The essentials
After the Rowlatt satyagraha and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Gandhi called for non-cooperation with British rule in 1920. He joined it with the Khilafat movement, which sought to restore the Caliphate (the Khalifa) after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, hoping that Hindus and Muslims together could end colonial rule. Leaders of the Khilafat movement included the brothers Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali.
Students stopped going to schools and colleges run by the government; lawyers refused to attend courts; working classes went on strike in many towns. In the countryside, peasants refused to pay taxes in some areas, hill tribes in northern Andhra violated forest laws, and peasants in Awadh did not pay taxes. Gandhi said that if non-cooperation was effectively carried out, India would win swaraj within a year.
Key points
- Non-Cooperation became the first truly mass movement. As a result, British rule was shaken to its foundations for the first time since 1857.
- In February 1922, a crowd of peasants set fire to a police station at Chauri Chaura in the United Provinces; several policemen died. Gandhi called off the movement because it had turned violent.
- Gandhi was arrested in March 1922 and charged with sedition; the judge sentenced him to six years' imprisonment.
- Gandhi broadened the Congress base: new provincial committees were based on linguistic regions; he stressed spinning, the charkha and khadi, and the abolition of untouchability.
- Gandhi's simple dress and lifestyle helped people identify with him, and rumours spread about his miraculous powers.
Common mistakes
- The movement was withdrawn after Chauri Chaura, not after Jallianwala Bagh.