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Satyagraha and disability rights: By Zan Thornton (An activist with Georgia Adapt)
Our travels to the 12 stops on our trip revealed to us Satyagraha (“Soul force”, which comes from “Satya”, meaning truth or love, and “Graha” meaning firmness or force). It involves acting for what you believe to be the truth, even when you are beaten down by opposition. Satyagraha’s key is the willingness to accept suffering or discomforts such as arrest or jail or even the effort of working on the issues all painstaking tasks. This self–sacrifice, said Gandhi, arouses the opponent’s conscience and finally causes a change of heart. More often it arouses public opinion in favor of the “Sufferers”.

Each of the 12 communities (“Ashrams”) we visited focused on economic independence creating services or jobs, no matter the disability or caste. Each Gandhian group welcomed us warmly with much dahl and rice, their typical food. Each reflected the independent living philosophy of advocacy, peer support, and skills training. Gandhian tradition requires these plus interdependency. “If it is man’s privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to be inter–dependent”, Gandhi said. “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will”.

Managed mostly by men with disabilities, these communities let people with disabilities live a full life, included in celebrations and religious practices and with plenty to eat. Baba Amte’s Ashram contained mostly people called “Inmates” with disabilities people with leprosy, deaf people, blind people and others seeking refuge.

Society forces people with disabilities into these self–contained but often self–run communities (thus the word inmate), unlike these “Lucky inmates”, most Indian people with disabilities are viewed as “A fate worse than death“ and outside these havens, people with disabilities, like the untouchable: caste, are openly discriminated against, humiliated, and often abused.

Read more: Article by Zan Thorton