Mahatma Gandhi named his principle of disciplined nonviolent resistance to injustice satyagraha.
The term was coined in South Africa in 1906 during opposition to discriminatory legislation affecting the Indian community. Gandhi wanted a name that expressed more than passive resistance. Satyagraha is commonly translated as “truth-force” or “truth firmness,” combining satya, meaning truth, with agraha, meaning firmness or insistence.
For Gandhi, satyagraha required participants to reject violence, accept personal suffering, and remain committed to truth rather than seek to injure an opponent. Civil disobedience could be part of satyagraha, but the broader method also involved persuasion, self-discipline, openness, and willingness to accept legal penalties.
Ahimsa, or nonviolence, was a central ethical foundation of Gandhi’s thought, but it is not the name of the complete resistance method. Swadeshi referred to reliance on locally produced goods, while sarvodaya described the welfare or uplift of all. Those related terms therefore do not provide the single answer asked for here.