Question

How did the Non-Cooperation Movement take different forms in different parts of India?

Write down any two incidences. (Class 8)​

Answer 1

The Non-cooperation movement was launched on 4th September, 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi with the aim of self-governance and obtaining full independence (Purna Swaraj) as the Indian National Congress (INC) withdrew its support for British reforms following the Rowlatt Act of 21 March 1919, and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 13 April 1919.[1][2]

The Rowlatt Act of March 1919, which suspended the rights of political prisoners in sedition trials,[1] was seen as a "political awakening" by Indians and as a "threat" by the British.[3] Although it was never invoked and declared void just a few years later,[2] the act motivated Gandhi to conceive the idea of satyagraha (truth), which he saw as synonymous with independence. This idea was also authorised the following month by Jawaharlal Nehru, for who the massacre also endorsed “the conviction that nothing short of independence was acceptable”.[1]

Gandhi's planning of the non-cooperation movement included persuading all Indians to withdraw their labour from any activity that "sustained the British government and economy in India",[4] including British industries and educational institutions.[4] In addition to promoting “self-reliance” by spinning khadi, buying Indian-made goods only and boycotting British goods, Gandhi's non-cooperation movement called for the restoration of the Khilafat (Khilafat movement) in Turkey and the end to untouchability. This result in public held meetings and strikes (hartals) led to the first arrests of both Jawaharlal Nehru and his father, Motilal Nehru, on 6 December 1921.[5]

It was one of the movements for Indian independence from British rule[6] and ended, as Nehru described in his autobiography, "suddenly" in February 1922 after the Chauri Chaura incident.[7] Subsequent independence movements were the Civil Disobedience Movement and the Quit India Movement.[6]

Through non-violent means or Ahimsa, protesters would refuse to buy British goods, adopt the use of local handicrafts and picket liquor shops.[8]The ideas of Ahimsa and non-violence, and Gandhi's ability to rally hundreds of thousands of common citizens towards the cause of Indian independence, were first seen on a large scale in this movement through the summer of 1920.