Mahatma Gandhi with textile workers at Darwen, Lancashire, September 26, 1931.

MM

Gandhi visited the town after accepting an invitation from the mill-owning Davies family.

MM

They wanted him to see for himself the hardship being suffered by the East Lancashire textile industry, which had been decimated by the Indian independence movement's boycott of British goods.

MM

Darwen local historian Harold Heys said: "The Davies family were prominent Socialists and Quakers, and they firmly believed that the Mahatma might understand the suffering through mill towns such as Bolton, Oldham, Burnley and Blackburn.

Source: bbc.co.uk