Mahatma Gandhi

A shy lawyer from Gujarat became the most unlikely revolutionary in history. Gandhi's transformation began in South Africa, where he was thrown off a train for the color of his skin and responded by inventing a new form of resistance: satyagraha: 'truth-force.' Returning to India, he traded his British suits for a simple dhoti, spinning his own cotton as millions watched and followed. His weapons were strange: salt marches, hunger strikes, prayer meetings, cleaning latrines. Yet the British Empire, which had conquered nations with cannons, found itself powerless against a man who said, 'You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.' His nonviolent revolution inspired Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and movements for justice worldwide.