Editing Mahatma Gandhi (section)

=== Round Table Conferences ===
[[File:Mahadev Desai and Gandhi 2 1939.jpg|thumb|Gandhi and his personal assistant [[Mahadev Desai]] at Birla House, 1939]]
During the discussions between Gandhi and the British government over 1931–32 at the [[Round Table Conferences (India)|Round Table Conferences]], Gandhi, now aged about 62, sought constitutional reforms as a preparation to the end of colonial British rule, and begin the self-rule by Indians.{{sfnp|Muldoon|2016|pp=92–99}} The British side sought reforms that would keep the Indian subcontinent as a colony. The British negotiators proposed constitutional reforms on a British Dominion model that established separate electorates based on religious and social divisions. The British questioned the Congress party and Gandhi's authority to speak for all of India.{{sfnp|Gandhi|2008|pp=332–333}} They invited Indian religious leaders, such as Muslims and Sikhs, to press their demands along religious lines, as well as [[B. R. Ambedkar]] as the representative leader of the untouchables.{{sfnp|Muldoon|2016|pp=92–99}} Gandhi vehemently opposed a constitution that enshrined rights or representations based on communal divisions, because he feared that it would not bring people together but divide them, perpetuate their status, and divert the attention from India's struggle to end the colonial rule.{{sfnp|Muldoon|2016|p=97}}{{sfnp|Brown|1991|pp=[https://archive.org/details/gandhi00judi/page/252 252–257]}}

The Second Round Table conference was the only time Gandhi left India between 1914 and his death in 1948. He was accompanied by his secretary [[Mahadev Desai]], son [[Devdas Gandhi]] and British supporter [[Mirabehn]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Gandhi |first=Rajmohan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dEUIqm0jquYC&dq=muriel+lester&pg=PA115 |title=The Good Boatman: A Portrait of Gandhi |date=1997 |publisher=Penguin Books India |isbn=978-0-14-025563-8 |pages=115–118 |language=en}}</ref> Gandhi declined the government's offer of accommodation in an expensive [[West End of London|West End]] hotel, preferring to stay in the [[East End of London|East End]], to live among working-class people, as he did in India.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mahatma Gandhi &#124; Philosopher & Teacher &#124; Blue Plaques |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/mahatma-gandhi-kingsley-hall/ |access-date=26 September 2020 |website=English Heritage |archive-date=28 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928214656/https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/mahatma-gandhi-kingsley-hall/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Gandhi based himself in a small [[monastic cell|cell-bedroom]] at his friend [[Muriel Lester]]'s "People's House" at [[Kingsley Hall]] for the three-month duration of his stay.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 August 2017 |title=Peace seeking social reformer who became Gandhi's dear friend |url=https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/15496376.the-story-of-muriel-lester-who-went-from-essex-to-befriend-one-of-the-worlds-most-influential-leaders/ |access-date=22 March 2025 |website=Gazette |language=en}}</ref> He was enthusiastically received by East Enders.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gandhi visits the poor people of England in 1931 – Gandhi Video Footage |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLYIEajnqnI |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002115124/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLYIEajnqnI&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=2 October 2012 |access-date=26 September 2020 |website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> Local children gave him toys for his birthday and Lester noted that he would gently place them on window sills and in carriages during his stay and took them back to India.<ref name=":2" /> During this time, Gandhi also renewed his links with the [[Vegetarianism by country#United Kingdom|British vegetarian movement]].

[[File:An admiring East End crowd gathers to witness the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi.jpg|thumb|An admiring [[East End of London|East End]] crowd gathers to witness the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi, 1931]]

After Gandhi returned from the Second Round Table conference, he started a new ''satyagraha''. Gandhi was arrested and imprisoned at the [[Yerwada Jail]], Pune. While he was in prison, the British government enacted a new law that granted untouchables a separate electorate. It came to be known as the [[Communal Award]].{{sfnp|Herman|2008|pp=382–390}} In protest, Gandhi started a fast-unto-death, while he was held in prison.<ref name="Dirks2011p267">{{Cite book |last=Nicholas B. Dirks |title=Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4008-4094-6 |pages=267–74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UP7vmkFSJhIC&pg=PA268 |access-date=4 June 2017 |archive-date=21 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230721085014/https://books.google.com/books?id=UP7vmkFSJhIC&pg=PA268 |url-status=live }}</ref> The resulting public outcry forced the government, in consultations with Ambedkar, to replace the Communal Award with a compromise [[Poona Pact]].<ref name="yer">{{Cite book |last=Kamath, M. V. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7bRZgojbsPsC&pg=PA24 |title=Gandhi's Coolie: Life & Times of Ramkrishna Bajaj |publisher=Allied Publishers |year=1995 |isbn=81-7023-487-5 |page=24 |access-date=3 June 2020 |archive-date=7 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007230103/https://books.google.com/books?id=7bRZgojbsPsC&pg=PA24#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfnp|McDermott |Gordon |Embree |Pritchett |2014 |pp=369–370}}