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 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. In many places merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade. As the boycott movement spread, and people began discarding imported clothes and wearing only Indian ones, production of Indian textile mills and handlooms went up. But this movement in the cities gradually slowed down for a variety of reasons. Khadi cloth was often more: expensive than massproduced mill cloth and poor people could not afford to buy it. Similarly the boycott of British institutions posed a problem. For the movement to be successful, alternative Indian institutions had to be set up so that they could be used in place of the British ones. These were slow to come up.
1 11.1. Why did Justice Party refuse to boycott the council elections?
11.2. What was the impact of 'Non-Cooperation Movement' on economic front?
11.3. Why did the Non-Cooperation Movement gradually slow down in the cities?
Answers
Answer:
Explanation The correct answers are -
1. The first presidential elections in Madras were through the council. Elections were carried out after the formation of a double government system by the Government of India Act. The elections were boycotted by Congress as it actively participated in the campaign of Non-cooperation.
2. The effect of non - cooperation movement was considerable as the foreign commodities were boycotted. Many sellers were no longer trading foreign commodities. It also led to a decline in imports as foreign clothing was burned and liquor shops were also seized. This ultimately led to a boost for Indian industries as people discarded foreign commodities and switched to Indian goods.
3. The impact of boycotting the foreign textile trade led to huge losses for the foreign cloth traders. People were openly burning clothes. During those years the importing of international cloths value saw a sharp decline from Rs. 100 crores to Rs. 50 crores.:
Khadi cloth was often more expensive than mill cloth. Poor people could not afford to buy Khadi cloth. Boycott of British institutions also posed a problem. Alternative Indian institutions were not set up