Later on, his actions would be famous. Admirers could eventually invoke a catechism of apparent victories: South Africa, Champaran, Vykon, Kotgarh, Kheda, Bardoli. There was a mill strike in Ahmedabad, and a battle for the right to parade in Nagpur. A national campaign of non-co-operation would be remembered as a humiliation for the Prince of Wales and a serious affront to the authority of the Raj. Gandhi's 1923 speech from the dock of the accused would ultimately be celebrated as a ‘masterpiece’. His bodily experiments would be picked over by learned scholars, and his fasts would enjoy recognition as genuine victories for the spirit of love. Years after his passing, the Mahatma's march to make salt at Dandi would be hailed as one of the founding events of global media history.

But all of this was later, much deferred. Western recognition was horribly belated.

At first, there was incomprehension. While the eyes of the Westerner fixed intently on the strange person of Gandhi, his precise activities were long enveloped in a curtain of ignorance and misunderstanding. For years it remained difficult to establish exactly what Gandhi did, why he was so inspired, or what he aimed to achieve.

Why so hard? When Indians began to question imperial rule, the British state acted immediately to restrict their freedoms of assembly and expression. Official ordinances controlled the operation of all printing presses in the country. The offices of Gandhi's own newspapers were raided, and their publication repeatedly suspended.