6a. Introduction

In this module we will explore the ideas and actions of Mohandas K. Gandhi, often touted as the greatest and most influential peace thinker and activist of the 20th century. What makes him so famous? His accomplishments, of course; that he lived what he preached (‘walked the talk’); his small stature and simple lifestyle contrasted with the size of his ideas and movement. Among many tributes to Gandhi on his death was this one by physicist and pacifist Albert Einstein:

Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.¹

Gandhi responded to colonialism, and other conflicts in his country, with a philosophical platform of nonviolence and love of the enemy combined with tactics and methods that collectively represented noncooperation with an oppressive regime. He drew extensively on the ideas of Leo Tolstoy on nonviolence and of Henry David Thoreau on civil disobedience. In turn, many that followed Gandhi such as Gene Sharp and Martin Luther King Jr., modelled their own thinking and strategy on Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance towards British colonial rule of India.