The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was a political agreement signed by Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India, on 5 March 1931 before the Second Round Table Conference in London.
Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and William Benn, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India, were eager for peace so long as it didn't weaken the position of the Labour government.
The Viceroy, taking the hint, promptly ordered the unconditional release of Gandhi and all members of the Congress Working Committee, who were imprisoned for the Civil Disobedience Movement.
[5] This was the second high-level meeting between Gandhi and a Viceroy in 13 years and should be read in the context of the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms that were the basis of the Government of India Act, 1919.
Winston Churchill publicly expressed his disgust "...at the nauseating and humiliating spectacle of this one-time Inner Temple lawyer, now seditious fakir, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceroy’s palace, there to negotiate and parley on equal terms with the representative of the King Emperor.