Gandhi’s Wonder Years

Composer Philip Glass became famous--or infamous--when his minimalist opera "Einstein on the Beach" debuted in 1976. His second major work, "Satyagraha" (1979) is being staged with much fanfare at New York's grand Metropolitan Opera. "Satyagraha," which is actually part of a trilogy that includes "Einstein" and "Akhnaten," focuses on Mahatma Gandhi's politically formative years in South Africa. The production has received rave reviews for its music as well as its theatricality: giant puppets and props are made from humble materials like newspapers and corrugated metal. Glass, a decades-long devotee of Gandhi (and a Buddhist now himself), talked to NEWSWEEK's Vibhuti Patel. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Why did you choose "satyagraha" for the title?
Philip Glass: It's a Sanskrit word, coined by Mahatma Gandhi, meaning truth force or, the power of truth. Gandhi turned an idea into a word. He understood the power of communication: he'd started a newspaper in South Africa, which was mailed to India so everyone knew who he was when he returned. All modern political movements have borrowed from Gandhi. In America, his legacy reappears in the work of Martin Luther King. It transformed our country.

What inspired you to write this opera?
Having worked with Ravi Shankar, I visited India in 1967 to learn more about its culture. There, in a small-town cinema, I saw a clip of Gandhi's Salt March. To protest the British-imposed tax on salt that was hurting the poor, Gandhi marched to the sea and made salt. Thousands joined him on that long march. His charisma came through so clearly that I read his autobiography. I had no idea then about doing an opera.

But why in Sanskrit?
That's the language of the Bhagavad Gita, a discourse on the value of action, which Gandhi had memorized by pasting its passages on his shaving mirror. The Gita preaches activism--Gandhi was not passive; he preached not pacifism but nonviolent resistance. Also, the words in opera are not understood anyway. We project translations onstage. When I wrote the opera, I was moved by the violent state of the world. It never occurred to me that 30 years later, there could be so much more violence. China's engaged in a genocide of an entire nation, America is in Iraq. The opera is more relevant today than it ever was.

Gandhi was against industrialization. How would he react to today's technology and to global warming?
He would have marched! I am of the Vietnam generation when people marched in protest. Today's young stay home, on the Internet. That has to change. When young people understand that the power of change is in their hands, they'll take it. The idea of satyagraha applied to ecology is powerful. It's about nonviolence to the environment.

Ironically, Gandhi's ideas are largely ignored now in India, where the information technology boom and a 9 percent economic growth are results of industrialization.
Every industrialized country has to come to terms with that. The modern world is in the thrall of technology. We mustn't let it run rampant--it can be controlled. Developing countries first develop the technology, then they learn to control it. India is still in the early years of development. It will come to terms with this because protection of nature is part of its tradition.