Santbal A Saint with a Difference

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Navjivan Prakashan Mandir

Page 89

This technic is explained in Shudhi Prayog Ke Safal Chitra (Successful Instances of Shuddhi Prayog) written by Shri Ambubhai Shah, a very close associate of Santbalji, who has devoted the whole of his life to the service of this cause. At p. 136 of this book he says:
“The programme and the nature of the resistance to injustice are to be determined after assessing the intensity, background, circumstances, time and place of injustice. Every type of injustice or exploitation amounts to violence. So the measure of nonviolent resistance should be determined after assessing the type of violence."
In justification of the social movement in preference to other alternative remedies he says:
"Generally speaking, four methods are available to us to redress the wrongs. One is the method to resort to violence. It is found, that if this method is adopted there is likelihood of some immediate relief. But the question does not get finally resolved by this method. On the contrary, it gets more complicated.
"Second method is to get relief through resort to legal proceedings. But this method has its own limitations. We often have experienced that legal remedies cannot reorganise the society....
“The third method is to utilise the moral power of the people. If we can organise the collective moral power of the society, we can surely lay the foundations of social revolution. But the basic requirement of social revolution is the acceptance by the society of the new values of life.... These new values can be established in the society by spiritual power."
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