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The seeds of Indian independence were already sown from 1901 to 1920 with the Lucknow Pact and the partition of Bengal. In the 1920s, Mahatma Gandhi took the forefront of the Indian protests and movements in a peaceful and non-violent manner. He led the civil disobedience movement, non-cooperation movement, and observed the Khilafat Andolan closely. Saddened by the loss of lives after the Chauri Chaura incident, Gandhi called off the non-cooperation movement to stand true to the nature of his protests (non-violence).
Khilafat Andolan (1919)
Khilafat Andolan or the Khilafat movement was a campaign organised to defend the position of the Caliph of Turkey. The Indian Muslims rose in 1919 to impress the importance of the Caliph for their religious faith, upon the British government.
The Caliph or Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was seen as the leader of Muslims all around the world. After the decline of this empire in the later 1910s, Indian Muslims started fearing the abolishment of the Caliphate. The four major factors endangering the Caliphate were:
Attacks by Italy (1911)
Balkan wars (1912-1913)
Defeat in the WWI (1914-1918)
Treaty of Sèvres (1920)
The Treaty of Sèvres signed in August 1920 entirely disintegrated the Turkish Ottoman Empire. It gave away some parts to Greece among other countries and separated every non-Turkish area from the main empire.
In India, Abul Kalam Azad, Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali started a campaign named Khilafat Movement against the British Raj. They asked Mahatma Gandhi to support their movement and in turn, promised to observe non-violence during their protests. The following incidents tarnished the purpose of the Khilafat Andolan in the following years.
Hijrat (meaning ‘exodus’): Many Muslim people started leaving India to move to Afghanistan in 1920 because they believed that India was an apostate country
Malabar rebellion: The clashes between different groups of people in the Moplah region of Malabar created a wide divide between the Hindu and Muslim communities, angering the former community on a greater scale
Consequently, Mahatma Gandhi was arrested in 1922. This weakened the Khilafat Andolan and the protests against the British government. In 1924, the movement ended with the abolishment of the Caliphate by Sultan Mehmed VI.
Non-Cooperation Movement (September 1920 – February 1922)
Under the guidance and leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian National Congress launched the non-cooperation movement on September 5, 1920. The programme for this movement was introduced in the Calcutta session of the INC in September 1920.Mahatma Gandhi launched a manifesto in March 1920 where he encouraged people to:
Eradicate untouchability
Adopt swadeshi principles and swadeshi weaving and spinning
To spread the word about this movement, Gandhi travelled across India in 1921 from one state to another.
The non-cooperation movement started as a non-violent protest against the British government. Indian leaders and professionals gave up their titles and positions in the local bodies to protest against the government. Indians were asked to resign from government jobs, stop sending their children to government-aided schools, not join the British Indian army and boycott foreign-made products.
As the next step, Indians were asked to stop paying their taxes if the British did not heed to their demands. The Indian National Congress came forward during this time to demand self-rule or Swarajya. Mahatma Gandhi was adamant about using non-violent means for registering their protests. This was the first time that INC adopted an unconstitutional way of fulfilling their demands.
Chauri Chaura Incident (February 2, 1922)
Chauri Chaura was a place in the United Province of British India. Located in the Gorakhpur district, this place became the reason for the discontinuation of the non-cooperation movement.
On the call of Mahatma Gandhi, a large group of peaceful protesters came together at Chauri Chaura to join the non-cooperation movement. The police controlled by the British government started firing at the protesters that included young children and women. About three civilians were killed, and many others were injured in the process.
Incited by this incident, an enraged crowd burnt a police station killing about 22 policemen. Consequently, Mahatma Gandhi decided to put a full stop to the Non-cooperation movement on February 12, 1922. The British government sentenced 19 protesters to death and 14 were sent for life imprisonment as a punishment.
Civil Disobedience Movement
Also known as passive resistance, Mahatma Gandhi led the civil disobedience movement. He wanted the British government to agree to the demands of the Indians by abolishing unjust taxes like the salt tax. Not just in India, but the Civil Disobedience movement has been an important philosophy of the movements across the world.
The British government decided to reform the constitution of India by creating the Simon Commission. In this Commission, they did not include any Indians. This led to massive strikes and protests across the country that ultimately gave birth to the Civil Disobedience Movement.
The movement started from the Dandi March by Mahatma Gandhi on March 12, 1930. Starting from Sabarmati Ashram, he walked to Dandi, a village on the coast of Gujarat, to break the salt law. The British government tried to break the movement but the large scale of urban and rural participation continued to walk with Gandhi.
People walked for 24 days covering about 16 km every day to reach Dandi. They boycotted foreign goods and refused to pay unjust taxes.
Conclusion
In the Indian Independence Movement there have been many remarkable and impactful leaders one of them being Mohandas K. Gandhi who led and supervised three main campaigns: noncooperation from 1919 to 1922, civil disobedience and the Salt Satyagraha from 1930 to 1931, and the Quit India movement from about 1940 to 1942. The other major events during this decade were the Chauri Chaura incident and Khilafat Movement.
