In 1931, Mahatma Gandhi attended the Second Round Table Conference in London to discuss constitutional reform in India. Attendees included members of the British political elite as well as the Indian National Congress, whose members had been absent from the first talks due to their civil disobedience campaign against the government. Those pictured in the photograph include Lord Lothian, Lord Peel, Sir Damuel Hoare, Lord Sankey, Mahatma Gandhi, Maden Mohan Malaviya and Sir Tej Bahadur.
The conference failed to achieve real politcal reform in India, but Gandhi captured the public imagination and was mobbed by enthusiastic crowds in Britain, particularly in the East End of London and by mill workers in Lancashire. He also met with actor Charlie Chaplin.
A staunch campaigner against colonialism and a promoter of Indian self-governance, Gandhi preached Satyagraha, a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience, which he used from the 1920s as a tool against the British. Today, individuals and groups from around the world still follow Gandhi’s strategy in their campaigns and activism.
- Full title:
- [Delegates at the second session of the Indian Round Table Conference, St James's Palace, London.] Photographer: Unknown
- September 1931, London
- Photograph / Image
- Usage terms
- Public Domain
- Held by
- British Library
- Photo 13(1)
- Article by:
- Susheila Nasta, Dr Florian Stadtler, Rozina Visram
From the suffragette Sophia Duleep Singh to the Communist MP Shapurji Saklatvala: explore the lives of notable South Asians in 19th and 20th century British and Indian politics.