Gandhi's Rise and the Non-Cooperation Movement (1915–1922)
Champaran, Kheda, Ahmedabad, Rowlatt Act, Jallianwala Bagh, Khilafat and the Non-Cooperation Movement up to Chauri Chaura, for CGPSC Prelims and Mains.
Prerequisites
- National Movement: 1885 to 1919 — Moderates, Extremists, the Lucknow Pact and Home Rule, which set the stage Gandhi stepped onto
- Constitutional Development (1773–1950) — the Government of India Act, 1919 (dyarchy), passed in the same year as the Rowlatt Act
The Hook: A Fine on Canal Water, a Fine on a Nation
In the summer of 1920 the farmers of Kandel (कंडेल) near Dhamtari refused to pay a fine for canal water. That December, Mahatma Gandhi reached Raipur for the first time. In the same month the Congress, meeting at Nagpur, the capital of the Central Provinces to which Chhattisgarh then belonged, endorsed a plan to make British rule unworkable by simply refusing to cooperate with it.
How did a lawyer back from South Africa become, within five years, the leader of India’s first truly mass movement, and why did he call it off at its height?
Why it matters: Prelims tests exact years and pairs (Champaran 1917, Rowlatt 1919, Jallianwala 13 April 1919, Chauri Chaura 1922) and the Calcutta/Nagpur sessions. Mains asks you to evaluate the Non-Cooperation Movement and the Khilafat alliance.
Gandhi Before Non-Cooperation (1915–1918)
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (मोहनदास करमचंद गांधी) returned from South Africa on 9 January 1915 (now marked as Pravasi Bharatiya Divas). In South Africa he had developed satyagraha (सत्याग्रह), “insistence on truth”: non-violent resistance that accepts suffering rather than inflicting it. On the advice of his political guru Gopal Krishna Gokhale, he spent a year travelling India before taking up any cause. He set up an ashram at Kochrab (1915), which moved to Sabarmati (1917), Ahmedabad.
The three early satyagrahas
| Satyagraha | Year | Issue | Associates | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champaran (Bihar) | 1917 | Tinkathia (तिनकठिया) system: indigo planters forced peasants to grow indigo on 3/20 of their land | Invited by Raj Kumar Shukla; Rajendra Prasad, Mazharul Haq, J.B. Kripalani, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh | Gandhi defied an order to leave the district; an inquiry committee (with Gandhi as a member) led to the tinkathia system being abolished and part of illegal dues being refunded. First civil disobedience in India |
| Ahmedabad mill strike (Gujarat) | 1918 | Dispute over plague bonus and wages of mill workers | Anasuya Sarabhai (whose brother Ambalal was a mill-owner) | Gandhi’s first hunger strike in India; workers won a 35% wage increase through arbitration |
| Kheda (Gujarat) | 1918 | Crop failure; peasants demanded remission of land revenue | Vallabhbhai Patel, Indulal Yagnik | First non-cooperation (no-revenue campaign); the government quietly instructed that revenue be recovered only from those who could pay |
1919: Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh
Rowlatt Act (रौलट एक्ट)
- Officially the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919, passed in March 1919 on the recommendation of the Sedition Committee chaired by Justice Sidney Rowlatt.
- It allowed detention without trial (for up to two years) and trial without jury for political offences. Indians called it the “Black Act”: “no vakil, no daleel, no appeal” (no lawyer, no argument, no appeal).
- It was passed despite the opposition of every elected Indian member of the Imperial Legislative Council; M.A. Jinnah, Madan Mohan Malaviya and Mazharul Haq resigned in protest.
Rowlatt Satyagraha: Gandhi formed a Satyagraha Sabha and called a nationwide hartal on 6 April 1919 (dates varied in some cities). It was the first all-India mass protest Gandhi led. Violence in some places, especially Punjab, led him to call it off, calling it a “Himalayan miscalculation” to have launched mass satyagraha before people were trained in non-violence.
Jallianwala Bagh massacre (जलियाँवाला बाग हत्याकांड), 13 April 1919
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Place | Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab |
| Date | 13 April 1919 (Baisakhi) |
| Background | Arrest of local leaders Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal on 10 April; unrest in Amritsar |
| Who fired | Troops under Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, on an unarmed crowd in an enclosed ground, without warning |
| Deaths | Official figure 379; Indian estimates far higher (the Congress inquiry put it around 1,000) |
| Lt. Governor of Punjab | Michael O’Dwyer, who endorsed Dyer’s action (he was shot in London in 1940 by Udham Singh) |
| Inquiry | Government’s Hunter Committee; the Congress set up its own inquiry committee |
| Protests | Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood; Sir C. Sankaran Nair resigned from the Viceroy’s Executive Council |
The Khilafat question
After the First World War, the Allies dismembered the Ottoman Empire, whose Sultan was the Khalifa (spiritual head) for many Indian Muslims. The Khilafat Movement (खिलाफ़त आंदोलन), led by the Ali brothers (Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali), Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Hasrat Mohani, demanded better terms for Turkey. Gandhi saw it as a chance to forge Hindu-Muslim unity and joined it. The Khilafat Committee adopted non-cooperation in 1920, before the Congress did.
The Non-Cooperation Movement (असहयोग आंदोलन), 1920–1922
Three demands
- Redress of the Punjab wrongs (Jallianwala Bagh, martial law)
- Redress of the Khilafat wrong
- Swaraj (स्वराज): Gandhi promised “Swaraj in one year” if the programme was carried out fully
Adoption
| Event | Date | Key fact |
|---|---|---|
| Movement launched | 1 August 1920 | The same day Bal Gangadhar Tilak died. Gandhi returned his Kaiser-i-Hind medal |
| Special session, Calcutta | September 1920 | President Lala Lajpat Rai; non-cooperation programme adopted (C.R. Das was among its opponents at this stage) |
| Annual session, Nagpur | December 1920 | President C. Vijayaraghavachariar; Calcutta resolution ratified |
Nagpur session reforms (important):
- The Congress goal changed from self-government by constitutional means to attainment of Swaraj by peaceful and legitimate means, so extra-constitutional mass action became possible.
- Provincial Congress Committees on linguistic lines.
- A Congress Working Committee of 15 members to run the party continuously.
- Membership open to all adults on payment of four annas, to make the Congress a mass party.
M.A. Jinnah, Annie Besant and G.S. Khaparde were among those who left the Congress around this time, disagreeing with the new methods.
The programme
| Boycott (negative) | Constructive (positive) |
|---|---|
| Surrender of titles and honorary offices | Swadeshi and hand-spinning; khadi (खादी) |
| Boycott of government schools and colleges | National schools and colleges: Kashi Vidyapith, Gujarat Vidyapith, Jamia Millia Islamia, Bihar Vidyapith |
| Boycott of law courts (lawyers gave up practice: Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhbhai Patel, Saifuddin Kitchlew) | Panchayats to settle disputes |
| Boycott of elections to councils under the 1919 Act | Tilak Swaraj Fund (target ₹1 crore, exceeded) |
| Boycott of foreign cloth (public bonfires) | Hindu-Muslim unity, removal of untouchability, temperance |
Spread
- Peasants: Awadh Kisan Sabha (Baba Ramchandra), no-revenue campaigns in Andhra (Guntur), forest satyagrahas.
- Workers: strikes in plantations (Assam) and industries.
- Tribals and forests: forest-law defiance in several regions. In Chhattisgarh, the Sihawa-Nagri jungle satyagraha (January 1922) carried non-cooperation into the forests.
- Prince of Wales’ visit (17 November 1921): greeted with a nationwide hartal; riots in Bombay.
- Malabar (1921): the Moplah (Mappila) rebellion began as part of Khilafat agitation but turned into violence with a communal edge, damaging the unity Gandhi sought.
- By December 1921 most major leaders except Gandhi were in jail.
Chauri Chaura and withdrawal
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Incident | A crowd of volunteers and peasants set fire to the police station at Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur district, United Provinces, after police fired on them |
| Date | 4 February 1922 (many guidebooks print 5 February) |
| Deaths | 22 policemen are usually counted (some accounts say 23, counting a messenger); several protesters were also killed by police firing |
| Withdrawal | Bardoli resolution of the Congress Working Committee, 12 February 1922: mass civil disobedience suspended; workers turned to the constructive programme |
| Gandhi’s arrest | 10 March 1922, for sedition (Section 124A) over articles in Young India; sentenced to six years; released in 1924 on health grounds |
Critics (Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, Subhas Bose, the young Jawaharlal Nehru) felt one village’s violence should not have stopped a national movement at its peak.
Defenders argue: Gandhi feared the movement would turn violent and give the government an excuse for crushing repression; mass movements cannot be sustained indefinitely and need a breathing space; and the Khilafat issue itself became irrelevant when Turkey under Mustafa Kemal abolished the Caliphate (1924). Historians such as Bipan Chandra describe Gandhian strategy as Struggle-Truce-Struggle (S-T-S): phases of mass struggle followed by phases of constructive work, rather than one continuous confrontation.
Significance
- First all-India mass movement: towns and villages, peasants, workers, students, women and traders all took part.
- Congress transformed into a mass organisation with a permanent structure (Working Committee, linguistic PCCs).
- Fear of the Raj broke: thousands courted arrest willingly.
- Hindu-Muslim cooperation reached its high point (though it did not last after 1922).
- Khadi and swadeshi became symbols of the national movement.
Memory Tricks
Champaran (1917) → Ahmedabad (1918) → Kheda (1918): “Come And Know Gandhi.”
- Champaran = first civil disobedience (indigo, Bihar)
- Ahmedabad = first hunger strike (mills)
- Kheda = first non-cooperation (revenue)
Don’t Confuse
| This | vs | That |
|---|---|---|
| Hunter Committee: government inquiry into Jallianwala Bagh | vs | Rowlatt (Sedition) Committee: recommended the Rowlatt Act |
| Dyer: ordered the firing | vs | O’Dwyer: Lt.-Governor, shot by Udham Singh (1940) |
| Kheda (1918): Gujarat, revenue, Patel | vs | Bardoli (1928): Gujarat, revenue, Patel becomes “Sardar” |
| Bardoli resolution (1922): withdrawal of NCM | vs | Bardoli satyagraha (1928): peasant no-revenue campaign |
| Tagore: renounced knighthood | vs | Gandhi: returned the Kaiser-i-Hind medal (1920) |
Common Mistakes
Practice
These are original practice questions written in CGPSC style. They are not previous-year questions.
Level 1: Foundation
- The tinkathia system, against which Gandhi led a satyagraha in 1917, related to the cultivation of ______.
- The Congress session that ratified the Non-Cooperation programme in December 1920 was held at ______.
- The Non-Cooperation Movement was withdrawn after violence at ______ in February 1922.
Answers
- Indigo (Champaran, Bihar).
- Nagpur (president C. Vijayaraghavachariar).
- Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur district (United Provinces).
Level 2: Prelims MCQs
Q1. Consider the following statements about the Rowlatt Act, 1919:
- It was officially called the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act.
- It was supported by the elected Indian members of the Imperial Legislative Council.
- Gandhi called a nationwide hartal against it in April 1919.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 1 and 3 only
- (c) 2 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer and explanation
Q2. Match List-I (Satyagraha) with List-II (Associated person):
| List-I | List-II |
|---|---|
| A. Champaran (1917) | 1. Anasuya Sarabhai |
| B. Ahmedabad mill strike (1918) | 2. Raj Kumar Shukla |
| C. Kheda (1918) | 3. Pt. Sundarlal Sharma |
| D. Kandel (1920) | 4. Vallabhbhai Patel |
- (a) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3
- (b) A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3
- (c) A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3
- (d) A-2, B-1, C-3, D-4
Answer and explanation
Q3. Which one of the following was not a decision of the Nagpur session of the Congress (December 1920)?
- (a) Formation of Provincial Congress Committees on linguistic lines
- (b) A Congress Working Committee of 15 members
- (c) Adoption of Purna Swaraj as the goal of the Congress
- (d) Swaraj to be attained by peaceful and legitimate means
Answer and explanation
Q4. Who among the following resigned from the Viceroy’s Executive Council in protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre?
- (a) Rabindranath Tagore
- (b) C. Sankaran Nair
- (c) Madan Mohan Malaviya
- (d) Motilal Nehru
Answer and explanation
Q5. Arrange in chronological order:
- Chauri Chaura incident
- Visit of the Prince of Wales to India
- Calcutta special session of the Congress
- Gandhi’s first visit to Raipur
- (a) 3, 4, 2, 1
- (b) 4, 3, 2, 1
- (c) 3, 2, 4, 1
- (d) 3, 4, 1, 2
Answer and explanation
Level 3: Mains Answer Writing
Q1. (150–200 words) “The Non-Cooperation Movement turned the Congress into a mass organisation.” Discuss. Was Gandhi justified in withdrawing it?
Model answer outline
- Intro: Launched 1 August 1920, adopted at Calcutta and Nagpur, on three demands: Punjab wrongs, Khilafat, Swaraj.
- Body:
- Organisational change: Nagpur creed (Swaraj by peaceful and legitimate means), linguistic PCCs, Working Committee, four-anna membership.
- Social base: peasants (Awadh, Andhra), workers, students in national schools, lawyers giving up practice, Muslims through Khilafat.
- Psychological change: fear of jail broke; khadi and swadeshi became national symbols.
- Withdrawal: Chauri Chaura (4 February 1922); Bardoli resolution (12 February). Critics (Das, Motilal, Bose) versus the case for a truce: risk of violence and repression, fatigue, Khilafat soon made irrelevant (1924).
- Chhattisgarh angle: Kandel satyagraha (1920), Gandhi in Raipur (20 December 1920), Rajnandgaon mill strike and Sihawa-Nagri forest satyagraha (1922) show the movement reaching a peripheral region.
- Conclusion: Withdrawal was a tactical retreat within a Struggle-Truce-Struggle strategy; the mass base it created was the foundation for 1930.
Q2. (60 words) What was the significance of the Champaran Satyagraha?
Model answer outline
Quick Revision Table
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Gandhi returns to India | 9 January 1915 |
| Champaran | 1917, Bihar, indigo (tinkathia); first civil disobedience |
| Ahmedabad mill strike | 1918; Anasuya Sarabhai; first hunger strike |
| Kheda | 1918; revenue remission; Patel; first non-cooperation |
| Rowlatt Act | March 1919; detention without trial; “Black Act” |
| Rowlatt hartal | 6 April 1919 |
| Jallianwala Bagh | 13 April 1919, Amritsar; Dyer; Hunter Committee |
| Khilafat leaders | Ali brothers, Abul Kalam Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Hasrat Mohani |
| NCM launched | 1 August 1920 (Tilak died the same day) |
| Calcutta special session | September 1920, Lala Lajpat Rai: NCM adopted |
| Nagpur session | December 1920, C. Vijayaraghavachariar: ratified; linguistic PCCs; CWC |
| Prince of Wales’ visit | 17 November 1921, hartal |
| Moplah rebellion | 1921, Malabar |
| Chauri Chaura | 4 February 1922, Gorakhpur (UP) |
| Bardoli resolution | 12 February 1922: NCM withdrawn |
| Gandhi arrested | 10 March 1922; six years; released 1924 |
| Chhattisgarh | Kandel 1920; Gandhi in Raipur 20 December 1920 |
Key Takeaways
- Champaran, Ahmedabad and Kheda (1917–18) gave Gandhi a mass base and tested satyagraha in India.
- 1919 (Rowlatt Act, Jallianwala Bagh) and the Khilafat issue turned Gandhi from a cooperator into a non-cooperator.
- Non-Cooperation was adopted at Calcutta (September 1920) and ratified at Nagpur (December 1920), which also reorganised the Congress.
- The movement combined boycott with a constructive programme and drew in peasants, workers, students and Muslims.
- Withdrawn after Chauri Chaura (Bardoli resolution, 12 February 1922): a controversial but strategic truce.
What’s Next
- Swarajists to Civil Disobedience (1922–1934) — what happened after the truce
- Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience in Chhattisgarh — Kandel and Gandhi’s 1920 visit in detail
- Leaders of the Freedom Movement in Chhattisgarh — Sundarlal Sharma, Pyarelal Singh and others
- The Gandhian Era — Quick Revision — the whole chapter on one page