ABSTRACT
From 15 to the 18 March 1918 Gandhiji observed a fast. This was his first
public fast after returning to India from South Africa in 1915.1 Twenty-two
days before he announced his decision to fast, Gandhiji along with
Anasuyaben Sarabhai and Shankarlal Banker had been leading the strike of
the workers of the Ahmedabad textile mills. The issue, which divided the
mill-hands and the mill-owners, was payment of increased wages. The textile
mills had been paying a ‘plague bonus’ to the workers since August 1917.
The mill-owners had unilaterally decided to stop the payment of the additional bonus.
