Anjali
Anjali is the ten-year-old girl at the center of Ahimsa. The protagonist of the novel, Anjali and a strong, intelligent, and level-headed girl who is willing to do anything to ensure the safety of her mother and her country. For instance, Anjali's mother is imprisoned because of her work fighting for Gandhi’s ahimsa—or nonviolence—movement advocating for the expulsion of the British from India.
Instead of running away from the situation, Anjali dives headfirst into the world and movement her mother had previously inhabited and makes a real difference. And despite her youth, Anjali is able to inspire real change in her country (a country which she loves tremendously). She is resourceful and is able to change things despite not having many resources.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi is perhaps the most important character in the novel, even more so Anjali herself. It was Gandhi who inspired people around India to join his movement called ahimsa, or an ancient principle which calls for nonviolence, to expel the British from India. To do so, Gandhi organized things like hunger strikes, which he considered to be more valuable than doing something like take up arms, for example. A well-read and intelligent man, Gandhi recognized the importance of buy-in to his ideas from the general public. Without people like Anjali, she could not succeed.
Gandhi's methods, unusual as they were, surprisingly worked. In the late 1940s, India was finally recognized as an independent nation and the British left the country. Most thought that Gandhi's plan would not work; it did, and India is free because of it. But Gandhi was assassinated because of his views, leaving a stain on the person who killed him—and leaving India with a massive void.
Anjali's mother
At the start of the novel, young Anjali thinks that her father would volunteer to join Gandhi's aforementioned movement. Anjali, however, is shocked and mortified when she learned that her mother intended to join Gandhi's movement. Anjali's mother was an exceptionally brave woman who took action when few others were willing to do so. She believed in something and was willing to do something about it—even if it meant that she would be confined to prison for the rest of her life.
Anjali's mother became a role model for her daughter, who decided to continue her mother's legacy in the movement and avenge her mother's imprisonment—an imprisonment which many saw as unjust. At the end of the day, Anjali's mother was a right fighter upset with the direction her country was heading.
