India, Nov. 1 -- In the history of Kheda, a present-day eastern Gujarat district, 1917 was annus horribilis. The region had suffered a drought in 1915, then very little rain in 1916 and a deluge in 1917. When the sun finally came out in October, the farmers rushed to harvest their crops. But weeks later, the torrent returned, marooning the region and rotting crops. Then, a wave of plague ravaged the countryside, killing roughly 18,000 people over two years, wrote historian Rajmohan Gandhi.

But the British were not willing to suspend their newly announced higher taxes, triggering an impasse. In January 1918, Mahatma Gandhi returned to Gujarat fresh from his success in Champaran and roused the peasants in a satyagraha. As his lieutenant, h...