NCERT Textbook - Mahatma Gandhi & The Nationalist Movement | Old & New NCERTs for IAS Preparation (Must Read) - UPSC PDF Download

 Page 1


 THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY – PART III 286
Mahatma Gandhi and
the Nationalist Movement
Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Bey y y y yond ond ond ond ond
Fig. 11.1
People gather on the banks of the Sabarmati River to hear Mahatma Gandhi speak before starting
out on the Salt March in 1930
In the history of nationalism a single individual is often identified with
the making of a nation. Thus, for example, we associate Garibaldi
with the making of Italy, George Washington with the American War
of Independence, and Ho Chi Minh with the struggle to free Vietnam
from colonial rule. In the same manner, Mahatma Gandhi has been
regarded as the ‘Father’ of the Indian nation.
     In so far as Gandhiji was the most influential and revered of all the
leaders who participated in the freedom struggle, that characterisation
is not misplaced. However, like Washington or Ho Chi-Minh, Mahatma
Gandhi’s political career was shaped and constrained by the society
in which he lived. For individuals, even great ones, are made by history
even as they make history.
     This chapter analyses Gandhiji’s activities in India during the
crucial period 1915-1948. It explores his interactions with different
sections of the Indian society and the popular struggles that he
inspired and led. It introduces the student to the different kinds of
sources that historians use in reconstructing the career of a leader
and of the social movements that he was associated with.
THEME
ELEVEN
2024-25
Page 2


 THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY – PART III 286
Mahatma Gandhi and
the Nationalist Movement
Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Bey y y y yond ond ond ond ond
Fig. 11.1
People gather on the banks of the Sabarmati River to hear Mahatma Gandhi speak before starting
out on the Salt March in 1930
In the history of nationalism a single individual is often identified with
the making of a nation. Thus, for example, we associate Garibaldi
with the making of Italy, George Washington with the American War
of Independence, and Ho Chi Minh with the struggle to free Vietnam
from colonial rule. In the same manner, Mahatma Gandhi has been
regarded as the ‘Father’ of the Indian nation.
     In so far as Gandhiji was the most influential and revered of all the
leaders who participated in the freedom struggle, that characterisation
is not misplaced. However, like Washington or Ho Chi-Minh, Mahatma
Gandhi’s political career was shaped and constrained by the society
in which he lived. For individuals, even great ones, are made by history
even as they make history.
     This chapter analyses Gandhiji’s activities in India during the
crucial period 1915-1948. It explores his interactions with different
sections of the Indian society and the popular struggles that he
inspired and led. It introduces the student to the different kinds of
sources that historians use in reconstructing the career of a leader
and of the social movements that he was associated with.
THEME
ELEVEN
2024-25
287
1. A Leader Announces Himself
In January 1915, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
returned to his homeland after two decades of
residence abroad. These years had been spent for
the most part in South Africa, where he went as a
lawyer, and in time became a leader of the Indian
community in that territory. As the historian
Chandran Devanesan has remarked, South Africa was
“the making of the Mahatma”. It was in South Africa
that Mahatma Gandhi first forged the distinctive
techniques of non-violent protest known as
satyagraha, first promoted harmony between religions,
and first alerted upper-caste Indians to their
discriminatory treatment of low castes and women.
The India that Mahatma Gandhi came back to in
1915 was rather different from the one that he had
left in 1893. Although still a colony of the British,
it was far more active in a political sense. The Indian
National Congress now had branches in most major
cities and towns. Through the Swadeshi movement
of 1905-07 it had greatly broadened its appeal
among the middle classes. That movement had
thrown up some towering leaders – among them
Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra, Bipin
Chandra Pal of Bengal, and Lala Lajpat Rai of
Punjab. The three were known as “Lal, Bal and Pal”,
the alliteration conveying the all-India character
of their struggle, since their native provinces were
very distant from one another. Where
these leaders advocated militant
opposition to colonial rule,  there was
a group of  “Moderates” who preferred
a more gradual and persuasive
approach. Among  these Moderates
was Gandhiji’s acknowledged political
mentor, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, as
well as Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who,
like Gandhiji, was a lawyer of Gujarati
extraction trained in London.
On Gokhale’s advice, Gandhiji spent
a year travelling around British India,
getting to know the land and its
peoples. His first major public
appearance was at the opening of the
Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in
February 1916. Among the invitees to
Fig. 11.2
Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg,
South Africa, February 1908
MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT
2024-25
Page 3


 THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY – PART III 286
Mahatma Gandhi and
the Nationalist Movement
Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Bey y y y yond ond ond ond ond
Fig. 11.1
People gather on the banks of the Sabarmati River to hear Mahatma Gandhi speak before starting
out on the Salt March in 1930
In the history of nationalism a single individual is often identified with
the making of a nation. Thus, for example, we associate Garibaldi
with the making of Italy, George Washington with the American War
of Independence, and Ho Chi Minh with the struggle to free Vietnam
from colonial rule. In the same manner, Mahatma Gandhi has been
regarded as the ‘Father’ of the Indian nation.
     In so far as Gandhiji was the most influential and revered of all the
leaders who participated in the freedom struggle, that characterisation
is not misplaced. However, like Washington or Ho Chi-Minh, Mahatma
Gandhi’s political career was shaped and constrained by the society
in which he lived. For individuals, even great ones, are made by history
even as they make history.
     This chapter analyses Gandhiji’s activities in India during the
crucial period 1915-1948. It explores his interactions with different
sections of the Indian society and the popular struggles that he
inspired and led. It introduces the student to the different kinds of
sources that historians use in reconstructing the career of a leader
and of the social movements that he was associated with.
THEME
ELEVEN
2024-25
287
1. A Leader Announces Himself
In January 1915, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
returned to his homeland after two decades of
residence abroad. These years had been spent for
the most part in South Africa, where he went as a
lawyer, and in time became a leader of the Indian
community in that territory. As the historian
Chandran Devanesan has remarked, South Africa was
“the making of the Mahatma”. It was in South Africa
that Mahatma Gandhi first forged the distinctive
techniques of non-violent protest known as
satyagraha, first promoted harmony between religions,
and first alerted upper-caste Indians to their
discriminatory treatment of low castes and women.
The India that Mahatma Gandhi came back to in
1915 was rather different from the one that he had
left in 1893. Although still a colony of the British,
it was far more active in a political sense. The Indian
National Congress now had branches in most major
cities and towns. Through the Swadeshi movement
of 1905-07 it had greatly broadened its appeal
among the middle classes. That movement had
thrown up some towering leaders – among them
Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra, Bipin
Chandra Pal of Bengal, and Lala Lajpat Rai of
Punjab. The three were known as “Lal, Bal and Pal”,
the alliteration conveying the all-India character
of their struggle, since their native provinces were
very distant from one another. Where
these leaders advocated militant
opposition to colonial rule,  there was
a group of  “Moderates” who preferred
a more gradual and persuasive
approach. Among  these Moderates
was Gandhiji’s acknowledged political
mentor, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, as
well as Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who,
like Gandhiji, was a lawyer of Gujarati
extraction trained in London.
On Gokhale’s advice, Gandhiji spent
a year travelling around British India,
getting to know the land and its
peoples. His first major public
appearance was at the opening of the
Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in
February 1916. Among the invitees to
Fig. 11.2
Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg,
South Africa, February 1908
MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT
2024-25
 THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY – PART III 288
this event  were the princes and philanthropists whose
donations had contributed to the founding of the
BHU. Also present were important leaders of the
Congress, such as Annie Besant. Compared to these
dignitaries, Gandhiji was relatively unknown. He had
been invited on account of his work in South Africa,
rather than his status within India.
When his turn came to speak, Gandhiji charged
the Indian elite with a lack of concern for the
labouring poor. The opening of the BHU, he said,
was “certainly a most gorgeous show”. But he worried
about the contrast between the “richly bedecked
noblemen” present and “millions of the poor” Indians
who were absent. Gandhiji told the privileged invitees
that “there is no salvation for India unless you strip
yourself of this jewellery and hold it in trust for your
countrymen in India”. “There can be no spirit of self-
government about us,” he went on, “if we take away
or allow others to take away from the peasants almost
the whole of the results of their labour. Our salvation
can only come through the farmer. Neither the
lawyers, nor the doctors, nor the rich landlords are
going to secure it.”
The opening of the BHU was an occasion for
celebration, marking as it did the opening of a
nationalist university, sustained by Indian money
and Indian initiative. But rather than adopt a tone
of self-congratulation, Gandhiji chose instead to
remind those present of the peasants and workers
who constituted a majority
of the Indian population,
yet were unrepresented in
the audience.
Gandhiji’s speech at
Banaras in February 1916
was, at one level, merely a
statement of fact – namely,
that Indian nationalism
was an elite phenomenon,
a creation of lawyers and
doctors and landlords.
But, at  another level, it
was also a statement of
intent – the first public
announcement of Gandhiji’s
own desire to make Indian
nationalism more properly
Fig. 11.3
Mahatma Gandhi in Karachi,
March 1916
2024-25
Page 4


 THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY – PART III 286
Mahatma Gandhi and
the Nationalist Movement
Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Bey y y y yond ond ond ond ond
Fig. 11.1
People gather on the banks of the Sabarmati River to hear Mahatma Gandhi speak before starting
out on the Salt March in 1930
In the history of nationalism a single individual is often identified with
the making of a nation. Thus, for example, we associate Garibaldi
with the making of Italy, George Washington with the American War
of Independence, and Ho Chi Minh with the struggle to free Vietnam
from colonial rule. In the same manner, Mahatma Gandhi has been
regarded as the ‘Father’ of the Indian nation.
     In so far as Gandhiji was the most influential and revered of all the
leaders who participated in the freedom struggle, that characterisation
is not misplaced. However, like Washington or Ho Chi-Minh, Mahatma
Gandhi’s political career was shaped and constrained by the society
in which he lived. For individuals, even great ones, are made by history
even as they make history.
     This chapter analyses Gandhiji’s activities in India during the
crucial period 1915-1948. It explores his interactions with different
sections of the Indian society and the popular struggles that he
inspired and led. It introduces the student to the different kinds of
sources that historians use in reconstructing the career of a leader
and of the social movements that he was associated with.
THEME
ELEVEN
2024-25
287
1. A Leader Announces Himself
In January 1915, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
returned to his homeland after two decades of
residence abroad. These years had been spent for
the most part in South Africa, where he went as a
lawyer, and in time became a leader of the Indian
community in that territory. As the historian
Chandran Devanesan has remarked, South Africa was
“the making of the Mahatma”. It was in South Africa
that Mahatma Gandhi first forged the distinctive
techniques of non-violent protest known as
satyagraha, first promoted harmony between religions,
and first alerted upper-caste Indians to their
discriminatory treatment of low castes and women.
The India that Mahatma Gandhi came back to in
1915 was rather different from the one that he had
left in 1893. Although still a colony of the British,
it was far more active in a political sense. The Indian
National Congress now had branches in most major
cities and towns. Through the Swadeshi movement
of 1905-07 it had greatly broadened its appeal
among the middle classes. That movement had
thrown up some towering leaders – among them
Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra, Bipin
Chandra Pal of Bengal, and Lala Lajpat Rai of
Punjab. The three were known as “Lal, Bal and Pal”,
the alliteration conveying the all-India character
of their struggle, since their native provinces were
very distant from one another. Where
these leaders advocated militant
opposition to colonial rule,  there was
a group of  “Moderates” who preferred
a more gradual and persuasive
approach. Among  these Moderates
was Gandhiji’s acknowledged political
mentor, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, as
well as Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who,
like Gandhiji, was a lawyer of Gujarati
extraction trained in London.
On Gokhale’s advice, Gandhiji spent
a year travelling around British India,
getting to know the land and its
peoples. His first major public
appearance was at the opening of the
Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in
February 1916. Among the invitees to
Fig. 11.2
Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg,
South Africa, February 1908
MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT
2024-25
 THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY – PART III 288
this event  were the princes and philanthropists whose
donations had contributed to the founding of the
BHU. Also present were important leaders of the
Congress, such as Annie Besant. Compared to these
dignitaries, Gandhiji was relatively unknown. He had
been invited on account of his work in South Africa,
rather than his status within India.
When his turn came to speak, Gandhiji charged
the Indian elite with a lack of concern for the
labouring poor. The opening of the BHU, he said,
was “certainly a most gorgeous show”. But he worried
about the contrast between the “richly bedecked
noblemen” present and “millions of the poor” Indians
who were absent. Gandhiji told the privileged invitees
that “there is no salvation for India unless you strip
yourself of this jewellery and hold it in trust for your
countrymen in India”. “There can be no spirit of self-
government about us,” he went on, “if we take away
or allow others to take away from the peasants almost
the whole of the results of their labour. Our salvation
can only come through the farmer. Neither the
lawyers, nor the doctors, nor the rich landlords are
going to secure it.”
The opening of the BHU was an occasion for
celebration, marking as it did the opening of a
nationalist university, sustained by Indian money
and Indian initiative. But rather than adopt a tone
of self-congratulation, Gandhiji chose instead to
remind those present of the peasants and workers
who constituted a majority
of the Indian population,
yet were unrepresented in
the audience.
Gandhiji’s speech at
Banaras in February 1916
was, at one level, merely a
statement of fact – namely,
that Indian nationalism
was an elite phenomenon,
a creation of lawyers and
doctors and landlords.
But, at  another level, it
was also a statement of
intent – the first public
announcement of Gandhiji’s
own desire to make Indian
nationalism more properly
Fig. 11.3
Mahatma Gandhi in Karachi,
March 1916
2024-25
289
representative of the Indian people as a whole. In the
last month of that year, Gandhiji was presented with
an opportunity to put his precepts into practice. At the
annual Congress, held in Lucknow in December 1916,
he was approached by a peasant from Champaran in
Bihar, who told him about the harsh treatment of
peasants by British indigo planters.
2. The Making and Unmaking of
Non-cooperation
Mahatma Gandhi was to spend much of 1917 in
Champaran, seeking to obtain for the peasants security
of tenure as well as the freedom to cultivate the crops
of their choice. The following year, 1918, Gandhiji was
involved in two campaigns in his home state of
Gujarat. First, he intervened in a labour dispute in
Ahmedabad, demanding better working conditions for
the textile mill workers. Then he joined peasants in
Kheda in asking the state for the remission of taxes
following the failure of their harvest.
These initiatives in Champaran, Ahmedabad and
Kheda marked Gandhiji out as a nationalist with
a deep sympathy for the poor. At the same time,
these were all localised struggles. Then, in 1919,
the colonial rulers delivered into Gandhiji’s lap
an issue from which he could construct a much
wider movement. During the Great War of 1914-18,
the British had instituted censorship of the press
and permitted detention without trial. Now, on
the recommendation of a committee chaired by
Sir Sidney Rowlatt, these tough measures were
continued. In response, Gandhiji called for a
countrywide campaign against the “Rowlatt Act”.
In towns across North and West India, life came to
a standstill, as shops shut down and schools closed
in response to the bandh call. The protests were
particularly intense in the Punjab, where many men
had served on the British side in the War –
expecting to be rewarded for their service. Instead
they were given the Rowlatt Act. Gandhiji was
detained while proceeding to the Punjab, even as
prominent local Congressmen were arrested. The
situation in the province grew progressively more
tense, reaching a bloody climax in Amritsar in
April 1919, when a British Brigadier ordered his
troops to open fire on a nationalist meeting. More
MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT
Ü Discuss...
Find out more about the
national movement in India
before 1915 and see whether
Mahatma Gandhi’s comments
are justified.
2024-25
Page 5


 THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY – PART III 286
Mahatma Gandhi and
the Nationalist Movement
Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Be Civil Disobedience and Bey y y y yond ond ond ond ond
Fig. 11.1
People gather on the banks of the Sabarmati River to hear Mahatma Gandhi speak before starting
out on the Salt March in 1930
In the history of nationalism a single individual is often identified with
the making of a nation. Thus, for example, we associate Garibaldi
with the making of Italy, George Washington with the American War
of Independence, and Ho Chi Minh with the struggle to free Vietnam
from colonial rule. In the same manner, Mahatma Gandhi has been
regarded as the ‘Father’ of the Indian nation.
     In so far as Gandhiji was the most influential and revered of all the
leaders who participated in the freedom struggle, that characterisation
is not misplaced. However, like Washington or Ho Chi-Minh, Mahatma
Gandhi’s political career was shaped and constrained by the society
in which he lived. For individuals, even great ones, are made by history
even as they make history.
     This chapter analyses Gandhiji’s activities in India during the
crucial period 1915-1948. It explores his interactions with different
sections of the Indian society and the popular struggles that he
inspired and led. It introduces the student to the different kinds of
sources that historians use in reconstructing the career of a leader
and of the social movements that he was associated with.
THEME
ELEVEN
2024-25
287
1. A Leader Announces Himself
In January 1915, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
returned to his homeland after two decades of
residence abroad. These years had been spent for
the most part in South Africa, where he went as a
lawyer, and in time became a leader of the Indian
community in that territory. As the historian
Chandran Devanesan has remarked, South Africa was
“the making of the Mahatma”. It was in South Africa
that Mahatma Gandhi first forged the distinctive
techniques of non-violent protest known as
satyagraha, first promoted harmony between religions,
and first alerted upper-caste Indians to their
discriminatory treatment of low castes and women.
The India that Mahatma Gandhi came back to in
1915 was rather different from the one that he had
left in 1893. Although still a colony of the British,
it was far more active in a political sense. The Indian
National Congress now had branches in most major
cities and towns. Through the Swadeshi movement
of 1905-07 it had greatly broadened its appeal
among the middle classes. That movement had
thrown up some towering leaders – among them
Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra, Bipin
Chandra Pal of Bengal, and Lala Lajpat Rai of
Punjab. The three were known as “Lal, Bal and Pal”,
the alliteration conveying the all-India character
of their struggle, since their native provinces were
very distant from one another. Where
these leaders advocated militant
opposition to colonial rule,  there was
a group of  “Moderates” who preferred
a more gradual and persuasive
approach. Among  these Moderates
was Gandhiji’s acknowledged political
mentor, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, as
well as Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who,
like Gandhiji, was a lawyer of Gujarati
extraction trained in London.
On Gokhale’s advice, Gandhiji spent
a year travelling around British India,
getting to know the land and its
peoples. His first major public
appearance was at the opening of the
Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in
February 1916. Among the invitees to
Fig. 11.2
Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg,
South Africa, February 1908
MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT
2024-25
 THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY – PART III 288
this event  were the princes and philanthropists whose
donations had contributed to the founding of the
BHU. Also present were important leaders of the
Congress, such as Annie Besant. Compared to these
dignitaries, Gandhiji was relatively unknown. He had
been invited on account of his work in South Africa,
rather than his status within India.
When his turn came to speak, Gandhiji charged
the Indian elite with a lack of concern for the
labouring poor. The opening of the BHU, he said,
was “certainly a most gorgeous show”. But he worried
about the contrast between the “richly bedecked
noblemen” present and “millions of the poor” Indians
who were absent. Gandhiji told the privileged invitees
that “there is no salvation for India unless you strip
yourself of this jewellery and hold it in trust for your
countrymen in India”. “There can be no spirit of self-
government about us,” he went on, “if we take away
or allow others to take away from the peasants almost
the whole of the results of their labour. Our salvation
can only come through the farmer. Neither the
lawyers, nor the doctors, nor the rich landlords are
going to secure it.”
The opening of the BHU was an occasion for
celebration, marking as it did the opening of a
nationalist university, sustained by Indian money
and Indian initiative. But rather than adopt a tone
of self-congratulation, Gandhiji chose instead to
remind those present of the peasants and workers
who constituted a majority
of the Indian population,
yet were unrepresented in
the audience.
Gandhiji’s speech at
Banaras in February 1916
was, at one level, merely a
statement of fact – namely,
that Indian nationalism
was an elite phenomenon,
a creation of lawyers and
doctors and landlords.
But, at  another level, it
was also a statement of
intent – the first public
announcement of Gandhiji’s
own desire to make Indian
nationalism more properly
Fig. 11.3
Mahatma Gandhi in Karachi,
March 1916
2024-25
289
representative of the Indian people as a whole. In the
last month of that year, Gandhiji was presented with
an opportunity to put his precepts into practice. At the
annual Congress, held in Lucknow in December 1916,
he was approached by a peasant from Champaran in
Bihar, who told him about the harsh treatment of
peasants by British indigo planters.
2. The Making and Unmaking of
Non-cooperation
Mahatma Gandhi was to spend much of 1917 in
Champaran, seeking to obtain for the peasants security
of tenure as well as the freedom to cultivate the crops
of their choice. The following year, 1918, Gandhiji was
involved in two campaigns in his home state of
Gujarat. First, he intervened in a labour dispute in
Ahmedabad, demanding better working conditions for
the textile mill workers. Then he joined peasants in
Kheda in asking the state for the remission of taxes
following the failure of their harvest.
These initiatives in Champaran, Ahmedabad and
Kheda marked Gandhiji out as a nationalist with
a deep sympathy for the poor. At the same time,
these were all localised struggles. Then, in 1919,
the colonial rulers delivered into Gandhiji’s lap
an issue from which he could construct a much
wider movement. During the Great War of 1914-18,
the British had instituted censorship of the press
and permitted detention without trial. Now, on
the recommendation of a committee chaired by
Sir Sidney Rowlatt, these tough measures were
continued. In response, Gandhiji called for a
countrywide campaign against the “Rowlatt Act”.
In towns across North and West India, life came to
a standstill, as shops shut down and schools closed
in response to the bandh call. The protests were
particularly intense in the Punjab, where many men
had served on the British side in the War –
expecting to be rewarded for their service. Instead
they were given the Rowlatt Act. Gandhiji was
detained while proceeding to the Punjab, even as
prominent local Congressmen were arrested. The
situation in the province grew progressively more
tense, reaching a bloody climax in Amritsar in
April 1919, when a British Brigadier ordered his
troops to open fire on a nationalist meeting. More
MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT
Ü Discuss...
Find out more about the
national movement in India
before 1915 and see whether
Mahatma Gandhi’s comments
are justified.
2024-25
 THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY – PART III 290
than four hundred people were killed in what is
known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
It was the Rowlatt satyagraha that made Gandhiji
a truly national leader. Emboldened by its success,
Gandhiji called for a campaign of “non-cooperation”
with British rule. Indians who wished colonialism to
end were asked to stop attending schools, colleges
and law courts, and not pay taxes. In sum, they were
asked to adhere to a “renunciation of (all) voluntary
association with the (British) Government”. If non-
cooperation was effectively carried out, said Gandhiji,
India would win swaraj within a year. To further
broaden the struggle he had joined hands with the
Khilafat Movement that sought to restore the
Caliphate, a symbol of Pan-Islamism which had
recently been abolished by the Turkish ruler
Kemal Attaturk.
2.1 Knitting a popular movement
Gandhiji hoped that by coupling non-cooperation with
Khilafat, India’s two major religious communities,
Hindus and Muslims, could collectively bring an
end to colonial rule. These movements certainly
unleashed a surge of popular action that was
altogether unprecedented in colonial India.
Students stopped going to schools and colleges
run by the government. Lawyers refused to attend
court. The working class went on strike in many
towns and cities: according to official figures, there
were 396 strikes in 1921, involving 600,000
workers and a loss of seven million workdays. The
countryside was seething with discontent too. 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, rather than
conform to the dictates laid down from above.
“Non-cooperation,” wrote Mahatma Gandhi’s
American biographer Louis Fischer, “became the name
of an epoch in the life of India and of Gandhiji.
Non-cooperation was negative enough to be peaceful
but positive enough to be effective. It entailed denial,
renunciation, and self-discipline. It was training for
What was the
Khilafat Movement?
The Khilafat Movement,
(1919-1920) was a movement
of Indian Muslims, led by
Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali,
that demanded the following:
The Turkish Sultan or Khalifa
must retain control over the
Muslim sacred places in the
erstwhile Ottoman empire; the
jazirat-ul-Arab (Arabia, Syria,
Iraq, Palestine) must remain
under Muslim sovereignty; and
the Khalifa must be left with
sufficient territory to enable
him to defend the Islamic faith.
The Congress supported the
movement and Mahatma Gandhi
sought  to conjoin it to the
Non-cooperation Movement.
2024-25