In which year was the Gandhi-Irwin Pact signed?

Correct — C. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact, also called the Delhi Pact, was signed on 5 March 1931 between Mahatma Gandhi and Viceroy Lord Irwin.

It suspended the Civil Disobedience Movement, released political prisoners not convicted of violence, allowed coastal villagers to make salt for their own use, and secured Gandhi's attendance at the Second Round Table Conference. Option (c) is the year.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  1929 — 1929 is the Lahore session, where the Congress adopted Purna Swaraj and fixed 26 January 1930 as independence day — before the movement the Pact ended had begun.
• (b)
  1941 — By 1941 Gandhi was running Individual Satyagraha against the war effort, with Vinoba Bhave as the first satyagrahi, under a different Viceroy in Linlithgow.
• (d)
  1935 — 1935 is the Government of India Act, with provincial autonomy and a federal scheme — a statute, not a pact, and four years after this one.

The Pact is the hinge between the two phases of Civil Disobedience.

Gandhi's Dandi March of March 1930 opened the movement and mass arrests followed. By early 1931 the Government wanted the Congress at the Round Table and the Congress wanted its prisoners released.

Lord Irwin negotiated directly with Gandhi, the first time a Viceroy dealt with the Congress as an equal party, and the Pact traded suspension of the movement for concessions and a seat in London.

Key facts

• The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed on 5 March 1931 and is also called the Delhi Pact.
• It allowed people in coastal villages to make salt for their own consumption.
• Gandhi attended the Second Round Table Conference in London as the sole Congress representative.
• The Karachi Congress session of March 1931 endorsed the Pact.

Common traps

• Answering 1930, the year of the Dandi March that started the movement the Pact suspended.
• Placing the Pact after the Government of India Act of 1935 rather than four years before it.

No directly related past PYQ was found.