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The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was an agreement signed by Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Irwin, the then British Viceroy of India, on 5 March, 1931. It marked the end of the Civil Disobedience Movement or Satyagraha that had started with the Salt March to Dandi on 5 April, 1930.

Thousands were arrested and detained during the civil disobedience that followed, including Gandhiji. The Salt March had elicited a response from the Indian public which had never been witnessed before. Millions took up the baton from Gandhiji and defied the salt tax, making salt in their homes.

British jails were overflowing with satyagrahis and the British Government had no solution to the problem. The Movement also attracted enormous attention worldwide to India’s freedom struggle and pressure was building on the British, who were desperate to reach a compromise.

As a result of this, they released Gandhiji from custody for negotiations in January 1931. After eight meetings with Lord Irwin, Gandhiji agreed to withdraw the Civil Disobedience Movement on condition that the British release political prisoners and allow Indians to collect and produce salt for commercial and private use.

Some members of the Congress, including Nehru, were unhappy at Gandhiji’s decision and the concessions that Gandhi had made. They were of the opinion that had the civil disobedience continued; it would have culminated in India’s independence. They felt that Gandhiji had given in too easily to the British.

Gandhiji offered to repudiate the Pact but Nehru, who was against anything that might cause dissension within the party, withdrew his protest. He was however, still not happy with the turn of events.

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Most of us would imagine that the Indian tricolor was first raised on the night of 15, August 1947, when India became a free nation, but this is not true. The first time the Indian tricolor (designed by Pingali Venkayya) was raised, was at the Lahore Session of the Indian National Congress on the night of 31 December, 1929.

The session had just made some landmark decisions and in a highly symbolic act to mark the event, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the first tricolor flag of India upon the banks of the river Ravi in Lahore. Hundreds of people had gathered in the bitter cold to witness the event.

This was followed by a pledge of independence which outlined the reasons for Purna Swaraj and indicated the path ahead which included the launch of the civil disobedience movement and the adoption of nonviolence as its means.

A large number of people attended the ceremony and raised their hands in approval. Soon after, 172 Indian members of central and provincial legislatures resigned in support of the resolution and in accordance with Indian public sentiment.

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Jawaharlal Nehru’s wife Kamala suffered from tuberculosis and in 1926, Nehru sailed for Europe with her in the hope that specialist medical care would help cure her. Nehru, along with his wife and daughter, travelled and lived in England, Switzerland, France and Germany during this time.

While the trip did not cure Kamala, it served as an important learning period in Nehru’s life. He was exposed to the rising currents of radical socialism in Europe. He developed strong convictions on the malaise of imperialism and understood better the importance of equality both within a country and between countries. He formed opinions on the relevance of science over religion and the importance and role of women and children in nation building.

On a visit to the Soviet Union, Nehru was impressed by the economy but was critical of Stalin’s totalitarianism. He believed that economic development should be planned and controlled by the government but the government itself must be freely elected by the people.

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In the 1920s, Nehru’s reputation as a dynamic and rising Congress leader was established. He became the President of the Allahabad Congress Committee in 1923. Towards the end of the decade however, Nehru grew increasingly restless with the pacifist nature of the senior Congressmen. The senior leaders favoured a slower and more patient approach, while Nehru along with Subhas Chandra Bose, wanted complete freedom. They wanted an ultimatum to be given to the British Government to grant India dominion status.

The Calcutta Congress of 1928 brought the rift into the open. Nehru’s speeches became inflammatory and he openly decried the Nehru Commission framed by Motilal Nehru. It took the intervention of Mahatma Gandhi for Nehru to abandon his fiery stance for more direct action.

At the same time, Gandhiji had no doubts about Nehru’s importance to the freedom movement. It was because of Gandhiji that Nehru was elected president of the Congress in 1929, in succession to his own father.

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