Reply #126: Gandhi-ji 'chose' passive resistance because he had nothing else

[Mairead]

to work with. Saul Alinsky felt quite confident from things Gandhi-ji wrote (including the quote given above) that he would have used armed force if he could have.

It's worth noting Eric Blair's (the real name of 'George Orwell') assessment: the only reason Gandhi-ji's passive resistance worked at all is because it was England on the receiving end. Had it been the Nazis, Gandhi-ji and his disciples would simply have been Nacht-und-Nebeled one night and the independence movement would have been stillborn. Only England had the ingrained cultural tradition of fair play that made passive resistance effective.