Gandhi, Draupadi and Chanakya, all stood up to authority. But why? For revenge or justice?  Chanakya and Draupadi refused to tie their hair, till they got what they wanted. This sounds so dramatic, but that is how stories are told. 

Most popular narrations of Gandhi’s life inform us that he was kicked out of a train in South Africa. He experienced apartheid on account of his Indian birth. The first class compartment of the train was reserved for white people only. Gandhi could not believe that an upper-class Hindu male would be treated no differently from black or low-caste people. We are told that this is what motivated him to take up the cause of justice. Had this incident not happened, would Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the lawyer, become the Mahatma, who united a nation against the British Empire through non-violence?