Non Cooperation Movement
The Non-Cooperation Movement gained momentum through 1921-22. Students stopped going to schools and colleges run by the government. Lawyers refused to attend court. British titles were surrendered and legislatures boycotted. The working class went on strike in many towns and cities. People lit public bonfires of foreign cloth.
Hill tribes in northern Andhra violated the forest laws. Farmers in Awadh did not pay taxes. Peasants in Kumaun refused to carry loads for colonial officials. These protest movements were sometimes carried out in defiance of the local nationalist leadership. Peasants, workers, and others interpreted and acted upon the call to non-cooperate with colonial rule in ways that best suited their interests.
As a consequence of the Non-Cooperation Movement, the British Raj was shaken to its foundations for the first time since the Revolt of 1857.
Chauri Chaura Incident
In February 1922, a group of peasants attacked and torched a police station in the hamlet of Chauri Chaura, in the United Provinces (now, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand). Twenty-two policemen were killed on that day. The peasants were provoked because the police had fired on their peaceful demonstration.
This act of violence prompted Gandhiji to call off the movement altogether.
After Non-Cooperation Movement (1922-1929)
During the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of Indians were put in jail. Gandhiji was also arrested in March 1922, and charged with sedition.
By 1922, Gandhiji had transformed Indian nationalism. It was no longer a movement of professionals and intellectuals. Now, hundreds of thousands of peasants, workers and artisans also participated in it.
Mahatma Gandhi was released from prison in February 1924, and now chose to devote his attention to the promotion of home-spun cloth (khadi), and the abolition of untouchability. He believed that in order to be worthy of freedom, Indians had to get rid of social evils such as child marriage and untouchability.
Two important developments of the mid-1920s were the formation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu organisation, and the Communist Party of India. These parties have held very different ideas about the kind of country India should be.
The revolutionary nationalist Bhagat Singh too was active in this period.
The decade closed with the Congress resolving to fight for Purna Swaraj (complete independence) in 1929 under the president of Jawaharlal Nehru. Consequently, Independence Day was observed on 26 January 1930 all over the country.