In India he is regarded as the father of the nation and indeed, he achieved his goal of Indian independence during his lifetime. However, in the Western world Gandhi is probably most famous for satyagraha ("truth-force").
Satyagraha was Gandhi's doctrine of non-violent resistance. As Orwell put it, "a way of defeating the enemy without hurting him and without feeling or arousing hatred".
In Gandhi's time, the British Empire had passed laws that required Indians to purchase all their salt needs from the British at a prohibitively taxed price.
But in 1930, Gandhi led thousands of followers on a march from his ashram to the coast of Dandi, where he bent down and picked up a handful of salty mud left by the retreating sea. This peaceful act of defiance prompted millions of Indians to similar acts of civil disobedience, shaking the foundations of the British Empire in India.
One may therefore readily concede satyagraha's effectiveness against a state or an Empire, dependent as it is on civil order for existence. Yet that is probably its only use.
Sadly, it would hardly be a deterrent to the terrorists that threaten states today. These are usually people acting in religious fervour and without remorse, slaughtering hundreds of civilians from Bali to New York.
As an aside, one of my favourite sources is George Orwell's essay, 'Reflections on Gandhi', a contemporaneous, rational discussion of Gandhi's beliefs and saintliness. Here is a succulent quotation:
"As a frontispiece to the book [under review] there is a photograph of Gandhi’s possessions at the time of his death. The whole outfit could be purchased for about 5 pounds, and Gandhi’s sins, at least his fleshly sins, would make the same sort of appearance if placed all in one heap. "
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