Gandhi and Nonviolent Resistance

British authorities had been extolling the virtues of parliamentary government for over a century, yet Indians were excluded from participation.
In 1919, the British slightly enlarged the franchise in India and allowed more local self-government, but these moves did not satisfy Indians' nationalist longings.
During the 1920s and 1930s, nationalists, led by Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948), laid the foundations for an alternative, anticolonial movement.
Gandhi studied law in England and worked in South Africa on behalf of Indian immigrants before returning to India in 1915.
Thereafter, he assumed leadership in local struggles and became the focus of the Indian nationalist movement.
He also spelled out the moral and political philosophy of satyagraha, or nonviolent resistance, which he had developed while in South Africa.
Gandhi's message to Indians was simple: develop your own resources and inner strength, and control the instincts and activities that encourage participation in colonial economy and government, and you shall achieve swaraj (