Nationalism in India
Differing strands of Non-Cooperation
Explain how different groups joined Non-Cooperation with their own idea of swaraj.
One call, many meanings. In January 1921 the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement started. Many groups joined, each with its own hopes. All answered the call for swaraj, but swaraj meant different things to different people.
In the towns. The middle class began it:
- thousands of students left government schools and colleges; teachers resigned; lawyers gave up their practice;
- most provinces boycotted the council elections; Madras did not, because the Justice Party (the non-Brahmans' party) saw the council as a way to win some power that usually only Brahmans had;
- foreign cloth was burnt in bonfires, liquor shops were picketed, and merchants refused to trade in foreign goods.
Between 1921 and 1922, imports of foreign cloth halved, falling in value from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore. Indian mills and handlooms produced more.
Why the towns slowed down.
- Khadi usually cost more than mill cloth, so poor people could not afford to boycott mill cloth for long.
- Boycotting British schools and courts needed Indian alternatives, which took a long time to appear. So students and teachers drifted back to government schools, and lawyers back to the courts.
Awadh: peasants against landlords. Baba Ramchandra, a sanyasi who had been an indentured labourer in Fiji, led the peasants. Talukdars and landlords demanded huge rents and extra charges; peasants had to do begar (forced unpaid work) and could be evicted at any time. The peasants wanted lower revenue, an end to begar, and a social boycott of cruel landlords: panchayats organised nai-dhobi bandhs so landlords got no barbers or washermen. Jawaharlal Nehru toured the villages from June 1920; in October they set up the Oudh Kisan Sabha, with over 300 branches within a month. But in 1921 houses of talukdars were attacked and bazaars looted, which the Congress disliked. Local leaders claimed Gandhiji had said no taxes need be paid and land would go to the poor: his name was used to justify everything.
Gudem Hills: tribals take up arms. In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, the government had closed the forests: people could no longer graze cattle or collect fuelwood and fruit there. When it also forced them to do begar building roads, they revolted. Their leader, Alluri Sitarama Raju, claimed special powers (predicting the future, healing, surviving bullets). He praised Gandhiji, told people to give up drinking and wear khadi, yet said India could be freed only by force. His rebels attacked police stations and fought a guerrilla war. In 1924 Raju was caught and executed; he later became a folk hero.
Assam: swaraj in the plantations. For tea plantation workers, freedom meant being able to leave the closed gardens and keep a link with their home villages. Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, they could not leave without permission, which they rarely got. Hearing of non-cooperation, thousands walked out and headed home, believing 'Gandhi Raj' was coming and everyone would get land. A railway and steamer strike left them stranded; police caught and beat them.
What these stories show. None of these groups followed the Congress programme exactly. Each imagined swaraj as a time when all its suffering would end. Yet when tribals chanted Gandhiji's name and shouted 'Swatantra Bharat', they were joining in something bigger than their own area: an all-India struggle.
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