Satyagraha is peaceful. If words fail to convince the adversary, purity, humility and honesty will. The opponent must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy. Weaned, not crushed; converted, not annihilated.

Acts of violence create brutality in victors and leave bitterness in survivors. Satyagraha seeks to elevate both sides to a higher level of sensibility. The Mahatma lived out this principle of satyagraha in his own life, from September 11, 1906, till the fanatic shot him dead.

For Gandhi, the satyagrahi bids goodbye to fear. He is never afraid of trusting the opponent. Indeed, an abiding trust in human nature is the very essence of his creed.

It was said that Gandhi borrowed this idea from Thoreau. Gandhi himself denied this. Thoreau’s idea was one of civil disobedience. Gandhi adopted the phrase ‘civil resistance’.

Gandhi took words and ideas seriously, and when he accepted an idea in principle he felt that not to practise it was dishonest. He asked himself the question: How can you believe in a moral or religious precept and not live it? For him, in the gulf between word and belief lay untruth. The dissonance between creed and deed is the root of innumerable wrongs in our civilisation.

It is quite appropriate to remember September 11 as the day on which the mighty US was shaken by the attack on the World Trade Centre at New York. It is said that this is ‘the day when the earth stood still’. But for Indians, September 11 must also be a reminder of the precepts and practice of Mahatma Gandhi. In fact the principle and practice of satyagraha can electrify not only India but the globe.

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