Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22): Background, Programme, Spread, Chauri Chaura and Significance (UPSC Notes + PYQs)

Background: the world after 1918

The First World War ended with Indians expecting reward for their help: over a million men had served overseas and India had paid heavily in money and goods. Instead came rising prices, shortages, the influenza epidemic of 1918, and disappointment with the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, which offered only limited dyarchy in the provinces. The Rowlatt Act of March 1919 allowed detention without trial. Gandhi, fresh from Champaran (1917), Kheda (1918) and the Ahmedabad mill strike (1918), called the first all-India satyagraha against it. In April 1919 General Dyer fired on an unarmed crowd at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, and the Hunter Committee’s mild verdict, along with praise for Dyer in Britain, turned many moderates. At the same time Indian Muslims were angry at the harsh treatment of the Ottoman Sultan, the Khalifa. These streams came together into the first nationwide mass movement under Gandhi.

Background

• Rowlatt Act (March 1919): detention without trial; “no appeal, no vakil, no daleel”.
• Jallianwala Bagh (13 April 1919) and the Hunter Committee whitewash.
• Khilafat issue: the harsh treaty with Turkey; the Ali brothers joined hands with Gandhi.
• Post-war economic distress and disappointment with the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms.

Programme

Boycott: government schools and colleges, law courts, legislatures (elections of 1920), foreign cloth, titles. Constructive: national schools (Jamia Millia, Kashi Vidyapith, Gujarat Vidyapith), panchayats for disputes, khadi and the charkha, Hindu-Muslim unity, removal of untouchability. A Tilak Swaraj Fund of one crore rupees was raised.

Spread across India

• Awadh Kisan Sabha (Baba Ramchandra), Eka movement.
• Moplah uprising in Malabar (1921).
• Forest satyagraha in Andhra; Alluri Sitarama Raju’s Rampa rebellion.
• Akali movement in Punjab for control of gurdwaras.
• Assam tea garden workers’ strikes.
• Boycott of the Prince of Wales’s visit (November 1921).

Chauri Chaura and withdrawal

On 4 February 1922, a crowd at Chauri Chaura (Gorakhpur) set fire to a police station, killing 22 policemen. Gandhi called off the movement at the Bardoli meeting on 12 February 1922. Many leaders, including Motilal Nehru and C.R. Das, were critical; the Swaraj Party (1923) followed.

Khilafat and the Congress

The Khilafat Committee, led by the Ali brothers (Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali), Maulana Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Hasrat Mohani, demanded that the Sultan of Turkey keep control over Muslim holy places. Gandhi saw this as a chance to build Hindu-Muslim unity. In June 1920 an all-party meeting at Allahabad approved non-cooperation, and the Khilafat Committee launched it on 31 August 1920. The Congress approved the programme at a special session in Calcutta (September 1920) under Lala Lajpat Rai, and the regular session at Nagpur (December 1920) under C. Vijayaraghavachariar endorsed it, also reorganising the Congress on linguistic provinces, with village and mohalla committees and a four-anna membership.

Significance

First truly all-India mass movement; the Congress became a mass organisation with a new constitution (linguistic PCCs, four-anna membership); fear of the Raj weakened; Hindu-Muslim unity peaked, though it frayed after the Khilafat issue ended in 1924.

Who took part and how

The government’s response was firm. By December 1921 about 30,000 people were in jail. The visit of the Prince of Wales in November 1921 was met with a hartal across India and with riots in Bombay.

Regional streams within the movement

Non-Cooperation drew in local struggles that had their own grievances. In Punjab, the Akali movement fought to free gurdwaras from corrupt mahants. In Malabar, the Moplah (Mappila) rising of 1921 began as a tenant and Khilafat struggle against landlords and the state but turned violent and partly communal. In Andhra, peasants in Guntur refused to pay taxes and forest laws were defied. In Assam, tea garden workers walked off the plantations. In Awadh, Baba Ramchandra led tenants against eviction and illegal levies. Many of these went further than Gandhi wanted, which showed both the reach of the movement and the difficulty of keeping a mass struggle disciplined and non-violent.

Was withdrawal right? The debate

On 5 February 1922 a crowd at Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur district set fire to a police station, killing 22 policemen. Gandhi called off the movement at Bardoli on 12 February. Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, Subhas Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru were dismayed, and many Khilafatists felt betrayed. Gandhi’s defenders argue that he had always made non-violence a condition, that the movement was losing energy and that the government was preparing heavy repression; withdrawal saved the movement from being crushed and allowed it to regroup. Critics say a national movement cannot be halted for one local incident. In a Mains answer, present both sides and conclude that withdrawal was consistent with Gandhi’s strategy of struggle, truce and struggle, but cost the Hindu-Muslim unity built in 1920-21, especially after Turkey itself abolished the Caliphate in 1924.

Non-Cooperation in Prelims: common traps

Remember that the Khilafat Committee began non-cooperation on 31 August 1920, while Gandhi’s formal launch is dated 1 August 1920, the day Tilak died. Gandhi returned the Kaiser-i-Hind medal he had received for work in South Africa. The national institutions of this period include Jamia Millia Islamia (Aligarh, 1920, later moved to Delhi), Kashi Vidyapith and Gujarat Vidyapith. Chauri Chaura lies in Gorakhpur district of present-day Uttar Pradesh, and the withdrawal resolution was passed at Bardoli, not Ahmedabad. Gandhi was tried for sedition for his articles in Young India.

Non-cooperation Movement: UPSC angle

Non-cooperation Movement UPSC PYQs (Prelims)

Questions UPSC has actually asked, from the official papers. Pick an option to check yourself.

Mains PYQs on this topic

Questions from the official UPSC Mains papers (2023-2026 in the Battle IAS Mains bank), newest first. Each links to a model answer.

1. UPSC Mains 2026 · GS Paper I · Q3 · 10 marks

   The significance of the Gandhian movements lay in the masses they mobilized. Elucidate.

   Model answer and approach

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