The Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22)

The Non-Cooperation Movement was the first mass movement of the freedom struggle on a national scale. It ran from 1920 to early 1922 and brought ordinary Indians into the fight against British rule.

Why it began

Two grievances came together:

• The Rowlatt Act (1919) and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which destroyed any remaining faith in British justice.
• The Khilafat issue, the anger of Indian Muslims at the treatment of the Ottoman Caliph after the First World War.

Gandhi united both causes, giving the movement a base across communities.

What "non-cooperation" meant

Indians were asked to withdraw cooperation from the colonial system:

• Surrender titles and honours.
• Boycott government schools, courts and councils.
• Boycott foreign cloth and promote khadi.

What the Congress formally resolved

At its December 1920 Nagpur session, the Congress formally adopted the attainment of Swaraj by legitimate and peaceful means as its explicit objective, the first time the party committed to this goal in such direct terms. Gandhi also conceived Non-Cooperation as a staged programme: it would begin with the boycotts and surrender of titles described above, with more assertive steps (including mass civil disobedience and non-payment of taxes) held in reserve if the government did not respond.

Why it was called off

In February 1922, a mob at Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh set fire to a police station, killing several policemen. Gandhi, committed to non-violence, called off the entire movement. The decision was controversial. Many younger leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru felt it was a mistake to stop a nationwide movement over one local incident, but it set the moral tone for the struggles that followed.

The legal aftermath

Several of those arrested and tried for the Chauri Chaura deaths received legal defence from Madan Mohan Malaviya and Krishna Kant Malaviya, who took up the case even after the movement's suspension, a detail UPSC has tested directly.