2. Differing Strands within the Movement

Justice Party

• A party of Non- Brahmins in Madras

• Contested council elections to gain power

Spread of NCM in the Towns

• Started with middle class participation

• Boycott of schools, colleges and courts

• Boycott of foreign clothes and use of Khadi

• Picketing of Liquor shops

• Merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade.

• British economy badly affected and Indian textile mills and handlooms grew.                             *The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, its value dropping from ₹102 crore to ₹ 57 crore.

Slowdown of the movement (due to lack of alternatives)

• Khadi was expensive

• lack of alternative educational institutions

• Students, teachers and lawyers joined back.

Spread of movement in countryside

• Led by Baba Ramchandra(an indentured labourer) in Awadh/Oudh.

• Movements against Landlords and Talukdars.

• Demands

i) Reduction of revenue

ii) Abolition of Begar

iii) Social boycott of oppressive landlords

• Organised Nai-Dhobi bands

• Setting up of Awadh Kisan Sabhas in October 1920 by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra and few others.

Interpretation and Notion of Swaraj 

When all the sufferings and troubles would be over.

The meaning of Swaraj was different for different people. 

Swaraj was based on the goals and aspirations of the different communities and social groups.

Different communities and social groups: Peasants[Rich and Poor], Tribals, Business Class, Working Class, Muslims, Dalits, Plantation Workers etc.

All the different communities and social groups interpreted the meaning of Swaraj according to their own goals and aspirations.

A Militant Guerrilla Movement in the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh in the early 1920s

• People revolted due to forced begar by the government for building roads.

• Hatred and dissent towards forest laws.

• Tribals restricted from entering into forests, graze their cattle  or to collect fuelwood.

• Alluri Sitaram Raju became the leader and claimed to have mystical powers.

• Raju believed that India could be liberated only by the use of force, not non-violence.

• He led militant guerrilla movement.

• Raju was captured and executed in 1924 and overtime became a folk hero.

Swaraj in the Plantations

1. Plantation workers had their own notion of Swaraj.

2. For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the confined space in which they were enclosed, and it meant retaining a link with the village they had come.

3. Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation workers were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permissions, and in fact they were rarely given such permission.

4. After hearing about NCM, thousands of plantation workers left the plantation area believing the beginning of Gandhi Raj and the end of British Raj.

5. However they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up.

Chauri Chaura Incident, 1922

1. This incident took place on 4th February 1922 at Chauri Chaura in the Gorakhpur district of the United provinces

2.  A peaceful demonstration in a Bazaar turned into a violent clash with the police

3. In retaliation the demonstrators attack and Set Fire to a police station that led to the death of 23 policemen and 3 civilians

4. After this event was Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the non cooperation movement

5. Mahatma Gandhi felt that Satyagraha is needed to be properly trained for mass struggles