During the First World War, Britain …………

During the First World War, India sent 985,000 men to the battlefields, at Britain's pleading, to assist her. In return, Britain promised that she would give India self-government. When the war was over, India demanded that Britain should fulfil her promise, but the British thought that the time for Indian independence hadn't yet come. Gandhi, the leader of the independence movement, was deeply disappointed. If Britain was not prepared to keep her word, he saw no reason why he should stay loyal to her. He began his campaign, in which all classes of the population took part, with a day of fasting. That had never happened before, for the Indians were divided strictly into castes. This small, weak man with a thin face and dark eyes, wrapped in white home-spun cloth, barefoot, sleeping on the floor, always speaking in simple language that everybody could understand, became the leader of 300 million Indians in their fight against British rule. He became the symbol of the idea of non-violence and urged his people to fight for freedom by peaceful means - by refusing to pay taxes and by strikes.