Gandhi's methods are not novel. That was the path many others had tread including Buddha, Jesus et al.
Gandhi was also influenced by many writers prominent among them being Leo Tolstoy. But, the greatness of Gandhi was he took the theory of those great thinkers and converted the idealogy into applicable format called Satyagraha.
Alrite, lets see if you can back that up. What was inapplicable about the philosophy of Thoreau (which he himself applied a fair bit) and what changes did Gandhi make to make it applicable?
He was an effective political leader no doubt, but people try to exagerrate his accomplishments beyond that.