Mohandas Gandhi

From RationalWiki

Cool guy. Beat John Lennon to the iconic glasses. Also, waged a long campaign against British imperialism in India through non-violent means, notably prolonged, repeated hunger strikes and his famous "salt rebellion." ^[1]

He also was a little on the odd side. To test his ability to resist the temptations of the material world, he would sleep beside his two nieces. Naked.

And while Gandhi showed how religious beliefs could be used in a positive way, giving an intellectual framework within which to pursue social and political change, in the end religion bit him in the ass when he was assassinated by Hindu fundamentalists for giving too much to the Muslims.