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31st March 1930: Pacifist and Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, 1869 - 1948) during the Salt March protesting against the government monopoly on salt production (Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) View more images
Between the wars, the British were forced to change their approach to the raj.
The suggestion was that India might become a dominion - a privilege reserved for kith and kin, that is, the white colonies. The viceroy Lord Irwin noted that "the natural issue of India's constitutional progress as therein contemplated is the attainment of dominion status".
An uncertain British government on the one side and Gandhi and the Indian National Congress moved in the same direction but not to the same end.
The 1935 India Act meant more self-government but Gandhi wanted the British out altogether. He regarded the status of India as unique inasmuch that as one fifth of the human race, she was not suited to dominionship.
Gandhi and Congress represented nominally the Hindus. There was also the Muslim League and the princes, who still ruled much of India. Gandhi insisted that Congress should rule all India, including Muslims and the princes.
The only other person apart from Nehru, who emerged as a major political figure outside India, was Mohamed Ali Jinnah - the man who became President of Pakistan.
Jinnah, was a Muslim who had been the most powerful man in Indian politics until the return of Gandhi from South Africa. It was Jinnah who first advocated an India of absolute unity. He understood nationalism as a dangerous concept. It was he, who brought the All India Congress and the Muslim League together.
Until the end of 1918, the British had to know exactly what Jinnah was thinking. After that, the rise of Gandhi partially eclipsed Jinnah. If much earlier he had been given more support, perhaps the carnage that came with partition, might not have happened.
Like Gandhi, Jinnah studied law in London. Unlike Gandhi, he established a prosperous practice in India. In 1910 he became a member of the viceroy's legislative council.
Jinnah became president of the Muslim League and in 1916 at the Lucknow Conference famously established a working relationship with the largely Hindu Congress Party. He opposed Gandhi because he believed him to be favouring Hindus and was sidelined in Indian politics until his re-emergence in the early 1940s when he pushed for a separate state of Pakistan.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, 1869-1948
Mohandas Karamchand was known as Mahatma was born in Porbandar and went to London to study law. Instead of a law practice, in 1893 he left for South Africa, established a strict commune and became a human rights advocate for Indians.
He did not return to India until the start of WWI. He became leader of the Indian National Congress and famous for insisting on civil disobedience rather than violent demonstration against British rule. He became the symbol of India's independence movement although never achieved his aim of national unity and a return to old Indian values and identity.
That Pakistan was an artificial name made from the names of the territories it includes or partially includes: Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan.
Britain accepted the concept of Indian independence, as recognised in this statement by the viceroy, Lord Irwin:
"October the 31st, 1929 - I am authorised on behalf of His Majesty's Government to state clearly that in their judgment it is implicit in the [Montagu] declaration of 1917 that the natural issue of India's constitutional progress, as therein contemplated, is the attainment of dominion status."
