Satyagraha is an opera by Philip Glass (1980), loosely based on the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi. It is the second part of a trilogy of operas, his "Portrait Trilogy," which also includes Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten. Some of the text is from the Bhagavad Gita, and is sung in the original Sanskrit. In performance, translation is usually provided in supertitles.
The opera is in three acts, each referencing a major related cultural figure:
I. Tolstoy
On the Kuru Field of Justice
Tolstoy Farm (1910)
The Vow (1906)
II. Tagore
Confrontation and Rescue (1896)
Indian Opinion (1906)
Protest (1908)
III. King
Newcastle March (1913)
The title of the opera, Satyagraha, refers to Gandhi's concept of non-violent resistance to injustice.
Satyagraha was premiered at the Municipal Theatre of Rotterdam on September 5, 1980, by the Nederlands Opera. In 1981 it was performed by the Stuttgart Opera; they went on to perform the complete trilogy in 1990.
Satyagraha is the philosophy of nonviolent resistance most famously employed by Mohandas Gandhi in forcing an end to the British Raj and also against apartheid in South Africa.
Satyagraha, to be genuine, may be offered against parents, against one's wife or one's children, against rulers, against fellow-citizens, even against the whole world.
I often used 'passive resistance' and 'satyagraha' as synonymous terms: but as the doctrine of satyagraha developed, the expression 'passive resistance' ceases even to be synonymous, as passive resistance has admitted of violence as in the case of suffragettes and has been universally acknowledged to be a weapon of the weak.
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