Satyagraha: Nonviolent Resistance & Activism in Action
Satyagraha is a philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance developed by Mahatma Gandhi. The term comes from the Sanskrit words “satya,” meaning truth, and “agraha,” meaning insistence or holding firmly to. It involves the pursuit of truth and justice through peaceful means, including civil disobedience, noncooperation, and other forms of protest, without resorting to violence. The goal of satyagraha is to appeal to the conscience of the oppressor and to bring about social or political change through moral conviction and self-sacrifice. It’s a powerful method that has inspired numerous movements for civil rights and social justice around the world.
The Steps Involved in Satyagraha
1. Identify the Injustice: Recognize & define the oppressive system or law that violates moral principles.
2. Negotiation: Attempt peaceful negotiations with the oppressors to resolve the issue without conflict.
3. Self-Purification: Prepare spiritually & mentally, ensuring participants are ready to resist nonviolently, even in the face of provocation.
4. Nonviolent Action: Engage in peaceful protests, noncooperation, strikes, or civil disobedience without resorting to violence.
5. Endure Suffering: Accept suffering as part of the struggle, while maintaining the commitment to nonviolence. Endurance is seen as a way to awaken the moral conscience of the oppressors.
6. Achieve Resolution: The goal is not to defeat the opponent but to transform them, creating a just & harmonious society.
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
-Martin Luther King Jr
Through performative art, activism and social justice efforts, I THRIVE's creator Heather Curtis MD utilized Satyagraha as our chosen mode of nonviolent resistance to advocate for mental health reform, psychedelic and psychiatric ethics, as well as survivor safety in Utah 2020-2024.
These efforts were successful in raising awareness regarding abuses occurring in the Utah mental health community as well as in securing investigations into a series of ethics violations completed by various mental health care providers in Utah resulting in significant community harms. These efforts led to community dialogue and changes in our mental health community that are on course to improve patient, provider, and survivor safety in Utah moving forward.
I THRIVE's efforts were modeled after some of our favorite activists, mentors, and teachers who have similarly employed these methods in their work, advocacy, and social justice efforts. Take a peek below to learn a little more about the history of Satyagraha, as well as our teachers, and guides in this process.
A Selected History of Satyagraha
In honor of our thought leaders, our nation's activists, and my teachers and guides in this process.
"The changes in our life must come from the impossibility to live otherwise than according to the demands of our conscience not from our mental resolution to try a new form of life."
-Leo Tolstoy (Quoted in Tolstoy's Letters: 1880-1910, 1978)