Gandhi built his movement on the back of centuries of violent anti-colonial resistance, in particular the HSRA campaigns which had proven british rule to be weak, and all the work done by Netaji before he was outed from the movement for his ties with nazi Germany (he was forgotten by history for being a bad person, but still played as big a role as Gandhi in India’s national liberation).

If Gandhi was born just 20 years earlier , he probably wouldn’t have made a difference at all. He arrived at the right time, when the empire was already crumbling from being sabotaged, and still reeling from the war. Like every other liberation movement, it was diversity of tactics that led to its success: the peaceful political force asking for change can only work if there’s a threat of ongoing violence in the background as long as their demands are not met.