The Non-cooperation Movement Of 1920

India was dissatisfied in the final year of the second decade of the twentieth century. The Rowlatt Act, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and martial law in Punjab had all belied the British's generous wartime promises. Few people were satisfied with the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms, which were announced near the end of 1919 and included an ill-considered diarchy scheme. Hunter Committee, which had been appointed by the government to investigate the Punjab disturbances, was a sham, that the House of Lords had voted in favour of General Dyer's action, and that the British public had voted in favour of General Dyer's action.

 

•    When the Indian Muslims discovered that their loyalty had been bought during the war by promises of a generous treaty with Turkey after the war — a promise that British statesmen had no intention of keeping — they were furious.

 

•    Muslims regarded Turkey's Caliph as their spiritual leader, so they were understandably upset when he announced that he would relinquish control over the holy sites that it was his duty as Caliph to protect. 

 

•    The Khilafat leaders were told categorically not to expect anything more, and the Treaty of Sevres, signed with Turkey in May 1920, made it abundantly clear that the Turkish Empire had been completely dismantled. 

 

•    Gandhiji, who had been in contact with the Khilafat leaders for a long time and had been a special invitee to the Khilafat Conference in November 1919, had always been sympathetic to their cause, particularly because he believed the British had broken their word by making promises they didn't intend to keep. 

 

•    He proposed to the Khilafat Committee in February 1920 that they adopt a nonviolent non-cooperation programme to protest the government's behaviour. The Khilafat Committee in Allahabad unanimously accepted Gandhiji's suggestion of non-cooperation on June 9, 1920, and asked him to lead the movement.

 

•    Meanwhile, the Congress was becoming increasingly sceptical of constitutional means of political advancement. It was disgusted by the Hunter Committee Report, especially since its own inquiry committee had found brutalities in Punjab. In the circumstances, it agreed to take non-cooperation into account. 

 

•    The AICC met in May 1920 and decided to call a special session in September to allow the Congress to make a decision on its next steps. It was clear that they needed to come up with a solution quickly because the people were clamouring for action. 

 

•    Many of them, who had been awakened to political consciousness by the nationalist leadership's relentless propaganda efforts over the previous four decades or more, were outraged by what they perceived as insults from the British government. 

 

•    It appeared dishonourable and cowardly to swallow these insults. Many sections of Indian society also experienced significant economic hardship.

 

•    High prices and shortages of food and essential commodities had hit the workers and artisans, the lower middle class, and the middle class in the towns. The rural poor and peasants were also affected by widespread drought and epidemics.

 

•    After the notice given to the Viceroy in his letter of 22nd June, in which he asserted the right recognised "from time immemorial of the subject to refuse to assist a ruler who misrules," the movement was formally launched on 1 August 192O. 

 

•    The day of mourning and the launch of the movement merged when Lokamanya Tilak died in the early hours of August 1, and people across the country observed hartals and marched in processions. Many people observed a fast and prayed.

 

•    In September, the Congress met in Calcutta and accepted non-cooperation as its own. The main opposition, led by C.R. Das, was to a boycott of legislative council elections, which were scheduled to take place soon. Even those who were opposed to the boycott accepted Congress's discipline and withdrew from the elections. The voters, for the most part, stayed away as well. 

 

•    When the Congress met in Nagpur in December for its annual session, the opposition had dissipated; the elections were over, so the boycott of councils was no longer an issue, and it was CR. Das who moved the main resolution on non-cooperation. 

 

•    The boycott of government-affiliated schools and colleges, law courts, and foreign cloth was included in the non-cooperation programme, which could be expanded to include resignation from government service and mass civil disobedience, including non-payment of taxes. 

 

•    People were asked to maintain Hindu-Muslim unity, give up untouchability, and observe strict non-violence. National schools and colleges were to be established, panchayats were to be established for resolving disputes, hand-spinning and weaving were to be encouraged, and people were asked to maintain Hindu-Muslim unity, give up untouchability, and observe strict non-violence. 

 

•    Swaraj would be ushered in within a year if the programme was fully implemented, Gandhiji promised. As a result of the Nagpur session, the Congress has committed to a programme of extra-constitutional mass action. Many revolutionary terrorist groups, particularly in Bengal, have pledged their support to the movement.

 

 

a.    The Congress's goal was shifted from achieving self-government through constitutional and legal means to achieving Swaraj through peaceful and legal means.

 

b.    The Congress would now have a fifteen-member Working Committee in charge of its day-to-day operations. Tilak's proposal had been shot down by the Moderate opposition when it was first proposed in 1916.

 

•    Gandhiji, too, recognised that the Congress could not lead a long-term movement without a unified body that worked all year. Provincial Congress Committees would now be organised on a linguistic basis, allowing them to communicate with the people in their native tongue.

 

•    By forming village and mohalla or ward committees, the Congress organisation was to reach down to the village and mohalla level. The annual membership fee was reduced to four annas to allow the poor to join. 

 

•    The Congress would also be able to have a consistent source of revenue as a result of widespread participation. The organisation structure was also streamlined and democratised in other ways. The Congress was to make as much use of Hindi as possible.

 

•    Gandhiji went on a nationwide tour with the Ali brothers (the foremost Khilafat leaders), during which he spoke at hundreds of meetings and met with a large number of political workers. 

 

•    Thousands of students left schools and colleges in the first month to enrol in over 800 national schools and colleges that had sprung up across the country. The educational boycott was especially successful in Bengal, where students in Calcutta sparked a province-wide strike to force their institutions' managements to disassociate themselves from the government. 

 

•    Subhas Bose became the principal of the National Congress in Calcutta, and C.R. Das played a key role in promoting the movement. The Swadeshi spirit was reignited, this time as part of a national struggle.

 

•    Punjab, too, responded to the educational boycott, coming in second only to Bengal, with Lala Lajpat Rai, despite his reservations about this aspect of the programme, playing a key role.

 

•    Bombay, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, and Assam were also active, while Madras remained lukewarm. Lawyers' boycott of law courts was less successful than the educational boycott, but it was much more dramatic and spectacular. C.R. Das, Motilal Nehru, M.R. Jayakar, Saifuddin Kitchlew, Vallabhbhai Patel, C. Rajagopalachari, T. Prakasam, and Asaf Ali were among the country's leading lawyers who gave up lucrative practises, and their sacrifice became a source of inspiration for many. 

 

•    The boycott of foreign cloth, however, was perhaps the most successful aspect of the programme. Volunteers would go from house to house collecting foreign-made clothing, and the entire community would gather to light a bonfire with the items. 

 

•    Prabhudas Gandhi, who accompanied Mahatma Gandhi on his nationwide tour in the first half of 1921, recalls how their train would stop for a few minutes at small roadside stations. Gandhiji would persuade the crowd gathered to greet him to remove their headdress on the spot at the very least. As the train moved away, a pile of caps, dupattas, and turbans would form, and they would see the flames leaping upwards.

 

•    A major form of the boycott was picketing of shops selling foreign clothing. Foreign cloth imports decreased in 1921-22. Picketing toddy shops was another aspect of the movement that gained a lot of traction in many parts of the country, despite the fact that it was not part of the original plan. 

 

•    Government revenues plummeted as a result of this, and the government was forced to resort to propaganda to convince the public of the benefits of a good drink. 

 

•    The governments of Bihar and Orissa even compiled and distributed a list of all the great men in history who drank their liquor, including Moses, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Shakespeare, Gladstone, Tennyson, and Bismarck.

 

•    Tilak Swaraj fund: The AICC directed Congressmen to concentrate on collecting funds, enlisting members, and distributing charkhas for the next three months at its session in Vijayawada in March 1921. As a result, a vigorous membership drive was launched, and while the goal of one crore members was not met, the Congress membership grew to around 50 lakhs. The Tilak Swaraj Fund was oversubscribed, with the target amount of rupees one crore being exceeded. 

 

•    Charkhas were widely popularised, and khadi became the national movement's uniform. At a Madurai students' meeting, Gandhiji received a complaint that khadi was too expensive. Gandhiji retorted that the solution was to wear less clothing, and he began wearing a langot instead of a dhoti and kurta from that day forward. He lived the rest of his life as a "half-naked fakir."

 

•    On the 8th of July, Mohammed Ali declared at the All India Khilafat Conference in Karachi that it was "religiously unlawful for Muslims to continue in the British Army," and requested that this be communicated to every Muslim in the army. As a result, Mohammed Ali and other leaders were arrested right away. The speech was repeated at numerous meetings across the country in protest.

 

•    On the 4th of October, a group of 47 leading Congressmen, including Gandhiji, issued a manifesto that reiterated what Mohammed Ali had said and added that every civilian and member of the armed forces should cut ties with the oppressive government. 

 

•    The Congress Working Committee passed a similar resolution the next day, and Congress committees across the country held meetings on October 16 to adopt the same resolution. The government was forced to dismiss the incident and accept the reputational damage.

 

•    The Prince of Wales' visit, which began on November 17, 1921, was the next major event. All over the country, the day the Prince landed in Bombay was marked by a day of hartal. 

 

•    In Bombay, Gandhiji spoke to a large crowd in the grounds of the Elphinstone Mill, which was owned by nationalist Umar Shobhani, and lit a massive bonfire of foreign cloth. Unfortunately, clashes occurred between those who had gone to Gandhiji's meeting and those who had gone to the welcome function. 

 

•    Riots broke out, with Parsis, Christians, and Anglo-Indians being singled out as identifiable loyalists. There was police shooting, and fifty-nine people died as a result of the three-day upheaval. Only after Gandhiji had fasted for three days did peace return. The entire sequence of events left Gandhiji deeply disturbed and concerned about the possibility of further violence once mass civil disobedience was legalised.