On ahimsa

Hinduism is often believed to be synonymous with ahimsa (अहिंसा); in fact, this article on Ahimsa from Wikipedia says it's at the core of Hinduism and cites the influence of the Bhagavad-Gita (भागवद् गीता) on Gandhi.

Michael Danino notes in his article The Gita in Today's World that:

To the West, there is either brute force or pacifism, either violence or non-violence ; to the Gita the truth is neither one nor the other, but the conscious use of force to protect dharma.

I would argue, however, that this duality is not (or perhaps no longer) exclusive to the West.

Danino concludes with this statement from Sri Aurobindo:

We will use only soul-force and never destroy by war or any even defensive employment of physical violence? Good, though until soul-force is effective, the Asuric force [from Asura असुर, or power-hungry being] in men and nations tramples down, breaks, slaughters, burns, pollutes, as we see it doing today, but then at its ease and unhindered, and you have perhaps caused as much destruction of life by your abstinence as others by resort to violence.