The origins of passive resistance were founded at Parihaka
The Parihaka peace movement was led by Te Whiti O Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi. They wished to protect Maori independence and resist the invasion of Parihaka. Tohu and Te Whiti's tactics were revolutionary. Never before had Maori seen they're leaders back down in the face of battle. Tohu and Te Whiti realized that they were largely outnumbered against the British , so they devised a peaceful strategy; This involved non -aggression, if the British attacked they were not allowed to fight back. Te Whiti quotes: "Though some, in darkness of heart, seeing their land ravished, might wish to take arms and kill the aggressors, I say it must not be. Let not the Pakehas think to succeed by reason of their guns ... I want not war, but they do. The flashes of their guns have singed our eyelashes, and yet they say they do not want war ... The government come not hither to reason, but go to out-of-the-way places. They work secretly, but I speak in public so that all may hear. "
Te whiti was educated well and taught about the traditions of his culture by Maori Elders when he was a child. Te Whiti was a pupil of Reverend Johannes Riemenschneider, whom Te Whiti based his Philosophical views. The British government began surveying 16,000 acres of the Waimate plains in 1987, which was Maori land and had been confiscated without setting aside reserve land for Maori to live. Te Whiti and Tohu, in response, began ploughing land occupied by settlers. Protest began to grow and arrests followed, for Maori Parihaka became a symbol of hope and its people were supplied food and other resources from many tribes throughout the country. Mahatma Gandhi, the prominent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India, was inspired by the teachings of Te Whiti O onomai and his uncle Tohu Kākahi. Desendants of Gandhi, as well as Martin Luther King Jr and Daisaku Ikeda, continue to work with the Parihaka community to support a global peace cooperative council. It is generally accepted that Gandhi heard about the tactics and teachings of Te Whiti but it it hard to find evidence, for example their are only historians points of view.
Young Parihaka women & girls passively resisting the British