NDA (I & II) 2020 GAT Q82: Where did Gandhiji initially forge the techniques of

Q: What is the answer to NDA (I & II) 2020 GAT Q82?

B. Correct — B, South Africa. Gandhi developed and first practised Satyagraha — his method of non-violent resistance — in South Africa between 1906 and 1914, while fighting discriminatory laws against Indians (notably the 1906 anti-registration 'Black Act' in the Transvaal). He coined the term Satyagraha there before bringing the technique to India in 1915.

NDA (I & II) 2020 General Ability Test · Question 82 of 148

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

Where did Gandhiji initially forge the techniques of Satyagraha?

(a)England
(b)South Africa
(c)North Africa
(d)India

Answer

Why

Correct — B, South Africa. Gandhi developed and first practised Satyagraha — his method of non-violent resistance — in South Africa between 1906 and 1914, while fighting discriminatory laws against Indians (notably the 1906 anti-registration 'Black Act' in the Transvaal). He coined the term Satyagraha there before bringing the technique to India in 1915.

Why the others are wrong

(a)England — Gandhi studied law in London (1888–91), but he did not develop Satyagraha there; England shaped his early ideas, not his method of mass resistance.
(c)North Africa — Gandhi's African years were spent in South Africa (Natal and the Transvaal), not North Africa, which has no connection with the origin of Satyagraha.
(d)India — Gandhi brought Satyagraha to India only after 1915 — Champaran (1917) was his first Indian Satyagraha, so India is where he applied the technique, not where he forged it.

Concept

Satyagraha — literally 'insistence on truth' — is Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent civil resistance. It was born of his two-decade struggle for the rights of Indians in South Africa, where he led campaigns such as the resistance to the Transvaal registration law and founded the Phoenix and Tolstoy settlements.

The distractors track Gandhi's biography. Fix the timeline — London (study), South Africa (Satyagraha forged, 1893–1914), India (Satyagraha applied, from 1915). 'Initially forged' points to South Africa.

Key facts

Gandhi lived in South Africa from 1893 to 1914 and developed Satyagraha there.
The term was coined during the 1906 campaign against the Transvaal 'Black Act'.
He founded the Phoenix Settlement (Natal, 1904) and Tolstoy Farm (Transvaal, 1910).
His first Satyagraha in India was at Champaran, Bihar, in 1917.

Mohandas K. Gandhi as a young lawyer in South Africa, c. 1906 — Gandhi forged the technique of Satyagraha during his two decades in South Africa before returning to India in 1915.Image: Unknown · Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Study next

Champaran, Kheda and Ahmedabad Satyagrahas (1917–18)Gandhi's South African campaigns and the Natal Indian CongressPrinciples of Satyagraha and AhimsaNon-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience MovementsGandhi's autobiography 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth'

Common traps

Choosing India by confusing where Satyagraha was forged with where it was first applied (Champaran).
Assuming his London study years produced the method.

Gandhi questions test the sequence of his life and movements — remember that South Africa is where Satyagraha began.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2000_GS1_Q802000Open & attempt →

After returning from South Africa, Gandhiji launched his first successful Satyagraha in

(a) Chauri-Chaura
(b) Dandi
(c) Champaran
(d) Bardoli

Answer(c) Champaran

Same storyline — Gandhi's Satyagraha. The UPSC item begins 'after returning from South Africa', which is exactly the place this question identifies as the origin of the technique.

NDA_GAT_2019_II_Q1072019Open & attempt →

Which among the following struggles, based on Gandhi's philosophy of Satyagraha, involved the industrial working class?

(a) Champaran
(b) Kheda
(c) Ahmedabad
(d) Bardoli

Answer(c) Ahmedabad

Same concept — Gandhi's Satyagraha campaigns. That NDA item tests an Indian application (the Ahmedabad mill strike), the method Gandhi had first forged in South Africa.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Gandhi coined the term 'Satyagraha' during his struggle in which country?
- (a)India
- (b)South Africa
- (c)England
- (d)Kenya
Answer(b) South Africa — during the 1906 anti-registration campaign in the Transvaal.
practice — not a real PYQ
Gandhi's first Satyagraha in India (1917) was launched at
- (a)Kheda
- (b)Champaran
- (c)Bardoli
- (d)Ahmedabad
Answer(b) Champaran — against indigo planters in Bihar.