Mahatma Gandhi

Indian independence leader who developed satyagraha (truth-force / nonviolent resistance) as a political method — leading India to independence from Britain in 1947 — and whose life demonstrated that moral authority can overcome military power if the opponent has enough conscience to be moved by suffering.

Proved that nonviolent resistance is not passive but a form of active moral combat — satyagraha places the opponent in the position of choosing between conscience and interest — and that the willingness to suffer without retaliation disarms the oppressor's justification for violence.