Satyagraha

Gandhi was a hypocrite when it comes to his methods of soul force on occasion. This is to be expected be cause he was only human and his methods of nonviolence were not perfect. “As was to be expected, Gandhi’s political realism triumphed over his moral idealism, and, despite his claims to the contraty, his satyāgrahas were not always purely spiritual in nature” (Parekh, 71). Political realism causes all sorts of tarnishes to ideals when they confront each other. The political pressure induced by work stoppages, and economic issues which Ghandi raised are very effective, but none of them had the strength of the ture satyāgraha which Gandhi tried to use; they were not based upon the power of love. Does this hurt Gandhi’s motives or the strength of his work? No, he merely used what was effective and nonviolent; the true force behind all of them does not matter as long as certain lines are not crossed. In that respect, Gandhi certainly did the right thing.