Modern collective nonviolence was born on September 11th, 1906 in Transvaal in South Africa when Sheth haji Habib, an Indian Muslim, declared he would never obey the new discriminatory pass laws and urged everybody else at a mass meeting in the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg to do the same.

A nonviolent mass rebellion against racism and the British empire was started by Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs. Mohandas Gandhi who organized the protest meeting soon developed collective nonviolence as a form of popular movement resistance that since then has spread around the world.

More background: The essential role of Hajib is often glossed over. All focus is instead put on Gandhi. This is distorting history. Gandhi himself highlights that Hajib was the initiator of the mass civil disobedience. Also, others who look more closely into what happened stress his central role:

Even as Mr. Hajee Habib rose to speak, the audience greeted him with cheers. His speech was so caustic and impassioned that even those who did not know Gujarati said they could follow its purpose. Now and then, Mr. Hajee Habib used English anecdotes. The audience was greatly roused by his speech of which the following is a summary:

The fourth resolution is the most important of all. Everything depends upon it. Going to jail is no disgrace; it is an honour. Only a few people knew of Mr. Tilak before he went to jail; today the whole world knows him. We will not get justice at the hands of the British Government. It kills us with sweet words; we should not be deceived. They offer us sympathy, but we ask for justice, not sympathy. The British are ever willing to advise others. They are always ready to appease the Christian people. Take the case of Turkey. The British do not hesitate to bully Turkey, and that is not in order to secure the interests of their own subjects. Again, in this country, the doors are open to the whites and Christians, even if they were foreign nationals. In their view, the whites are descended from Heaven and we, they think, have come from the other place. This Bill is most objectionable. If it is passed, I solemnly declare that I will never get myself registered again and will be the first to go to jail. [Applause] I recommend the same course to you all. Are you all prepared to take the oath? [The Assembly stood up to a man and said, 'Yes, we will go to jail!'] Only by so doing shall we succeed. We tried this method in the days of the Boer Government also. Some 40 of our men were once arrested for trading without licenses. I advised them to go to jail and not to seek release on bail. Accordingly, they all remained there without offering bail. I immediately approached the British Agent, who approved of our action and ultimately secured justice for us. Now that the British Government is in power, the time has come for us to go to jail, and go we will.

As he repeated the last phrase thrice, the meeting greeted his resolve with applause.