The events that followed the Rowlatt Act in 1919 were also influenced by the events linked to the Ghadar conspiracy, At the time, British Indian Army troops were returning from the battlefields of Europe and Mesopotamia to an economic depression in India. There were many attempts to mutiny in 1915 and the Lahore conspiracy trials were still in public attention. News of young Mohajirs who fought on behalf of the Turkish Caliphate and later for the Red Army during the Russian Civil War was also beginning to reach India. The Russian Revolution had also started to influence India. It was at this time that Mahatma Gandhi, until then relatively unknown on the Indian political scene, began emerging as a mass leader. 