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I read a great alternative-science-fiction story where the Germans had won WWII and taken over India from the British. Gahndi did his non-violence bit and got slaughtered along with all his followers.

I remebmer that - however, it does bring out a facty -- non-violence worked because the BRitish were in general too civilised, too moral to not listen to the demands -- quite unlike the Nazis. However, the book forgets one point -- the British were able to rule india because of Indian soldiers. The British alliances and friendships with the various peoples of India kept them in control for 150years. One example is during the Indian war against eh BRitish in 1857, Northern Indian princes rose up against the Brits, BUT the south did not rebel AND the British were able to put down the rebellion due to the timely arrival of their Sikh/Punjabi allies -- very strange consideringt he BRits had conquered the Sikh kingdom barely 40 years earlier, yet now the Sikhs considered the Brits the best of friends

That's the real secret: the BRits were friendly, colonising more by friendship and strategic alliances than by brute force. And it shows -- former British colonies all have this love-hate relationship with the Brits, quite unlike the former French, Belgian etc. colonies who all hate their former colonial masters. When the BRits got too uppity (during the fag end fo the Victorian period when they got the idea they were there to 'civilise' the rest of the world), that's when popular discontent arose

Anyway, back to the point. If the British had started playing hardball earlier with all of the Indian peoples, they would have been thrown out by force. If theNazis had conquered India, they would have been thrown out in a few years, by sheer brute numbers.

Permanent Empires are won threw winnign the hearts and minds