India, Oct. 1 -- On the morning of April 30, 1933, Devdas Gandhi, son of Mahatma Gandhi, brought an urgent dispatch to the office of the Marathi daily "Dnyanaprakash" in Pune. Recognising the gravity of the development, the editor decided at once to bring out a special extra edition. By four that afternoon, freshly printed copies rolled off the presses, and before long, the news swept across the city from its western quarters to its eastern edges.

From within the walls of Yerwada Central Jail, Mahatma Gandhi had issued a public letter declaring his resolve to undertake a twenty-one-day fast. In the statement, Gandhiji wrote: "A tempest has been raging within my heart for the past few days. I strove to resist it, but at last, on the eve o...