Churchill took hardline on Gandhi
Gandhi was detained in 1942 after he condemned India's involvement in the war but never went on hunger strike.
Many British officials initially took a hardline stance to the possibility of such action.
The Viceroy of then British-run India, Lord Linlithgow, said he was "strongly in favour of letting Gandhi starve to death".
But senior government figures, such as former foreign secretary Lord Halifax argued: "Whatever the disadvantages of letting him out, his detention would be much worse."