An American journalist's friendship with Mahatma Gandhi gave India a megaphone around the world

In 1944, as the world marked Mahatma Gandhi's 75th birthday on October 2, a group of illustrious public figures gathered at the Town Hall in Manhattan for a celebration organised by the India League of America. Among the list of speakers at the function were Chinese-American painter and writer Mai-mai Sze, Indian poet and playwright Krishnalal Sridharani and William L Shirer, a well-known American foreign correspondent. Shirer had long been an admirer of the Mahatma. Almost a decade and a half before that October celebration in New York, he had first set foot on Indian soil to work as a…