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Non-cooperation movement
Asahayog Andolan
Before proceeding to an analysis of Gandhi's role in the Non-Cooperation Movement, it is pertinent to delineate the circumstances that shook Gandhi's confidence in the fairness of the British Government and transformed him into a non-co-operator. When Gandhi returned to India in the year 1915, he did not directly enter the political scenario, following the advice of his political mentor Gopal Krishna Gokhle. However, in the period between 1917 and 18, he rendered leadership to some local disputes and thus rose to prominence. He supported the cause of the oppressed cultivators of Champaran district of Bihar, associated himself with the campaign of the peasants of the Kheda district in Gujarat and also backed the textile workers of Ahmedabad, who were fighting for their wages. During this phase, Gandhi was loyal to the colonial government and even volunteered for the recruitment of soldiers to fight on behalf of the English, during the First World War. However, the Gandhi's role as a co-operator of the British government did not last long. The Rowlatt Act, followed by the Jallianwallah Bagh massacre and the Khilafat issue embittered Gandhi's feelings towards the British government. Gandhi stance changed to that of a non-cooperator of the British government and he soon after launched the Non-Cooperation Movement. When Gandhi realized that there was no prospect of getting any fair treatment at the hands of British, he planned to withdraw the nation's co-operation from the government and thereby mar the administrative set up of the country. In this initiative, he expected to garner the support of the Muslims, who were nurturing anti British sentiments, on the Turkey-issue. Gandhi's main objective was to procure justice for the Muslims, through his method of passive resistance; satyagraha. In August, 1920, a hartal was organized in the entire country. The formal launch of the Non-
Cooperation Movement in the August of 1920 followed the expiry of the notice that was sent to the Viceroy by Gandhi. He returned to the Viceroy, all the medals he had received in recognition of his war services from the British government.
the resolution on Non-Cooperation was repeated again. This session garnered greater support in favor of the resolution. The Congress redefined the resolution as the procurement of Swaraj by the use of peaceful and legitimate means. According to Gandhi, swaraj meant establishment of self rule within British Empire with complete freedom to secede any time.
Period - September
1920 to February 1922
The programme of Non-Cooperation
Gameplan
The program and policies of the Non-Cooperation Movement that was adopted at the special
session of the Congress in Calcutta and restated at the Nagpur session included; promotion of swadeshi and boycott of foreign made articles, surrender of honorary posts and titles, rejection of official Durbars, progressive rejection by lawyers of British courts, boycott of elections appointing new Councils, refusal by clerks and soldiers to serve in Mesopotamia and boycott of Government run and state assisted schools.
It aimed to resist British occupation of India through nonviolent means. Protestors would refuse to buy British goods, adopt the use of local handicrafts, picket sex shops, and try to deterioate the values of Indian honor and knowledge of sex.
Who supported it ?
But the younger generation of Indian nationalists were thrilled, and backed Gandhi. The Congress Party adopted his plans, and he received extensive support from Muslim leaders like Maulana Azad, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, Hakim Ajmal Khan,Abbas Tyabji, Maulana Mohammad Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali. Gandhi was elected President of the Indian National Congress in 1919 and 1920,
Noteworthy happenings
This period also witnessed the coming into being of numerous national educational institutions for the benefit of the students. Noteworthy among them were Jamia Milia University, Aligarh University and National College, Lahore. An important program of The NonCooperation Movement was the promotion of khadi. Under the guidance of Gandhi, charkha and Indian handloom products gained back their glory. Many weavers were employed.
Spectacular achievement
The most spectacular achievement of the boycott programme was seen during the visit of the Prince of Wales to India on 17 November, 1921. He was greeted by the Indians with black flags. A countrywide Harte was observed and more than 60,000 people were arrested.
Understanding the (UPSC GS Mains Question 1. ---- Do you think Mahatma Gandhis Khilafat Movement support to Khilafat Movement had
diluted his secular credentials? Give your argument based on the assessment of events. (2007/15 ) 2. Discuss the aims and objects of the Khilafat Movement. To what extent was it successful? (2001/15)
which are predominantly Turkish in race. These assurances led the Indian M to believe that whatever happened, the territorial integrity and independence of Turkey, so far as her Asiatic dominions would be maintained. However, what
Prominent leaders
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr. M.A. Ansari, Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, Maulavi Abdulbari (Lukhnow), Hakin Ajmal Khan and the Ali brothers were the prominent leaders of this movement.
happened was different. Thrace was presented to Greece while the Asiatic portions of Turkey passed to England and France. Thus Turkey was dispossessed of her homelands and the Sultan deprived of all real authority. Indian M regarded this as a great betrayal and carried on agitations through out 1919 but to no effect. At the same time, Mustufa Kemal Pasha a highly gifted leader rose in Turkey brushed aside the weak regime of the Caliph and resolved to make a new, powerful Turkey on modern nationalistic lines. Aware that the Caliph was the religious leader of the Arab world he decided to get rid his country of Arabism and liberate it from the stronghold of the maulvis and mullahs.
All India Khilafat Conference was held in 1919 and in March 1920, a committee under the leadership of Maulana Shuakat Ali and Mohammad Ali was also sent to England. British Government signed Treaty of Tibers on 10 August 1920 Turkey was partitioned Sultan was made a prisoner and sent to Constantinople.
2. The Khilafat movement. 3. The non-cooperation is referred to briefly since it has its origin in the K movement
Under the leadership of the Ali brothers they approached King Abdul Azeez of Arabia to become the new Caliph. The King had the Indians in a corner by asking them If it is Islam that you are zealous about, why do not you join hands with Gandhi and free India of the Brit rule. Thats what Islam teaches. You come to me as a slave of the Brits and it seems to me that you have come to lead me into a Brit trap. Next the leaders approached Reza Shah, the ruler of Iran. But Shah
movement.
proud of his Aryan tradition, evinced little interest. In 1921, Muhammad Ali had written a letter to the Amir of Afghanistan inviting him to invade India. The Brits got scent of this and arrested the Ali brothers. On his written assurance that he was no opponent of the Brits he was released. In 1921, when the Khilafat agitation was at its peak, Ali again sent a wire to the Amir urging him not to
5. Hindu-Muslim unity!
enter into any agreement with the Brits. When Ali was taken to task by the Congress leaders he showed Swami Shraddananada (renowned Arya Samaj leader) a hand written draft of the wire. -----------------------------------------------------------
It was also the first time that the Muslims had remembered the Hindus. Said Maulana Abdul Bari at the Khilafat Conference The Muslims honor would be at stake if they forget the co-operation of the Hindus. I for my part will say that we should stop cow-killing, because we are children of the same soil.
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Afghans than purchase freedom from Afghan invasion at the cost of her honor. To have India defended by an unrepentant govt that keeps the Khilafat and Punjab wounds still bleeding is to sell Indias honor. Gandhi was criticized by Lala Lajpat Rai and B C Pal for his statements. Thus it is interesting to note that the Hindu Congress leaders took up the case of the Caliph when the Muslim world itself had refused to do so. Gandhi had equated the Khilafat movement with Indias freedom movement. But ,Gandhi failed to realize that the PanIslamic idea, which inspired the K movement, cut at the very root of Indian nationality.
3. The non-cooperation is referred to briefly since it has its origin in the K movement. It is proved beyond doubt that the reason
for the 1920 Non Cooperation Movement was incidents in Turkey and not the massacre of Indians in Punjab. Remember that Gandhi had taken the Khilafat decision independent of the Congress before its session. Bottom line is Khilafat was the reason for the Non-cooperation movement. It was ratified by the Congress after the movement had started. Swaraj was incorporated later. The term was not corned by Gandhi for which we need to go back to the Partition of Bengal in 1905. We owe the word to Bengalis for popularizing it although it was used
5.Hindu-Muslim unity!
The Khilafat Committee died a natural death after the abolition of the Caliphate by Kemal Pasha in 1924. The Hindu-Muslim unity brought about by Gandhi in 1920-21 was artificial in character and did not produce any real change of heart. It was based on common hatred for the Brits, for
different reasons though, by the Muslims on account of the treatment meted out to the Caliphate, by the Hindus for Swaraj. The so-called Nationalists Muslims who had joined Gandhi in 1921 were really Pan-islamists who merely exploited Gandhi for securing redress of the Khilafat wrong. As soon as the Khilafat agitation came to an end, they showed their true colors. Muhammad Ali,
who was Gandhis trusted during the first Satyagraha campaign refused to join him in the second campaign in 1930. At a meeting of the All India Muslim Conference at Bombay held in April 1930, attended by over 20,000 Muslims he said We refuse to join Mr Gandhi, because his movement is not a movement for the complete independence of India but for making the seventy million of Indian Musalmans dependants of the Hindu Mahasabha.
Suspension
On February 5, 1922, in the Chauri Chaura, after violent clashes between the local police and the protesters in which three protesters were killed by police firing, the police chowki (station) was set on fire by the mob, killing 22 of the police occupants.
Gandhi went on for a 3 days fast to appeal to the Indians to stop all resistance and the movement was called off.
and forth, victimizing civilians in between. Gandhi appealed to the Indian public for all resistance to end, went on a fast lasting 3 weeks, and called off the mass civil disobedience movement.
Effect
Its immediate suspension diminished the public enthusiasm. The boycott of the educational institutions and law courts was not successful in the long run. At the A.I.C.C. meeting there was wide scale opposition to the calling off of the non-cooperation duly supported by nationalists all over India. There is no doubt that the suspension of the noncooperation movement had the disastrous effect of developing a spirit of frustration, and this may be regarded as the main cause of political inertia that followed. As very often happens, pent-up energy found an outlet in the Hindu-Muslim riots that followed in the next few years. The Govt correctly gauged the situation, took full advantage of Gandhis unpopularity, was tried and sentenced to six years simple imprisonment. Failure of Non-Cooperation Movement yield Revolutionary movement by Youngsters
(GS Mains Question---- Trace the formation of the Swaraj Party. What were its demands? (1999/15) )
Gandhi and most of the Congress Party rejected the provincial and central legislative councils created by the British to offer some participation for Indians. They argued that the councils were rigged with un-elected allies of the British, and too un-democratic and simply rubber stamps of the Viceroy. In December 1922, Chittaranjan Das, N.C. Kelkar and Motilal Nehru formed the Congress-Khilafat Swarajaya Party with Das as the president and Nehru as one of the secretaries. Other prominent leaders included Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Subhas Chandra Bose of Bengal, Vithalbhai Patel and other Congress leaders who were becoming dissatisfied with the Congress. The other
group was the 'No-Changers',who had accepted Gandhis' decision to withdraw the movement. Now both the Swarajists and the NoChangers were engaged in fierce political struggle. But both were determined to avoid the disastrous experience of the 1907 split at Surat. On the advice of Gandhi, the two groups decided to remain in the Congress but to work in their separate ways. There was no basic difference between the two. Swarajist members were elected to the councils. Vithalbhai Patel became the President of the Central Legislative Assembly. However, the legislatures had very limited powers, and apart from some heated parliamentary debates, procedural stand-offs with British authorities, the core mission of obstructing British rule failed.
The Swaraj Party, in alliance with the leftwing Liberals, scored a series of parliamentary victories, of which great political capital was made by them. But for all practical purposes they were, of very insignificant importance. Undoubtedly this parliamentary opposition could be of some political value if it was coordinated with organised popular resistance in the country. Had the Swarajists really meant to take up a struggle against imperialist absolutionism, they could have organised such a popular resistance in support of their parliamentary activities. They could have done it because the mass discontent which supplied the
dynamic energy to the Non-Co operation movement was still in existence and could be brought to bear upon the political situation if a suitable expression was found for it. But the very fact that the Swaraj Party was the political crystallisation of the tendencies which from the very beginning had been hostile to any revolutionary developments, precluded it from taking up any serious struggle.
With the death of Chittaranjan Das in 1925, and with Motilal Nehru's return to the Congress the following year, the Swaraj party was greatly weakened.
Historians take on the movement Contemporary historians and critics suggest But many historians and Indian leaders of the
that the movement was successful enough to break the back of British rule, and possibly even result in the independence most Indians strove for until 1947 time also defend Gandhi's judgment. If he had not stopped the revolts, India could have descended into a chaotic rebellion which would have alienated common Indians and impress only violent revolutionaries.