Glossary

Glossary

Amritsar: A city in the state of Punjab located in the northwestern part of India. It was here that the British massacred 400 men, women, and children relentlessly for gathering illegally.

 

Aparigraha: Equability, the idea to work without hope of success or fear of failure, which encouraged Gandhi to remain equanimous by victory, defeat, pain or pleasure.

 

Ashima: total non-violence

 

British East Indies Company: A British joint stock company that was charted by the British government to set up trading posts in India. Eventually it acted as a drug cartel to deliver opium to China.

 

Charkha: (in India and the East Indies) a cotton gin or spinning wheel.

 

Civil Rights Movement: A movement for equality before the law. During the 20th century, the USA had a civil rights movement pertaining to the racial discrimination of blacks.

 

Dhoti: a long loincloth worn by many Hindu men in India.

Khadi: Cloths that the Women’s Swadeshi League made and then were worn by the Indian people to protest the laws that forbade the production of cloth.

Raj: This is an Indian word for rule. The British Raj is a term used to describe the British’s conquest and control of India.

 

Rashtriya Stree SanghaA group of feminists fighting for women’s freedom and a woman's ability to work and fight for her nation.

 

Samabhava: Nonpossession, the idea that man had to boycott material goods that interfered with the life of the spirit and to dispose of the bonds of money and property.

 

Satyagraha: The non-violent, peaceful method which Gandhi developed and exercised, which often involved pain and suffering however resisting the adversary and fighting without violence.

 

 

Social Darwinism: A theory used by European nations in the late 19th century to justify the differences in races. It was based on Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, although Darwin did not approve of it. White was thought to be superior to the yellow, brown, red, or black races. 

 

Swadeshi: a political movement in British India advocated by Mahatma Gandhi that displayed active opposition, such as the encouragement of domestic production and the boycott of British goods, to the British Raj.

 

Swaraj: There are two meanings of swaraj. On a personal level, swaraj is self-control, the ability for one to attain self-rule. It was necessary for India to master the personal level of swaraj before India was worthy of having the political level of swaraj, independence from the British.   

  

Women's Swadeshi League: The league of women that put together groups who would make their own cloths and grow their own food to help protest against British nationalism.