Events were so shaping themselves in Johannesburg as to make this self-purfication
on my part a preliminary as it were to Satyagraha. I can now see
that all the principal events of my life, culminating in the vow of brahmacharya,
were secretly preparing me for it. The principle called Satyagraha
came into being before that name was invented. Indeed when it was
born, I myself could not say what it was. In Gujarati also we used
the English phrase 'passive resistance' to describe it. When in a
meeting of Europeans I found that the term 'passive resistance' was
too narrowly construed, that it was supposed to be a weapon of the
weak, that it could be characterized by hatred, and that it could
finally manifest itself as violence, I had to demur to all these
statements and explain the real nature of the Indian movement. It
was clear that a new word must be coined by the Indians to designate
their struggle.
But I could not for the life of me find out a new
name, and therefore offered a nominal prize through Indian Opinion
to the reader who made the best suggestion on the subject. As a
result Maganlal Gandhi coined the word Sadagraha (Sat: truth, Agraha:
firmness) and won the prize. But in order to make it clearer
I changed the word to Satyagraha which has since become current in
Gujarati as a designation for the struggle.
The history of this struggle is for all practical purposes a history
of the remainder of my life in South Africa and especially of my
experiments with truth in that sub-continent. I wrote the major
portion of this history in Yeravda jail and finished it after I was
released. It was published in Navajivan and subsequently issued in book form. Sjt. Valji Govindji Desai has
been translating it into English for Current Thought,
but I am now arranging to have the English translation1 published in
book form at an early date, so that those who will may be able to
familiarize themselves with my most important experiments in South
Africa. I would recommend a perusal of my history of Satyagraha in
South Africa to such readers as have not seen it already. I will not
repeat what I have put down there, but in the next few chapters will
deal only with a few personal incidents of my life in South Africa
which have not been covered by that history. And when I have done
with these, I will at once proceed to give the reader some idea of
my experiments in India. Therefore, anyone who wishes to consider
these experiments in their strict chronological order will now do
well to keep the history of Satyagraha in South Africa before him.