In 1909, Gandhi published Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule, where he argued that British rule in India could only exist because Indians helped maintain it. He believed that without both the active support of certain groups and the quiet acceptance of the wider population, the British could not control a country as large and populated as India. Gandhi stressed that non-violence was essential in resisting not only the British but any unfair and oppressive government. A violent revolution, he argued, would only lead to an Indian government that copied the British system, leaving people under the same kind of oppression.

Gandhi encouraged large civil boycotts of British goods, courts, schools and honorific titles. These acts rejected British economic, political and social control. He understood that if millions of Indians refused to cooperate peacefully, the British would struggle to maintain their power, and any harsh response from them would only unite Indians further and damage Britain’s reputation internationally.

His most famous protest was the Salt March in 1930, which targeted the British salt monopoly, a basic necessity for everyone in India. Gandhi marched about 240 miles to the coast over 24 days, gathering tens of thousands of supporters, and picked up natural salt from the shore to break the Salt Act. Gandhi and many others were arrested, but the worldwide attention the march received weakened British authority and helped pave the way for India’s independence in 1947.

Gandhi’s philosophy would go on to inspire many other civil rights activists such as MLK junior and Nelson Mandela.