The proposed Britain trip was seen by many, including Gandhi, as a betrayal of India’s cause—the battle to free herself from the chains of slavery. “...Big merchants, capitalists, industrialists and others speak and write against the government, but in action do its will and even profit may amount to say, five per cent, against the government’s 95. Circumstances alone may be to blame for the condition in which the country has been weltering since the advent of British commerce backed by British guns,” Gandhi said in a statement. “This independence will not come for the asking. It will come only when the interests, big or small, are prepared to forgo the crumbs that fall to them from partnership with the British in the loot which British rule takes from India.”