WHAT IS MEANT BY THE IDEA OF SATAYA GRAPHA / EXPLAIN
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Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915. He had come from South Africa where he had successfully fought the racist regime with a novel method of mass agitation, which he called satyagrah. The idea of satyagrah emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for truth. It suggested that if the cause was true, if the struggle was against injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor. Without seeking vengeance or being aggressive, a satyagrahi could win the battle through non-violence. This could be done by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor. People - including the oppressors - had to be persuaded to see the truth, instead of being forced to accept truth through the use of violence. By this struggle, truth was bound to ultimately triumph. Mahatma Gandhi believed that this Dharma of non-violence could unite all the Indians.
After arriving in India, Mahatma Gandhi successfully organised satyagrah movements in various places. In 1916 he travelled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle against the oppressive plantation system. Then in 1917, he organised a satyagrah to support the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat. Affected by crop failure and plague epidemic, the peasants of Kheda could not pay the revenue, and were demanding that revenue collection be relaxed. In 1918 , Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmedabad to organise a satyagrah movement amongst cotton mill workers.