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Mahatma Gandhi

Summary

Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) was the originator of satyagraha and the practical-theoretical taproot of the modern nonviolent-action tradition. In the People Power Manual tradition, Gandhi is one of the three named stage-model authors — alongside thinkers/george-lakey and thinkers/martin-luther-king-jr — the manual teaches as parallel frameworks [source: people-power-manual].

Key idea in this wiki

  • The People Power Manual’s Campaign Strategy Guide includes a dedicated handout — “Mahatma Gandhi: Six stages in a large campaign” — as one of the three stage-models (alongside Lakey and Martin Luther King Jr.) the manual treats as parallel frameworks [source: people-power-manual].
  • The constructive-programme page traces directly to the Gandhian principle that a movement must build the alternative society it wants alongside its resistance.
  • The metta-center source page records the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, the institutional heir of the Gandhian nonviolence-education tradition; the Metta Center frames nonviolence as a constructive force rooted in human dignity and quotes Gandhi that the field of nonviolence will yield discoveries “far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible” than those made in the field of violence [source: metta-center].
  • The Metta Center’s five-practitioner list — unplug, learn, spiritual practice, rehumanise, get involved — is the wiki’s distillation of the contemporary Gandhian pedagogy the institute promotes [source: metta-center].

Why campaigners read him

Campaigners read Gandhi for three distinct reasons the wiki uses. First, the satyagraha tradition is the wiki’s taproot for methods-of-nonviolent-action discipline — the principle that nonviolence must be strategic and committed, not merely passive [source: metta-center]. Second, the constructive programme tradition — building parallel institutions alongside resistance — is the working complement to confrontational action in the constructive-programme page. Third, the six-stage large-campaign framework is the manual’s ancient-modern lens, parallel to the Lakey and King models, useful for thinking about multi-year campaigns that move from mobilisation to negotiation [source: people-power-manual].

Learn more

Sources & verification

  • sources/people-power-manual — grounding: secondary — RAW (7977 chars)
  • [metta-center](sourcing target — source page pending) — grounding: secondary — RAW

Last verified: 2026-07-08