What role did Gandhi and his campaign of militant nonviolence play in leading India to independence from the British?

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Gandhi on the Salt March, June 1930A small, frail man, Gandhi possessed enormous courage and determination. His campaign of nonviolent resistance to British rule inspired the Indian masses and mobilized a nation. Here he is shown walking on his famous march to the sea to protest the English-Indian government’s monopoly on salt production. (akg-images)

TTHE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN BRITISH INDIA grew out of two interconnected cultures, Hindu and Muslim. While the two joined together to challenge British rule, they also came to see themselves as fundamentally different. Nowhere has modern nationalism’s power both to unify and to divide been more strikingly demonstrated than in India.