As people left their homes, sometimes unwillingly, there was violence, and all told, as many as half a million people were killed, more than died in the bloody Indonesian battle for independence. So while it's true that the massive protests that forced Britain to end its colonization of India were nonviolent, the emergence of the independent states involved really wasn't. Thanks, Thought Bubble. All this violence devastated Gandhi, whose lengthy and repeated hunger strikes to end violence had mixed results, and who was eventually assassinated by a Hindu nationalist who felt that Gandhi was too sympathetic to Muslims. Oh, it's time for the open letter? An Open Letter to Hunger Strikers. But first, let's see what's in the secret compartment today.