The only Round Table Conference attended by Mahatma Gandhi, as the sole representative of the Congress, was the:

Mahatma Gandhi attended only the Second Round Table Conference, held in London from 7 September to 1 December 1931, as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress.

Background:

• The First Round Table Conference was boycotted by the Congress, which was carrying on the Civil Disobedience Movement.
• Under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, the Congress agreed to suspend the movement and take part in the next conference.
• At the Karachi session (March 1931), the Congress authorised Gandhi to represent it.

Gandhi in London:

• He sailed for England on the ship SS Rajputana, and reached London in September 1931.
• He stayed at Kingsley Hall, a community centre in the poor East End of London, instead of a hotel.
• He met many people, including textile workers in Lancashire, who had lost jobs because of the boycott of British cloth, but who received him warmly.
• He met Charlie Chaplin and other famous people.
• He was received by King George V at Buckingham Palace, wearing his usual loincloth and shawl.

The conference:

Gandhi claimed that the Congress alone represented all of India, including the minorities and the depressed classes.

This claim was challenged by the Muslim League, the princes, and Dr B. R. Ambedkar, who demanded separate electorates for the depressed classes.

The conference failed to reach agreement on the question of minority representation.

NCERT on the Second Round Table Conference:

• NCERT notes that in December 1931, Gandhiji went to London for the conference, but the negotiations broke down and he returned disappointed.
• Back in India, he discovered that the government had begun a new cycle of repression.

After the conference:

• Gandhi returned to India in December 1931, and the Civil Disobedience Movement was resumed.
• He was arrested in January 1932.

Why not the other options?

• ✗The Congress did not attend the First and Third Round Table Conferences.