Non coperation and khilafat movement.
– Gandhiji was asked to lead the movement.
Khilaafat Movement (1919–22)
• Chief cause → Defeat of Turkey in the First World War,
Dethroning of the Ottoman Emperor who was the Khalifa of
Islamic world & harsh terms of the Treaty of Sevres (1920).
• Treaty terms was felt by the Muslims as a great insult to
them.
• Whole movement was based on the Muslim belief that
the Caliph (the Sultan of Turkey) was the religious head of
the Muslims all over the world.
Prominent leaders of this movement:
• Maulana Mohammad Ali and Sahukat Ali
Jauhar (Ali/Jauhar Brothers)
• Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
• Mukhtar Ansari
• Saifuddin Kitchlew Mehmed VI was the Ottoman sultan
and caliph (1918–20) during the the Khilafat movement in
India.
• Subsequently, the Khilaafat Movement merged with the
NonCooperation Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi
in 1920.
• However, the movement was marred by the ḥijrat (Urdu:
“exodus”; recalling Muhammad’s Hijrah from Mecca) from
India to Afghanistan of about 18,000 Muslim peasants, who
felt that India was an apostate land.
• It was also tarnished by the Muslim Malabar rebellion in
Kerala in 1921.
• Gandhi’s suspension of the non-cooperation movement
and his arrest in March 1922 weakened the Khilafat
movement still further.
1922 – The movement was further undermined when
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk drove the Greeks from
western Asia Minor and deposed the Turkish sultan
Mehmed VI.
The movement finally collapsed when Atatürk abolished
the caliphate altogether in 1924, and made Turkey a
secular republic.
Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-1922)
Started by Gandhiji (NOT congress) on 1st August 1920.
Aim :
1. Swaraj
2. Justice for Jalianwalla Bagh massacre
3. Supporting Khilafat Movement
• It was approved by the INC at the Nagpur session in
December, 1920.
*(Amendment in INC constitution)
• After the Hunter Committee Report on the Jallianwala
Bagh shootout let off the perpetrators of the brutalities
lightly, the Congress began to lose hopes of gaining political
achievements through constitutional means.
May 1920 – The All-India Congress Working Committee met
and decided to hold a special session in September, to
enable the Congress to decide its new course of action.
June 1920 – All party conference at Allahabad approved a
programme of boycott of schools, colleges and law courts.
22nd June 1920 – Gandhiji wrote a letter to the Viceroy,
asserting the right recognized ‘from time immemorial of the
subject to refuse to assist a ruler who misrules’.
1st August 1920 – Lokmanya Tilak passed away, and the
mourning coincided with the expiry of Gandhiji’s notice to
the Viceroy, in his letter on the right to protest misrule.
People all over India observed hartals and took out
processions.
Many kept a fast and offered prayers.
31st August 1920 – The Khilafat Committee started a
campaign of non-cooperation, and the movement was
formally launched.
September 1920 – A special session of the Congress at
Calcutta approved the non-cooperation programme, till the
Jallianwala Bagh and Khilafat wrongs were removed.
December 1920 – At the Nagpur session of the INC,
significant changes were introduced:
1. The Congress was now to have a Working Committee of
15 members to look after its day-to-day affairs. (When this
proposal was first made by Tilak in 1916, it was shot down
by the Moderates.)
Provincial Congress Committees were now to be organised
on linguistic basis – so that they could keep in touch with
the people by using local languages.
Ward Committees were organised, and Congress entry fee
was reduced to 4 annas (25 paise) per year, to enable the
poor to become members.
2. The INC changed its goal from the attainment of self
government through constitutional means to →→
attainment of Swaraj through peaceful and legitimate
means.
This paved the way for an extra-constitutional mass
struggle.
Special Features of NCM
• Movement began with Mahatma Gandhi renouncing the
medals given by the British.
• Surrender of titles and honorary positions along with
resignation of membership from the local bodies.
• Boycott of elections held under the provisions of the 1919
Act.
• Legislatures were boycotted, no leader of the Congress
came forward to contest the elections for the Legislatures.
• Boycott of government functions, courts, government
schools and colleges.
• Boycott of foreign goods.
• Popularizing Swadeshi goods and Khadi.
• People were asked not to serve in the British army.
• Establishment of national schools, colleges and private
panchayat courts.
• The movement was essentially a peaceful and nonviolent
protest against the British government in India.
• It was also planned that if the above steps did not
bring results, people would refuse to pay their taxes.
• Gandhiji had assured that Swaraj would be achieved in
a year if this movement was continued to completion.
• Many groups of revolutionaries, especially from Bengal,
also supported the Non-Cooperation Movement.
• Some leaders like Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant,
G.S. Kharpade and Bipin Chandra Pal left the Congress, as
they believed in a constitutional and lawful struggle.
• Surendranath Banerjea founded the Indian National
Liberation Federation.
Observation of the Movement
• Gandhiji and the Ali brothers toured across the country to
campaign for the movement.
• Thousands of students left government schools and
colleges.
• They joined the 800 national schools and colleges that
were set up during this time.
• E.g., Jamia Millia at Aligarh, Kashi Vidyapeeth, Gujarat
Vidyapeethand Bihar Vidyapeeth.
These educational institutions were headed by the likes of:
Acharya Narendra Dev
C.R. Das
Lala Lajpat Rai
Zakir Hussain
Subhas Chandra Bose (became the principal of National
College, Calcutta).
• Eminent lawyers like – Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru,
C.R. Das, C. Rajagopalachari, Saifuddin Kitchlew,
Vallabhbhai Patel, Asaf Ali, T. Prakasam and Rajendra Prasad
– gave up their practice.
• The most successful element of the movement was the
boycott of foreign cloth.
• Volunteers would go from house to house collecting
foreign clothing, and the entire community would gather to
light a bonfire of the goods.
• Picketing of shops selling foreign cloth was undertaken by
volunteers.
• The value of imports of foreign cloth fell from ₹102 crores
in 1920-21to ₹57 crores in 1921-22.
• Picketing of toddy (alcohol) shops was also undertaken.
• Government revenues declined as a result of this, and the
government was forced to carry out propaganda to
advertise the “healthy” effects of drinking.
• The governments of Bihar and Orissa even compiled and
circulated a list of great men in history (Alexander, Julius
Caesar, Napoleon, Shakespeare, Bismarck) who used to
drink.
March 1921 – The AICC session at Vijaywada directed that
for the next 3 months, Congressmen should concentrate on
collecting funds, enrolment of members and distribution of
charkhas.
• The Tilak Swaraj Fund was over-subscribed and ₹1 crore
was collected.
• Charkhas were popularized on a wide scale and khadi
became the uniform of the national movement.
• Congress volunteer corps emerged as parallel police.
• People from the middle class led the movement from the
beginning –making the national movement a mass struggle
(no longer restricted to farmers, students and teachers
only).
• The economic boycott received support from the Indian
business group because they benefitted from the
nationalists’ emphasis on the use of swadesi.
• However, some sections of big industrialists were
sceptical of the movement, as they were afraid of labour
demands in the factories.
• The peasants’ participation was massive.
• Although the Congress and Gandhiji were against class
war, the masses broke this restraint.
• In Bihar, the confrontation between the lower and upper
castes, on the issue of wearing sacred threads, merged with
the noncooperation movement.
• Peasants also turned against landlords and money
lenders.
• Women gave up their purdah and offered their ornaments
for the Tilak Fund.
• They joined the movement in large numbers and took
active part in picketing shops selling foreign cloth and
liquor.
• Overall, Hindu-Muslim unity was maintained in the
movement.
• In many places, 2/3rd of those arrested were Muslims;
Gandhiji
addressed Muslims from mosques.
July 1921 – The Ali brothers called on Muslims to resign
from the Army.
September 1921 –The Ali brothers were arrested for this.
4th October – 47 leading Congressmen, including Gandhiji,
issued a manifesto repeating whatever the Ali brothers had
said.
Local Congress committees were asked to pass similar
resolutions.
• Finally, the Congress gave a call for local Congress bodies
to start civil disobedience.
• Already, a no-tax movement against union board taxes in
Midnapore (Bengal) and Guntur (Andhra Pradesh) was
going on.
• In Assam, strikes in tea plantations, steamer services and
AssamBengal railways had been organized.
• J.M. Sengupta was a prominent leader in these strikes.
Government Response
May 1921 – Talks between Gandhi and Viceroy Reading had
broken
down, as the government wanted Gandhiji to convince the
Ali brothers to remove speeches that suggested violence.
Gandhiji realized that the government was trying to cause
a division between him and the Khilafat leaders, and
refused to fall in the trap.
December 1921 – The government cracked down brutally
on the protestors.
Volunteer corps were declared illegal, public meetings
were banned, the press was silenced.
1st February 1921 – Under request from other Congress
leaders, Gandhiji now threatened to launch civil
disobedience from Bardoli (Gujarat) if:
1. Political prisoners were not released;
2. Press restrictions not removed.
Suspension of NCM
• On 4th Feb. 1922 , in Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur, Uttar
Pradesh, a violent mob set fire to a police station killing 22
policemen during a clash between the police and
protesters.
• Gandhiji called off the movement on 12 February, 1922 in
the wake of the Chauri Chaura incident.
• Gandhiji said people were not ready for revolt against the
government through ahimsa.
• A lot of leaders like Motilal Nehru and C R Das were
against the suspension of the movement only due to
sporadic incidents of violence.
*Gandhiji jailed for 2 years after the suspension.
Results and significance of the non-cooperation
movement
• Swaraj was not achieved in one year as Gandhiji had
foretold.
• However, it was truly a mass movement where Lakhs of
Indians participated in the open protest against the
government through peaceful means.
• It shook the British government who were stunned by the
extent of the movement.
• It saw participation from both Hindus and Muslims
thereby showcasing communal harmony in the country.
• This movement established the popularity of INC among
the people.
• As a result of this movement, people became conscious
of their political rights.
• They were not afraid of the government anymore.
• Hordes of people thronged to jails willingly.
• The import of sugar from Britain
reduced considerably during this period.
• This movement also established Gandhiji as a leader of
the masses.
Swarajist
The Birth of the Swarajists
March 1922 – Gandhiji arrested and sentenced to prison for
6 years (for spreading disaffection against the Government).
As a result, the nationalist movement was demoralized
and disorganized.
The Congress nationalists were already boycotting the
legislative councils – thus, they had become passive after
suspension of NCM.
Many began to question the idea and efficacy of the
Gandhian strategy.
• At this stage, everyone in the Congress agreed that civil
disobedience was not possible immediately.
It was not possible to carry on any mass movement
indefinitely or for a prolonged period of time.
The masses needed breathing time.
Therefore, temporary retreat from the active phase of the
movement was necessary, in order to rest and re-invigorate
the anti-colonial forces.
• However, the Congress was split on the question of how
to carry on political work in the movement’s non-active
phase.
A new line of political activity to offer resistance to
colonial rule, was now advocated by:
1. ‘Deshbandhu’ Chittaranjan Das
2. Motilal Nehru.
• C.R. Das (born in 1870) and Motilal Nehru (born in 1861)
were both highly successful lawyers, but had given up legal
practice and joined the national movement.
• Earlier they were Moderates, but later they accepted the
politics of boycott and non-cooperation in 1920.
• They had donated their houses in Calcutta and Allahabad,
respectively, for nationalistic work during the Non-
Cooperation Movement.
• They were both great admirers of Gandhiji, but also his
political equals.
• They suggested that Nationalists should end the boycott
of legislative councils, and enter them.
• Once elected to the Councils, they should expose these
bodies as “sham parliaments” and as a “mask that
bureaucracy has put on”.
• They should also obstruct every work of the Councils.
• According to C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru, such a move
would not
give up Non-Cooperation – instead continue it in a more
effective form by extending it to the Councils.
Therefore, this would open up a new front in the battle.
Das, Motilal and their followers felt that –
The Councils would function even without the presence of
Congressmen.
People would still vote in these elections.
This would lead to the weakening of the hold of the
Congress.
By joining the Councils and obstructing their work,
Congressmen would prevent undesirable elements from
doing mischief or the Government from getting legitimacy
for their laws.
December 1922 – Gaya Session of the Congress.
President = C.R. Das.
Secretary = Motilal Nehru.
They put forward this programmeof “either mending or
ending the Councils”.
This idea of re-entry into the Councils was opposed by the
conservative members in the Congress, like:
Vallabhbhai Patel;
 Rajendra Prasad;
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari.
‘Pro-Changers’ = Those who followed Das and Motilal,
and advocated re-entry into the Councils.
‘No-Changers’ = Those still advocating the boycott of
the Councils.
The ‘no-changers’ opposed Council entry on the ground
that Parliamentary work would lead to:
The neglect of constructive work among the masses;
The loss of revolutionary zeal;
Political corruption – the legislators who would go into the
councils with the aim of obstructing them, would gradually
get sucked into the constitutional framework, and start
cooperating with the government on petty reforms and
trivial laws.
They felt, constructive work among the masses would get
them ready for the next civil disobedience movement.
• The motion of re-entry into the Councils was defeated by
the no-changers, by 1748 votes to 890 votes.
• Das and Motilal resigned from their respective offices.
1st January 1923 – Das and Motilal announced the
formation of their new Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party
(better known as the Swaraj Party).
President= C.R. Das.
Secretary = Motilal Nehru.
Objectives of the Swaraj Party
• The Swaraj Party accepted the Congress programme
entirely, except that – it would participate in the elections
of 1923.
• They declared that they would present a national demand
for self-government in the Councils.
• In case of rejection of the demand, its elected members
would adopt a policy of obstruction within the Councils,
with a view to make legislation through the councils
impossible.
Disunity among the nationalists
• As the pro-changer vs no-changer clashes increased, there
were fears of a repeat of the Surat Split of 1907.
• The British wanted both groups to fight against one
another and weaken them both.
• However, both factions realized the need for unity at this
point and pulled back from their public quarrels.
September 1923 – Congress special session at Delhi
decided to suspend all propaganda against Council entry.
Permitted Congressmen to contest
elections and vote in the elections.
Elections of 1923
October 1923 – The Swarajist Manifesto for elections
released – anti imperial tone.
November 1923 – Legislative Council elections held.
Swarajists managed to win 42 out of 101 elected seats in
the Central Legislative Assembly.
Clear majority in the provincial assembly of Central
Provinces.
Largest party in Bengal, good results in Bombay and UP.
Bad performance in Madras and Punjab, because of
casteist and communal sentiments.
In the Central Legislative Assembly, Swarajists formed
coalitions with:
Liberals (led by Madan Mohan Malaviya)
Independents (led by M.A. Jinnah).
• Similar coalitions in other provinces.
1923 to 1924 – Many Swarajists and Congressmen won
offices in municipalities and other local bodies.
CR Das = Mayor of Calcutta
Subhas Chandra Bose = Chief Executive Officer of Calcutta
Municipality.
Vithalbhai Patel = President of Bombay Corporation.
Vallabhbhai Patel = President of Ahmedabad Municipality.
Rajendra Prasad = President of Patna Municipality.
Jawaharlal Nehru = President of Allahabad Municipality.
1924 – The Government soon appointed ‘Muddiman
Committee’ or ‘Reforms Enquiry Committee’ to bring out
the defects in the Government of India Act 1919.
Jinnah was a member of this committee.
Headed by Sir Alexander Muddiman.
• The Majority Report (by officials) declared that a diarchy
had not been established, has not been given a fair trial run,
and so only minor changes in non-official Indians were
recommended.
• The Minority Report declared (by nonofficial) that the Act
of 1919 had failed, and that they need a Constitution that
has a permanent basis with a provision for automatic
progress in the future.
5th February 1924 – Gandhiji released from jail on
health grounds. He opposed Council entry + obstruction of
work in councils.
He believed obstructing work in councils was not in line
with non-violent non-cooperation.
When releasing Gandhi, the Bombay Government had
told their higher-ups:
“Gandhi would denounce the Swarajists for their
defection from the pure principle of non-cooperation,
and thus considerably reduce in legislatures their power
for harm.”
Viceroy Reading told the Secretary of State for India:
“The probability of a split between Swarajists and Gandhiji
is increasing…Moonje (Swarajist leader from the
Central Provinces) adds that Swarajists are now driven to
concentrating all their energy on breaking Gandhiji’s hold
on the Congress.”
• However, Gandhiji did not step into the trap – he moved
towards accommodation with the Swarajists.
• After meeting the Swarajist leaders, Gandhiji felt that
since council entry has already occurred, to withdraw now
would be disastrous.
• It would be perceived by the British and the people as a
weakness.
• This would also allow the Government to continue its
autocratic behaviour and repressive policies.
• With no split happening, the Government launched a full
attack on civil liberties and Swarajists, in Bengal – in the
name of fighting terrorism.
25th October 1924 – An ordinance was promulgated, under
which, raids were conducted on Congress offices and house
searches were carried on.
Many revolutionaries, Swarajists and Congressmen were
arrested, like –
Subhas Chandra Bose;
Anil Baran Roy;
S.C. Mitra.
Swarajist members of the Bengal Legislature
In response, Gandhiji wrote in Young India:
“The Rowlatt Act is dead but the spirit that prompted it,
is like an evergreen. So long as the interest of Englishmen is
antagonistic to that of Indians, so long must there be
anarchic crime or the dread of it and an edition of the
Rowlatt Act in answer.”
6th November 1924 – Gandhiji brough the conflict between
Swarajists and no-changers to an end.
Signed a joint statement with Das and Motilal that the
Swarajist Party could carry on work in the legislatures on
behalf of the Congress, and as an integral part of the
Congress.
December 1924 – Belgaum Session of the Congress,
presided by Gandhiji.
The joint statement was again endorsed.
Swarajists were given a majority seats in the Congress
Working Committee.
March 1925 – A leading Swarajist –
Vithalbhai Patel – was elected President of the Central
Legislative Assembly.
• In the very first session, Motilal Nehru put forward the
national demand for framing a new constitution, which
would transfer power to India.
• The demand was passed by 64 votes to 48.
September 1925 – The demand was again reiterated and
passed by 72 votes to 45.
• The Government also had to face humiliation, when
its demands for budgetary grants were repeatedly
voted out.
Vithabhai Patel told the Government:
“We want you to carry on the administration of this
country by veto and by certification.
We want you to treat the Government of India Act as
a scrap of paper, which I am sure it has proved to be.”
Decline of the Swarajists
16th June 1925 – The death of C.R. Das was a major loss for
the Swarajists.
Encouraged by the British, communalists among both
Hindus and Muslims emerged.
The Swarajists lacked any policy of coordinating their
aggressive work in the legislatures with mass political work
outside (they relied only on newspaper reporting).
• The government’s policy of creating rifts between the
Swarajists and Liberals, militant Swarajists and moderate
Swarajists, Hindus and Muslims, worked.
• In Bengal, the Swaraj Party did not support the tenants’
cause against the zamindars.
• Thus, they lost the support of the Muslim members (who
were pro-tenant).
• There was also communal discord in its own ranks.
• A group of Responsivists arose in the
party (M.C. Kelkar and M.R. Jayakar) –they wanted work on
reforms and hold office wherever possible.
• The Responsivists joined the Government in the Central
Provinces.
Because of the Responsivist and communal
developments, Lala Lajpat Rai and Madan Mohan Malaviya
distanced themselves from the Swaraj party.
November 1926 – The Swaraj Party went into election
as a much weaker and demoralized party.
It had to face the government’s loyalists, its own
dissenters, and Hindu/Muslim communal forces.
• In the elections, it won 40 seats in the Centre and half the
seats in the Madras Council.
• However, it was defeated badly in the other provinces.
• Both Hindu and Muslim communalists increased their
seats in UP, CP, and Punjab Provincial Councils.
• The Swarajists could not form a coalition like they did in
1923.
• Swarajists kept passing a series of adjournment motions
and defeated the Government on a number of bills.
1928 – The Government was defeated on the draconian
Public Safety Bill.
This Bill was introduced because the Government was
frightened by the spread of socialist ideas at that time
(many foreign socialists joined the Indian national cause).
Therefore, the Government wanted power to deport the
“undesirable and subversive” foreigners.
• All nationalists – moderates and militants alike – opposed
the Bill strongly.
Lala Lajpat Rai:
“Capitalism is only another name for
Imperialism…
We are in no danger from Bolshevism
or Communism.
The greatest danger we are in, is
from the capitalists and exploiters.”
March 1929 – Having failed to get the Bill passed, the
Government arrested 31 leading communists,
tradeunionists and other left wing leaders.
This was strongly criticized by Gandhiji and others.
1930 – The Swarajists finally walked out of the legislatures,
as a result of the Lahore Congress resolution and the
beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Constructive Work by No-Changers
• Ashrams sprang up where young men and women
worked, among tribals and lower castes (especially in Kheda
and Bardoli areas of Gujarat).
• Popularised charkha and khadi.
• National schools and colleges were set up.
• Significant work was done for Hindu-Muslim unity.
• Removing untouchability, boycott of foreign cloth and
liquor, and for flood relief.
• The constructive workers served as the backbone of civil
disobedience as active organisers.
Civil Disobedience Movement (1930-1934)
• Gandhi was given the opportunity to start the first act of
civil disobedience by the INC.
• To carry forward the mandate given by the Lahore
Congress, Gandhi presented eleven demands to the
Government.
• He gave an ultimatum of 31st January 1930 to accept or
reject these demands.
Gandhi’s Eleven Demands
1. Reduce expenditure on Army and civil services by 50 per
cent.
2. Introduce total prohibition (of alcohol and other
intoxicants)
3. Carry out reforms in Criminal Investigation Department
(CID)
4. Change Arms Act allowing popular control of issue of
firearms licence
5. Release political prisoners.
6. Accept Postal Reservation Bill.
7. Reduce rupee-sterling exchange ratio
8. Introduce textile protection.
9. Reserve coastal shipping for Indians.
10.Reduce land revenue by 50 per cent.
11.Abolish salt tax and government’s salt monopoly.
Dandi ‘Salt’ March (March 12 – April 6, 1930)
• Gandhi, along with 78 members of Sabarmati Ashram,
was to march from his headquarters in Ahmedabad,
through the villages of Gujarat, towards Dandi.
A distance of 400 km, back then.
• Gandhi would address thousands of people and attack the
government in his speeches everyday.
• Gandhi talked to foreign journalists and wrote articles for
newspapers on the way.
• This pushed the Indian independence movement into the
forefront of world media.
• Gandhiji became a household name in the West.
• Gandhi broke the salt law by picking up a handful of salt
at Dandi on 6th April 1930.
• 50,000 people had joined him by then.
Mauritius National Day is on 12th March, to commemorate
the Dandi March
Why Salt?
• Issue Resonates with common man as everyone uses Salt
• Indians had been making salt from seawater free of cost
until the passing of the 1882 Salt Act that gave the British
monopoly over the production of salt and authority to
impose a salt tax
• It was a criminal offence to violate the salt act.
Gandhi gave the following directions for future action –
• Wherever possible civil disobedience of the salt law
should be started.
• Foreign liquor and cloth shops can be picketed.
• Refuse to pay taxes
• Lawyers can give up practice.
• Public can boycott law courts by refraining from litigation.
• Government servants can resign from their posts.
• All these should be subject to one condition - truth and
nonviolence as means to attain Swaraj should be faithfully
adhered to
• Spinning clothes by using charkha
• Fighting untouchability
Local leaders should be obeyed after Gandhi’s arrest
The Spread of the Movement
• Tamil Nadu - RAJAJI led salt march from Trichirapally to
Vedaranniyam
• Kerala/Malabar – K Kelappan led a march from Calicut to
Poyannur
• Andhra Pradesh too saw marches to make salt
• Odisha – Salt Satyagraha led by Gopalbandhu Chaudhuri
in Balasore, Cuttack and Puri districts.
• Nehru arrested in April
• Gandhi arrested in May when he tried to lead a raid on
Dharsana Salt works
• Around 60,000 people were arrested by the government.
Sholapur
• This industrial town of southern Maharashtra saw the
fiercestresponse to Gandhi’s arrest.
• Textile workers went on a strike and along with other
residentsburnt liquor shops
• Destroyed symbols of government authority such as
railway stations, police stations, municipal buildings, law
courts, etc.
Dharasana
May 1930 – Sarojini Naidu,Imam Sahib and Manilal
(Gandhi’s son) raided Dharasana Salt Works.
Brutal lathicharge on the unarmed and peaceful
crowd.
Peshawar
Led by Gandhian – Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan.
Started Pashto political monthly paper ‘Pukhtoon’.
In April 1930 he was arrested.
Khan’s followers (called Khudai Khidmatgars) whom
he had trained in Satyagraha had gathered in a
marketplace called the Qissa Khwani Bazaar.
A section of the Garhwal Rifles refused to fire upon the
unarmedcrowd.
Chittagong
Surya Sen’s Chittagong Revolt Group carried out a raid on
two armouries
Declared the establishment of a provisional government.
Bengal
The Bengal Congress was split into factions by now – one
led by Subhas Chandra Bose; the other by JM Sengupta.
Resulted in the alienation of the Calcutta bhadralok
(gentleman) leaders from the rural masses.
Communal riots in Dacca (modern day Dhaka) and
Kishoreganj –little participation of Muslims in the
movement.
Despite this, Bengal saw the largest amount ofviolence
and most number of arrests during the movement.
Bihar
Salt Satyagraha began from Champaran and Saran.
Mere gesture, because in landlocked Bihar, salt production
was not possible on a commercial scale.
Salt Satyagraha Leader in Bihar = Ambika Kant Sinha.
Site = Nakhas Pond, Patna.
In Bihar, salt satyagraha was soon replaced by a powerful
nochaukidari tax agitation.
The tribal belt of Chhotanagpur (now in Jharkhand) saw
lower class militant movements.
Socio-religious reform movement in Hazaribagh led by
Bonga Majhi and Somra Majhi.
Assam
• A powerful agitation was organised against the infamous
‘Cunningham circular’
• Cunningham circular forced parents, guardians and
students to furnish assurances of good behaviour.
• Sylhet to Noakhali (modern day Bangladesh) march by
volunteers.
Manipur and Nagaland
• At the young age of thirteen, Rani Gaidinliu, a Naga ,
raised the banner of revolt against foreign rule.
• She was captured in 1932 and sentenced to life
imprisonment.
There was widespread civil disobedience carried on by the
people.
Apart from the salt tax, other unpopular tax laws were
being defied like the forest laws, chowkidar tax, land tax,
etc.
The government tried to suppress the movement with
more laws and censorships.
The Congress Party was declared illegal. But this did not
deter the satyagrahis who continued the movement.
There were some incidents of violence in Calcutta and
Karachi but Gandhiji did not call off the movement unlike
the previous time with the non-cooperation movement.
Thousands of women also took part in the Satyagraha.
Foreign clothes were boycotted.
Liqueur shops were picketed.
There were strikes all over.
IMPACT OF AGITATION
Imports of foreign cloth and other items fell.
Government income from liquor, excise and land revenue
fell.
Elections to Legislative Assembly were largely boycotted.
The British government was shaken by the movement.
Also, its non-violent nature made it difficult for them to
suppress it violently.
This movement had three main effects:
1. It pushed Indian freedom struggle into the limelight in
western media.
2. It brought a lot of people including women and the
depressed
classes directly in touch with the freedom movement.
3. It showed the power of the non-violent Satyagraha as a
tool in fighting imperialism.
• Every section of society as Students, Women, Tribals,
Merchants and Petty Traders, Workers & Peasants took
active part in CDM.
• Although Muslims participated but their participation was
nowhere near the 1920-22 level because of appeals by
Muslim leaders to stay away from the movement - The
active government encouragement to communal
dissension was working
• Lord Irwin called Gandhi and Congress for talks finally in
January 1931.