Name the new program which was adopted by the Congress in December 1920 as a program of freedom struggle against the British Government? Explain. Why did Gandhi withdraw that movement?
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Answer:
The movement was to be nonviolent and to consist of Indians resigning their titles; boycotting government educational institutions, the courts, government service, foreign goods, and elections; and, eventually, refusing to pay taxes. Noncooperation was agreed to by the Indian National Congress at Calcutta (now Kolkata) in September 1920 and launched that December. In 1921 the government, confronted with a united Indian front for the first time, was visibly shaken, but a revolt by the Muslim Moplahs of Kerala (southwestern India) in August 1921 and a number of violent outbreaks alarmed moderate opinion. After an angry mob murdered police officers in the village of Chauri Chaura (now in Uttar Pradesh state) in February 1922, Gandhi himself called off the movement; the next month he was arrested without incident. The movement marked the transition of Indian nationalism from a middle-class to a mass basis.
Non cooperation movement
From 1920 to 1922, Gandhi started the Non-Cooperation Movement. At the Kolkata session of the Congress in September 1920, Gandhi convinced other leaders of the need to start a non-co-operation movement in support of Khilafat as well as for dominion status.
In the Nagpur Session of Congress held in December 1920, the key non-cooperation agreements were undertaken. A programme was introduced to surrender names, to boycott schools, courts, and councils, to boycott international goods, to encourage the preservation of Hindu-Muslim unity and strict non-violence.
Gandhiji decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement due to various incidents of violence perpetrated by the masses, especially the Chauri Chaura incident in 1922 where the people clashed with the police, setting a police-station on fire.