Describe the extent of people's participation in the non-cooperation movement in the towns. What were its economic effects? Why did the rich pheasant community in the countryside join the movement?
Answers
Answer:
The non- cooperation movement in the towns:
--The movement started with middle-class participation in the cities.
--Thousands of students left government-controlled schools and colleges, headmasters and teachers resigned, and lawyers gave up their legal practices.
--The council elections were boycotted in most provinces except Madras, where the Justice Party, the party of the non-Brahmans, felt that entering the council was one way of gaining some power – something that usually only Brahmans had access to.
-- The effects of non-cooperation on the economic front were more dramatic.
--Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed, and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires. The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, its value dropping from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore.
-- People began discarding imported clothes and wearing only Indian ones, production of Indian textile mills and handlooms went up.
Rich Peasant communities found themselves unable to pay the government's revenue due to the disappearance of their cash income. For them the fight was a struggle against high revenue. So, the rich peasants participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement and supported the boycott programmes. Rich peasant communities like Jats of Uttar Pradesh and Patidars of Gujarat were active in this movement. For them swaraj meant, the reduction in revenues to the government.