Non-Cooperation Movement

Prelude to the non-cooperation movement

In 1909, Mahatma Gandhi mentioned in his book ‘Hind Swaraj’ which meant that British rule was established in India with the cooperation of the Indian public and has survived this long for a similar reason. Thus, Gandhi Ji planned a non-cooperation movement throughout India which would unfold bit by bit. It ought, to begin with, the surrendering of assorted government titles, and a boycott of civil services, army, police, courts and legislative councils, schools, and foreign products. 

Movement in the towns

The Non-Cooperation Khilafat movement began in January 1921. Numerous social teams who participated responded to the call to Swaraj. A movement within the cities started with the mobilisation of thousands of scholars, teachers, and lawyers, who gave up their posts. Council elections were boycotted all over except Madras and therefore the import of cloth material was slashed by half. Foreign products were boycotted too, and entry to liquor ships was blocked. Individuals discarded foreign cloth and started wearing solely textiles manufactured in India. However, the movement slowly died down within the cities for certain reasons. Indian establishments were too slow in fixing up replacements for the British institutions that had been boycotted. Also, the khadi cloth made domestically was expensive and not cheap to many. The individuals had to go back to wearing cheap, mass-produced clothing. 

However, this was not the end. From the cities, the movement shifted into the countryside and incorporated peasants and tribals. Baba Ramchandra, a sanyasi who had gone to Fiji on indenture, led the peasant cluster in Awadh. The movement chiefly targeted landlords and large landholders who extorted sums of money from the poor through various ways like rents and alternative taxes. Begar, which was unpaid labour, was a typical practice that peasants were put through and they had no security of tenure. They may be evicted anytime. The demands placed forth by the peasant movement included:

• Reduction of revenue
• Abolition of begar
• Social boycott of oppressive landlords

In several areas, landlords were even deprived of services offered by barbers and washermen in the form of a “nai-dhobi bandh”. 

Differing strands of the movement

In June of 1920, Jawaharlal Nehru had started visiting Awadh to interact with fellow individuals and perceive their struggles. 

By October of the same year, the Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra and some others to address farmers’ grievances. Within a month, around three hundred branches had sprouted up within the area. Therefore, once the non-cooperation movement began next year, congress made efforts to include the rebellion in the countryside within its ambit. However, things did not go as planned. 

The peasant movement turned violent in 1921 as homes of landlords were torched, shops were pillaged, and grain hoards were overtaken. In several regions, it was announced that Gandhiji had declared that no taxes had to be paid and each piece of land had to be distributed among the poor. His name was used to justify these unlawful actions. 

Interpretation of Gandhiji’s message was completely different across communities. The tribals thought of swaraj differently as a guerilla movement that began in the 1920s within the Gudem Hills of Andhra. This was something that Congress could neither approve nor control. The explanations for this movement were that in these hills, like in other mountain areas, the colonial government had closed massive forest spaces. It prevented individuals from coming back in to collect fruit or fuelwood, or to graze their cattle. This angered the hill tribes. Their livelihoods were on the line, additionally, they felt that their traditions were being denied. 

Once the government forced them to contribute in the form of a beggar for the construction of a new road, they revolted. Their leader was Alluri Sitaram Raju who interestingly claimed that he had a spread of special powers. He could make accurate astrological predictions and help to heal people, he could also survive bullet shots. The rebels were fascinated by Raju and declared that he was an incarnation of God. Raju propagated the values of the great Gandhiji and persuaded many people to give up alcohol. He inspired them to wear khadi, as he had been impressed by the Non-cooperation movement. However, he was of the view that India had the potential to be freed solely through violence, and not by the path that Gandhiji wished. The rebels of the Gudem hills attacked several police stations, attempted murder of British officers and carried on this type of guerilla warfare in the name of swaraj. Their leader, Raju, was captured in 1924. This was followed by his execution. However, over time he became a hero among his villagers.

Workers had a different interpretation of the idea of swaraj and Gandhiji’s message. For those working in Assam, swaraj in the plantations was synonymous with moving inside and out freely of the small place they were confined in. It also meant maintaining a link to the village they had originally belonged to and come from. Under the Inland Emigration Act passed in 1859, plantation workers were not permitted to exit the tea gardens without prior permission from British officials. However, in all its unfairness, they were seldom given this permission to go out. When they got wind of the non-cooperation movement, workers numbering in thousands left their jobs on the plantations on which they worked, and went home. They defied the authorities and believed that Mahatma Gandhi would come to save them. They also believed that they would be given land in their villages. However, they never reached their destination. They, unfortunately, got caught up along the way on the route due to a strike of railway and steamer operators, because of which the police could catch them and beat them up brutally.  

Conclusion

The non-cooperation movement had various branches. The end goals of these branches were not always defined by the movement headed by the Congress program. They understood the term swaraj in their own ways, believing it to be a time when all their struggles would be over and their problems would dissipate. However, when the tribal groups recited Gandhiji’s name and took up slogans demanding ‘Swatantra Bharat’, they were unconsciously becoming part of a pan-India agitation that would adjoin their movement with that of the Congress. Thus, when they acted in the name of the Mahatma, they were relating to a movement which was beyond the scope of their local area.