This document provides biographies of several prominent leaders and advocates of nonviolent resistance in India and around the world. It discusses Mohandas Gandhi's pioneering use of nonviolent civil disobedience in India, as well as Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership of the American civil rights movement through nonviolence. Cesar Chavez and others also led nonviolent campaigns to advance workers' rights. The document presents brief overviews of additional Indian figures who resisted British colonial rule, some through nonviolent means and others through armed rebellion.

2. Nonviolence refers to a general philosophy of
abstention from violence because of moral or
religious principle. The term "nonviolence" is
often linked with or even used as a synonym for
pacifism; however, the two concepts are
fundamentally different. Pacifism denotes the
rejection of the use of violence as a personal
decision on moral or spiritual grounds, but does
not inherently imply any inclination toward
change on a sociopolitical level.

3. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
2 October 1869– 30 January 1948) was the
pre-eminent political and ideological
leader of India during the Indian
independence movement. Pioneering the
use of non-violent resistance to tyranny
through mass civil disobedience and
freedom that he called satyagraha, he
founded his doctrine of nonviolent protest
to achieve political and social progress
based upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence
for which he is internationally renowned.

4. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 –
April 4, 1968) was an American
clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in
the African-American Civil Right Movement.
He is best known for his role in the
advancement of civil rights in the United
States and around the world, using
nonviolent methods following the teachings
of Mahatma Gandhi. King has become a
national icon in the history of modern
American liberalism.

5. César Estrada Chávez March 31, 1927 –
April 23, 1993) was an American farm
worker, labor leader, and civil rights
activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-
founded the National Farm Workers
Association, which later became the
United Farm Workers (UFW). César
Chavez's campaigns of nonviolence in
the 1960s to protest the treatment of
farm workers in California.

6. Mangal Pandey(19 July 1827 – 8 April 1857)
was a sepoy in the 34th Regiment of the
Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) of the English
East India Company. He is widely known in
India as one of its first freedom fighters. The
Indian government has issued an Indian
Postage Stamp to commemorate him as a
distinguished freedom fighter. Beyond that
his life and actions have also been adapted
to the silver screen.

7. Ramachandra Pandurang Tope (1814 – 18
April 1859), popularly known as Tatya Tope
was an Indian leader in the Indian Rebellion
of 1857 and one of its finest generals. He
was a personal adherent of Nana Sahib of
Kanpur. He progressed with the Gwalior
contingent after the British reoccupation of
Kanpur and forced General Windham to
retreat from Kanpur. Later on, he came to
the rescue of Rani Laxmi Bai.

8. Violence is defined by the World Health
Organization as the intentional use of
physical force or power, threatened or
actual, against oneself, another person, or
against a group or community, that either
results in or has a high likelihood of resulting
in injury, death, psychological harm, me
development or deprivation. This definition
associates intentionality with the committing
of the act itself, irrespective of the outcome it
produces.

9. Annie Besant, 1 October 1847 – 20 September
1933) was a prominent British
Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer
and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian
self rule. She then became a prominent
speaker for the National Secular Society (NCS)
and writer and a close friend of Charles Brad
laugh. In 1877 they were prosecuted for
publishing a book by birth control campaigner
Charles Knowlton. The scandal made them
famous and Brad laugh was elected Member
of Parliament for Northampton in 1880.

10. Lala Lajpat Rai (28 January 1865 – 17
November 1928, was an Indian
author, freedom fighter and politician who is
chiefly remembered as a leader in the Indian
fight for freedom from the British Raj. He was
also associated with activities of Punjab
National Bank and Lakshmi Insurance
Company in their early stages. He sustained
serious injuries by the police when leading a
non-violent protest against the Simon
Commission and died less than three weeks
later. His death anniversary (November 17) is
one of several days celebrated as Martyrs' Day
in India.

11. Bipin Chandra Pal November 7, 1858 - May
20, 1932 was an Indian nationalist. He was
among the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal. Bipin
Chandra Pal was a
teacher, journalist, orator, writer and
librarian, he was famous as one of the
triumvirate of three militant patriots of the
Congresses - the "Pal" of Lal Bal Pal. The trio
was responsible for initiating the first popular
upsurge against British colonial policy in the
1905 partition of Bengal, before the advent of
Gandhi into Indian politics. Pal was also the
founder of the journal Bande Mataram.

12. Bhagat Singh, 28 September 1907– 23
March 1931was an Indian nationalist
considered to be one of the most
influential revolutionaries of the
Indian independence movement. He is
often referred to as Shaheed Bhagat
Singh, the word Shaheed meaning
"martyr" in a number of Indian
languages.

13. Lokmanya Tilak 23 July 1856(1856-07-23)–1
August 1920(1920-08-01) (aged 64), was an
Indian nationalist, teacher, social
reformer, lawyer and independence fighter
who was the first popular leader of the Indian
Independence Movement. The British colonial
authorities derogatorily called him "Father of
the Indian unrest Tilak was one of the first
and strongest advocates of "Swaraj" (self-
rule)and a strong radical in Indian
consciousness. His famous quote, "swaraj is
my birthright, and I shall have it!" is well-
remembered in India even today.