With nothing but
Truth, Love, and Non-violent Collective Action as "weapons". Mahatma Gandhi sent the British Empire packing. For those of you who may not know, Mahatma wasn't Gandhi's first name. It was an honorific, given to Mohandas K. Gandhi by those he touched with his heart--and actions. It means Great Soul.He used the term Satyagraha to describe the Spiritual/ Political Practice of his Movement. In his own words:
"Truth (satya) implies love, and firmness (agraha) engenders and therefore serves as a synonym for force. I thus began to call the Indian movement Satyagraha, that is to say, the Force which is born of Truth and Love or non-violence, and gave up the use of the phrase “passive resistance.”
I have also called it love-force or soul-force. In the application of satyagraha, I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and compassion."
Sounds about right to me.
* From a quote by Winston Churchill.
"It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer of the type well-known in the East, now posing as a fakir, striding half naked up the steps of the Viceregal palace to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor. " -- Churchills' comment on a 1931 meeting between Gandhi and the Viceroy of India.
Sigh.
I'm sure Bull Connor had similar things to say about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Both these guys obviously needed to be "weaned from error" -- to say it politely. I'm going to Sit and try to cultivate some patience and compassion now before I say something stupid. LOL -- Brother Lefty
