Mahatma Gandhi visited England when the Swadeshi Movement was at its height in India. The visit aimed to discuss India’s future at the Second Round Table conference. The place of the visit was Lancashire, a place that produced the cotton Indians were boycotting. And the workers from cotton factories in the region welcomed him with immense joy.
The mill workers of Lancashire received great profits before the First World War since cotton was largely exported from England. After the war, however, their sales declined. The refusal of Indians to buy their goods deepened their losses even further. It wasn’t the primary reason for their losses, but it was more publicised.
Thus the entire purpose of the people of Lancashire welcoming him with such aplomb was because they strongly believed that, as a humanitarian, Gandhi would understand what they were going through.
The mayor of Darwen, Lancashire, saw Gandhi as a pious man. The thought of getting to listen to the workers came from him. Gandhi agreed to meet the English workers, who were very friendly. The noblemen were usually the ones who read newspapers and held political opinions. Not the workers who were unbothered with political affairs and more concerned with their work. They spoke to him, asked him questions and engaged in conversations. Gandhi, too, saw this as an opportunity to get his point across.
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