Acts 1 2 and 3-The second in Glass' trilogy about men who changed the world Satyagraha's sub-text is politics. The opera is semi-narrative in form and deals with Mahatma Gandhi's early years in South Africa and his development of non-violentprotest into a political tool. (Satyagraha is a Sanskrit word meaning 'truth force'). The first two acts each contain three scenes; the last is one continuous scene. Each act is dominated by a single historic figure (non-singingrole) overlooking the action from above: the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore in Act I the Russian author Leo Tolstoy in act II the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Act III