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 Sangha: A 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.