I don't understand why so many people think it is mahatma Gandhi? The only reason his name has become infamous is because he was the acceptable face the British were happy to place on the independence movement, he was English educated so he dined regularly with them in a social sense- an enemy advocating non-violence is a gift right? Yes he did mobilise a large number of people but that wasn't a problem for the British they had put down larger scale protests in both India and other colonies before. The true face of the independence movement, the true revolutionaries were the likes of - Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru, Sukh Dev,Chandrasekhar Azad,Shivaram Rajguru,Ashfaqulla Khan. Notice that these men are Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs fighting together as brothers. This was the face of the revolution that the British has to play down but were the true fighters for independence. As any expert on guerilla warfare will tell you- to get rid of a technologically superior invader the idea is not to fight them in an all out war but in small attacks that may not gain too much militarily but much symbolically. You need to make the enemy want to leave, and isn't this what happened as a result of these heroes ^^^? The British couldn't leave fast enough.
It is an utter travesty to equate the entire freedom movement to one man and brush aside others who played just a big a part, if not more, in securing the freedom of India. It is a dire shame that these men/women seem to have been forgotten or emitted history. Any real expert will tell you the truth.