A mature democracy stays alive through informed civic participation, freedom of thought and respect for dissent. Resistance, therefore, is not an aberration or an anti-system activity but a necessary part of democratic life. When those in power begin to suppress and discredit dissent instead of engaging with it, resistance becomes an essential instrument of democratic citizenship.

But what kind of resistance? What puts real pressure on power, and what makes news briefly before fading away? Are numbers decisive? Is non-violence always more effective? And when governments have not just the police and the administrative machinery but a surveillance apparatus, a propaganda machinery and enormous economic resources, what can effective resistance look like?

The history of India’s freedom struggle is instructive. Freedom was not won by a single method, organisation or leader. It encompassed mass movements, satyagraha, non-cooperation, boycotts, underground activity, revolutionary violence, attempts at military rebellion and ultimately a swell of popular political pressure. To reduce it to Mahatma Gandhi and non-violence oversimplifies history; to see it as a story of revolutionary courage is equally flawed.

Perhaps Gandhi’s greatest political achievement was to take resistance out of the hands of a few courageous individuals and situate it among ordinary citizens. Satyagraha was not simply about fasts or demonstrations. Its central principle was non-cooperation with unjust authority. Boycotting government institutions and foreign goods, supporting swadeshi and encouraging mass participation were all part of this strategy. The Salt Satyagraha turned an ordinary commodity into a political symbol of resistance.

Crucially, Gandhian resistance required neither weapons nor wealth nor specialised training. Farmers, workers, students, traders, women and ordinary citizens could participate. Resistance thus acquired a broad social base.

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This is where numbers matter. A state can suppress a small group through arrests, prosecutions and administrative controls. But when dissent spreads across........

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