Satyagraha : The Stirrings
A Miniature Sheet consisting of 4 nos of commemorative postage stamps on the Centenary of Satyagraha, a particular form of non-violent resistance or civil resistance :
Issued by India
Issued on Oct 2, 2007
Issued for : The Department of Posts is happy to issue a set of four commemorative postage stamps on the occasion of centenary of Satyagraha which portrays the stirrings of Satyagraha in a beautiful and inspiring depiction.
Credits :
Stamp & FDC : Sankha Samanta
Cancellation : Alka Sharma
Type : Miniature Sheet, Mint Condition
Colour : Multi Colour
Denomination : 500 Paise each
Stamps Printed : 0.8 Million each
Miniature Sheet : 0.2 Million
Printing Process : Photogravure
Printer : India Security Press, Nasik
About :
- Satyagraha is the philosophy of non-violent resistance most famously employed by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in forcing an end to the British Raj in India, beginning with his struggles in South Africa. It was in South Africa in 1893 that Gandhiji conceived of Satyagraha, which he defined as the technique of mass force based on truth and moved by non-violence.
- The technique was not born full-grown, it was developed and refined with each application, first in South Africa and later in India, as a moral response to violence, and which has subsequently spread around the world. A tactic that ultimately impelled the British to free India, this technique was first put to the test on 11 September, 1906, before a gathering of more than three thousand people “of the coloured race” who had gathered at the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa to listen to a young Indian lawyer Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who had promised to show the path of redemption to the oppressed of the world. And the path was Satyagraha.
- Satyagraha was an important constituent of Gandhi‘s programmes of national self-purification. When he started campaigning against the racially discriminatory measures in South Africa, Gandhi discovered that his countrymen there lacked personal and communal self-respect, courage and the willingness to organize themselves. In a memorable phrase he urged them to ‘rebel‘ against themselves. This call initiated the stirrings.
- Mahatma Gandhi coined the term Satyagraha to describe his philosophy of non-violent resistance, and he described it, thus : “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.“
- The special set of commemorative stamps is dedicated to the spirit of Satyagraha. It should make us pause to reflect on how a colossal revolution took place in India without the violence attached to revolutions that occurred in other countries of Asia and Africa and to turn the search light on oneself to find an alternative to violence, which threatens to destroy the very fabric of civilized existence.
- Text : Based on material provided by the proponent.
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