I think it's much more effective and less messy than the other.
The principles are easy to follow and not objectionable, they are:
Non-Violent, non-cooperation; peaceful demonstration, fasting and prayer.
--think of it as a Sabbath, no work, study, driving, shopping..TV!
The philosophy of nonviolent resistance most famously employed by Mohandas Gandhi is called Satya-graha.
Satya is Sanskrit for Truth, and Agraha, roughly, effort.
Satya - truth; implying openness, honesty, and fairness.
Ahimsa - refusal to inflict injury upon others.
Tapasya - willingness for self-sacrifice.
Gandhi noted:
"In the application of Satyagraha, I discovered, in the earliest stages, that pursuit of Truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one's opponent, but that he must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy. For, what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of Truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but one's own self. Satyagraha and its off-shoots, non-co-operation and civil resistance, are nothing but new names for the law of suffering.
With satya combined with ahimsa, you can bring the world to your feet.
Satyagraha in its essence is nothing but the introduction of truth and gentleness in the political, i.e., the national life.
Satyagraha is utter self-effacement, greatest humiliation, greatest patience and brightest faith. It is its own reward.
Satyagraha is a relentless search for truth and a determination to reach truth.
It is a force that works silently and apparently slowly. In reality, there is no force in the world that is so direct or so swift in working.
Satyagraha literally means insistence on truth. This insistence arms the votary with matchless power. This power or force is connoted by the word satyagraha. Satyagraha, to be genuine, may be offered against parents, against one's wife or one's children, against rulers, against fellow-citizens, even against the whole world.
Such a universal force necessarily makes no distinction between kinsmen and strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend and foe. The force to be so applied can never be physical. There is in it no room for violence. The only force of universal application can, therefore, be that of ahimsa or love. In other words, it is soul-force.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha