said he: "When I read in the Sermon on the Mount such passages as 'Resist not him that is evil, but whosoever smiteth thee on thy cheek turn to him the other also' ... I was simply overjoyed . . ." Gandhi once wrote that a living faith in nonviolence "is impossible without a living faith in God. A nonviolent man can do nothing save by the power and grace of God. Without it he won't have the courage to die without anger, without fear and without retaliation."