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What methods did Gandhi use in nonviolent civil disobedience campaigns?
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Indian Independence Movement
In August 1947 British rule ended on the Indian subcontinent.
Mahatma Gandhi led the Indian Independence Movement through the philosophy of satyagraha, a method of nonviolent resistance rooted in the ancient ideal of ahimsa (noninjury). His campaigns utilized several distinct nonviolent methods:12
- Noncooperation: This involved organized, large-scale civil disobedience, such as resigning from government titles, boycotting British educational institutions, courts, elections, and foreign goods, and eventually refusing to pay taxes.3
- Symbolic Defiance: Gandhi famously led the Salt March in 1930 to protest the British salt monopoly. By collecting salt along the shore, he and his followers technically broke the law to highlight the unfair burden placed on the impoverished.4
- Fasting: Gandhi frequently employed fasting as a powerful tool of protest and atonement. He used it to express solidarity, protest social evils and government injustices, and encourage his followers to maintain the discipline of nonviolence.25
- Economic Boycotts: Drawing on the swadeshi ideal of self-sufficiency, Gandhi promoted the use of indigenous goods while boycotting British products and establishments to weaken colonial economic control.62