As Gandhi showed, one could confront and defeat an empire without violence
First, tou'd have to be Gandhi to achieve what Gandhi did. If you, yoursellf, did today everything that Gandhi did back in the early 1900s, all youd'd achieve would be starving in prison.
Second, it wasn't strictly non-violence that brought Gandhi success. The Brits didn't let India go because they thought "gee, what a noble character, this guy deserves success". They did becsuse they feared - rightfully so - massive upheaval, violence, and civil war.
What Gandhi did wasn't just to ask nicely; it was to mount a massive, credible threat of great violence. Kudos to him for knowing how to, and being in the position to, do that without personally throwing a single stone himself.
But the key ingredient of Ganfhi-esque success isn't not throwing stones, it's successfully projecting the threat of violent revolution.