The Indian National Movement (1917-1934) | ICSE Class 8 History & Civics Notes

This note covers Gandhi’s early campaigns, wartime hardship, the Rowlatt Act, Jallianwala Bagh, Khilafat, Non-Cooperation, popular participation, the Simon Commission, complete independence, the Salt March, Civil Disobedience, political agreements and the movement’s development up to 1934.

What was the colonial background to the mass movement?

Nationalism and shared grievances

Nationalism involved a sense of belonging to a nation and the belief that its people should control their affairs. In India, it grew through opposition to colonial rule, the control exercised by a foreign power over the country and its resources.

Different groups experienced British rule differently. Their grievances could bring them together, but their ideas of freedom were not always the same. The Indian National Congress, a political organisation seeking to represent Indians, tried under Mahatma Gandhi to unite these groups within a common movement.

How did war affect everyday life?

The First World War increased government spending on defence. The government raised taxes and borrowed through war loans. Prices doubled between 1913 and 1918, causing severe hardship for ordinary people. The burden of paying for the war therefore reached everyday households.

Forced recruitment, making people join the army against their will, caused anger in villages. Crop failures in many parts of India in 1918-19 and 1920-21 brought food shortages. An influenza epidemic added to the suffering. Hopes that hardship would end after the war were disappointed.

Business groups had a different wartime experience. Demand for industrial goods increased while imports declined, allowing Indian industries to expand. Business leaders began seeking greater opportunities for development. Thus, the same war caused hardship for many people while creating opportunities for some producers.

After 1919, the national movement reached new areas and drew in new social groups. A mass movement means a struggle involving large numbers of ordinary people. It linked demands for political freedom with grievances about prices, taxes, work and access to resources.

How did Gandhi use satyagraha in the early campaigns?

Truth and non-violence

Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa in January 1915. There he had opposed racist restrictions through non-violent struggle. In India, he spent his first year travelling and understanding people’s needs before becoming involved in local struggles.

Definition: Satyagraha is resistance to injustice based on truth and non-violence. It seeks to persuade an opponent’s conscience rather than defeat the opponent through physical force.

Ahimsa means non-violence. Gandhi believed that a just struggle could succeed without aggression or revenge. A satyagrahi, a person practising satyagraha, had to resist injustice actively while refusing to inflict harm. Non-violence therefore required discipline and courage.

Three local campaigns

Revenue here means the land tax demanded by the government. The Kheda grievance concerned the inability to meet that demand after crop failure and disease. Ahmedabad involved industrial workers, whereas Champaran and Kheda involved cultivators. Their immediate problems were therefore distinct.

These campaigns brought Gandhi into contact with local people and leaders, including Rajendra Prasad and Vallabhbhai Patel. Their importance lay in connecting political leadership with concrete grievances. In 1919, Gandhi moved from these local struggles towards a nationwide protest against the Rowlatt Act.

Why did the Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh provoke anger?

A law restricting political freedom

The Rowlatt Act of 1919 strengthened the government’s power to suppress political activity. It allowed political prisoners to be detained without trial for two years. Indian members opposed it in the Imperial Legislative Council, the central law-making body under British rule.

Gandhi called for a hartal, a strike or stoppage of work, on 6 April 1919. Shops closed, railway workshop workers struck and public meetings took place. The protest spread widely, although it remained limited mostly to cities and towns.

The authorities arrested local leaders in Amritsar and prevented Gandhi from entering Delhi. On 10 April 1919, police fired on a peaceful procession in Amritsar. Attacks on banks, post offices and railway stations followed. Martial law, military control replacing ordinary civil administration, was imposed.

The massacre and its aftermath

On 13 April 1919, a crowd gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. Some had come to protest against repression; others were attending the Baisakhi fair. Many villagers from outside the city did not know about martial law.

General Dyer blocked the exits and ordered firing on the crowd, killing hundreds. His declared purpose was to create terror among satyagrahis. News of the massacre caused strikes and protests in many north Indian towns, followed by further government repression.

Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest. A knighthood was an honour granted by the British Crown. Giving it up expressed his anger and the country’s pain at the massacre.

As violence spread, Gandhi called off the Rowlatt movement. He wanted resistance to remain non-violent. The experience also showed him the need for a broader movement that could unite Hindus and Muslims and reach beyond the towns.

How did Khilafat and Non-Cooperation become linked?

Combining political causes

The Khilafat agitation defended the position of the Turkish Sultan, or Khalifa, regarded as the spiritual head of the Islamic world. Indian Muslims wanted him to retain control over Muslim sacred places in the former Ottoman Empire.

A Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919. In 1920, a harsh treaty imposed on the Turkish Sultan intensified anger. The brothers Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali wanted a full Non-Cooperation Movement, and Gandhi supported their call.

Gandhi linked the Khilafat grievance with anger over Jallianwala Bagh and the demand for swaraj, meaning self-rule. He saw cooperation between Hindus and Muslims in a just cause as essential to building a united national movement.

The programme and its adoption

Non-Cooperation meant withdrawing support from British institutions and activities. Gandhi argued that British rule depended on Indian cooperation. His expectation that withdrawing it could bring swaraj within a year was a political belief, not an outcome that actually occurred.

The proposed programme began with surrendering government titles and boycotting institutions and foreign goods. A boycott is a refusal to buy goods, take part in activities or deal with institutions, usually as a form of protest.

At the Calcutta Congress in September 1920, Gandhi persuaded leaders to support Non-Cooperation for Khilafat and swaraj. Many Congress members nevertheless feared violence or opposed boycotting council elections. Agreement required further debate.

The Nagpur Congress adopted the programme in December 1920. The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921. Students left government institutions, lawyers gave up practice and people surrendered titles. A national programme now offered several ways for ordinary people to withdraw cooperation.

How did different groups participate in Non-Cooperation?

Students, lawyers and traders

In towns, thousands of students left government-controlled schools and colleges. Teachers resigned and lawyers stopped practising. Elections to legislative councils were boycotted in most provinces, except Madras. A legislative council was a body involved in law-making and discussion of government policy.

People burned foreign cloth and picketed liquor shops, protesting at entrances to discourage people from entering. In many places, traders refused to handle foreign goods. As people turned to Indian cloth, production by Indian textile mills and handlooms increased.

Peasants in Awadh

In Awadh, Baba Ramchandra led peasants against high rents and landlords’ demands. Peasants also opposed begar, compulsory unpaid labour. Tenants, people cultivating rented land, faced eviction and lacked secure rights over that land.

Jawaharlal Nehru visited Awadh villages in June 1920. By October 1920, he, Baba Ramchandra and others headed the Oudh Kisan Sabha, an organisation of peasants. Their demands included lower revenue, an end to begar and social boycotts of oppressive landlords.

Forest communities and plantation workers

In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, restrictions on grazing and collecting forest produce harmed local livelihoods. Forced labour for road building intensified resentment. Alluri Sitaram Raju praised Gandhi and encouraged khadi, hand-spun and handwoven cloth, but supported armed struggle.

Raju’s methods differed from Gandhi’s non-violence. His followers attacked police stations and used armed resistance. Raju was captured and executed in 1924. Admiration for Gandhi did not mean that every local movement followed Gandhi’s methods.

The Inland Emigration Act of 1859 prevented plantation workers from leaving tea gardens without permission. Permission was rarely granted, so freedom of movement was a central concern for these workers.

Assam plantation workers connected freedom with leaving confined tea gardens and returning to their villages. Thousands left after hearing of Non-Cooperation, believing Gandhi’s rule was coming. They were stranded by a transport strike, caught by police and beaten. Their hopes were not promises made by Gandhi.

Why was Non-Cooperation withdrawn, and what followed?

Practical difficulties and violence

The urban boycott gradually weakened. Khadi was often more expensive than mass-produced mill cloth, so poor people could not afford it. Alternative Indian schools and other institutions appeared slowly. Students and teachers returned to government institutions, and lawyers resumed work in government courts.

In February 1922, police fired on a peaceful demonstration at Chauri Chaura. A crowd of peasants then set fire to a police station, killing twenty-two policemen. Gandhi withdrew Non-Cooperation because he opposed violence and believed satyagrahis needed training before further mass struggles.

Note: Withdrawal in February 1922 did not mean that Gandhi approved of British repression. It reflected his insistence on non-violence and his concern that the movement was turning violent in many places.

Different choices within the Congress

After 1922, Gandhi’s followers emphasised constructive work, practical social work in villages that could strengthen ties with ordinary people. Work in rural areas during the mid-1920s extended their support and later helped the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru instead argued for entering the councils and influencing policy from within. They formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress. They wanted to oppose British policies, press for reform and expose the councils’ lack of genuine democracy.

Younger leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, pressed for renewed mass agitation and complete independence. The years after withdrawal therefore contained debate over methods and goals, alongside continued political and social work.

Sarojini Naidu had been active in the national movement since the early 1920s. In 1925, she became the first Indian woman to serve as president of the Indian National Congress.

In 1928, Vallabhbhai Patel led the Bardoli Satyagraha in Gujarat against increased land revenue. Its success and the sympathy it attracted showed the continuing importance of local peasant grievances within the wider freedom struggle.

What caused the renewed demand for complete independence?

The Simon Commission and economic distress

The British government decided in 1927 to appoint the Simon Commission to examine India’s constitutional system and recommend changes. It contained no Indian member. Indians objected to a body deciding their political future without Indian representation.

When the commission arrived in 1928, it faced demonstrations calling for it to go back. The Congress and Muslim League participated in the protests. Lala Lajpat Rai was assaulted by police during a peaceful demonstration and died from the injuries inflicted on him.

The economic depression, a severe decline in economic activity, added to rural distress. Agricultural prices began falling in 1926 and collapsed after 1930. With demand and exports declining, peasants struggled to sell crops and pay government revenue.

The Lahore decision

In October 1929, Viceroy Irwin offered dominion status, self-government within the British imperial framework, at an unspecified future time. He also proposed a Round Table Conference, a meeting to discuss India’s future constitution. Congress leaders were dissatisfied with the vague offer.

At Lahore in December 1929, the Congress met under Jawaharlal Nehru’s presidency and formally demanded Purna Swaraj, or complete independence. This went beyond the proposal to remain within the British dominion framework.

The Congress declared 26 January 1930 Independence Day and asked people to pledge themselves to the struggle. The celebrations attracted very little attention. Gandhi therefore needed a way to connect complete independence with a specific problem that ordinary people recognised.

Salt provided that connection. Unlike a general constitutional demand, opposition to the salt tax addressed something used in everyday meals. It could connect the demand for freedom with a grievance shared by rich and poor.

How did the Salt March begin Civil Disobedience?

Why choose salt?

The government had a monopoly, exclusive control, over the manufacture and sale of salt. Salt was an essential food item used by rich and poor alike. Gandhi declared that the salt tax and the government monopoly over its production revealed the most oppressive face of British rule.

On 31 January 1930, Gandhi sent Irwin eleven demands. They addressed different groups, including peasants and industrialists, to encourage united action. Abolition of the salt tax was the most stirring demand. Irwin was unwilling to negotiate.

Gandhi’s letter warned that the Congress would begin civil disobedience, deliberate resistance through breaking unjust laws, if the demands were not met by 11 March 1930. The campaign was intended to remain non-violent.

From Sabarmati to Dandi

Gandhi marched from Sabarmati to the coastal town of Dandi, accompanied by seventy-eight trusted volunteers. They travelled over 240 miles in twenty-four days. Thousands listened at stopping places as Gandhi explained swaraj and urged peaceful defiance of British rule.

On 6 April 1930, Gandhi broke the salt law at Dandi. Gathering natural salt and producing salt from sea water challenged the state’s monopoly. This act marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

1. Choose a shared grievance: the salt tax affected a necessity used by both rich and poor.
2. Present demands: Gandhi connected salt with a wider set of grievances in his letter to Irwin.
3. Mobilise people: the march and speeches explained swaraj and encouraged peaceful resistance.
4. Break the law: making salt challenged colonial control through a concrete public act.

The movement spread as people made salt and protested outside government salt factories. Others boycotted foreign cloth, picketed liquor shops or refused revenue payments. In many places, forest people entered restricted forests to collect wood and graze cattle.

What were the consequences of Civil Disobedience up to 1934?

Repression and negotiation

The government arrested Congress leaders as the movement spread. When Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a follower of Gandhi, was arrested in April 1930, crowds protested in Peshawar and faced police firing. Gandhi’s arrest in May 1930 was followed by attacks on government buildings in Sholapur.

Repression included attacks on peaceful protesters and the beating of women and children. About 100,000 people were arrested. Gandhi eventually called off the movement and reached an agreement with Irwin on 5 March 1931.

Under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Gandhi agreed to attend a Round Table Conference in London, and the government agreed to release political prisoners. The Congress had boycotted the first conference. The pact opened a path to discussion but did not grant complete independence.

Renewal and declining momentum

Gandhi attended the second Round Table Conference in 1931, but negotiations failed. On returning to India, he found renewed repression. Ghaffar Khan and Jawaharlal Nehru were imprisoned, Congress was declared illegal, and meetings, demonstrations and boycotts faced restrictions.

Gandhi relaunched Civil Disobedience in 1932 with great apprehension. The movement continued for over a year, but by 1934 it had lost momentum. Renewed protest therefore did not simply reproduce the enthusiasm and alliances of its first phase.

Rich peasants had been disappointed when the 1931 suspension brought no revision of revenue rates. Many refused to join again in 1932. Business groups were no longer uniformly enthusiastic after the conference failed, fearing prolonged disruption and more militant activity.

The period nevertheless widened participation in national politics. Peasants, workers, business groups and women connected public protest with their own concerns. Its history combines growing participation with repression, disagreement and changing levels of support.

Why did participation and political unity have limits?

Economic interests differed

Rich peasants wanted lower government revenue demands. Poorer tenants also wanted unpaid rent owed to landlords cancelled. Congress was unwilling to support no-rent campaigns in most places because it feared upsetting rich peasants and landlords. Relations with poorer peasants consequently remained uncertain.

Industrialists supported Civil Disobedience with money and boycotts of imported goods. Industrial workers did not participate in large numbers, except in the Nagpur region. Some joined protests over low wages and poor working conditions, but Congress feared that embracing their demands would alienate industrialists.

Women and public participation

Women joined marches, made salt and picketed shops; many were imprisoned. Their involvement broadened public participation. However, this did not necessarily mean a radical change in ideas about women’s position. For a long time, Congress was reluctant to give women positions of authority.

Representation and the Poona Pact

Dalit means oppressed and became a name used by communities subjected to caste exclusion. Many dalit leaders sought political safeguards, including separate electorates, arrangements in which a community would elect its own representatives.

Dr B.R. Ambedkar organised the Depressed Classes Association in 1930, representing communities then officially called the Depressed Classes. He demanded separate electorates at the second Round Table Conference. Gandhi opposed this arrangement because he believed it would slow integration into society. He fasted when the British government accepted the demand.

The Poona Pact of September 1932 provided reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils for the Depressed Classes, the historical official term for these communities. Reserved seats were set aside for their representatives, but voting was through the general electorate.

The dalit movement remained apprehensive of the Congress-led movement. Some Muslim political organisations also responded lukewarmly to Civil Disobedience. Disagreements over representation and fears about minority rights limited unity. Neither enthusiasm nor reluctance should be attributed uniformly to an entire community.

How did Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience compare?

A shared aim with different forms of action

Both movements challenged British rule through mass participation. Gandhi intended both to follow non-violence, and both used boycotts. The main difference lay in the place of deliberate law-breaking: Civil Disobedience asked people to break colonial laws as well as withdraw cooperation.

Comparing intentions and events

A movement’s intended method must be distinguished from everything done in its name. Some local struggles used violence despite Gandhi’s insistence on non-violence. Likewise, one group’s understanding of swaraj did not necessarily match another’s expectations.

Neither movement immediately achieved independence. Both connected local grievances with national politics, but their courses depended on popular responses, government repression and Congress decisions. Studying these factors together explains why movements could expand, pause and resume with different levels of support.

What do historical sources reveal about the movement?

Political writing and an official report

A historical source is evidence used to study the past, such as a document or recollection. Sources help distinguish leaders’ ideas from people’s responses. They must be read with attention to who produced them, what they describe and whose viewpoint they convey.

In Hind Swaraj, published in 1909, Gandhi argued that British power depended on Indian cooperation. This provides evidence of the reasoning behind Non-Cooperation. His prediction about ending British rule expresses an expectation; it does not establish that the expected result occurred.

A January 1921 report by the Criminal Investigation Department, a police investigation organisation, described the influence of Gandhi’s name in villages. Peasants credited Gandhi with stopping illegal eviction in Pratapgarh. The report stated that, as a general rule, Gandhi was thought to oppose zamindars rather than the government.

The report records those beliefs. It does not prove that Gandhi personally secured that local victory or shared every belief attributed to him. Its police viewpoint also needs to be considered when using it to understand peasant politics.

A pledge of independence

The Independence Day Pledge of 26 January 1930 presented freedom and the enjoyment of the fruits of labour as rights. It accused British rule of depriving Indians of freedom and called for complete independence.

A pledge reveals declared aims and the case made for action. It cannot by itself show how many people participated or whether every group agreed. Together, the 1909 argument, 1921 report and 1930 pledge reveal political strategy, popular interpretations and stated national goals.

What does the timeline show about the movement’s development?

The timeline connects local campaigns, national protests, agreements and renewed struggle. Events should be read as a changing sequence. Withdrawal of one campaign did not end political activity, and agreement to negotiate did not mean that independence had been achieved.

The sequence shows a widening struggle, but not a smooth or uninterrupted advance. Non-violent discipline, economic hardship, political representation and the difficulty of uniting different interests repeatedly shaped the course of the movement.

Glossary

• Nationalism — A sense of belonging to a nation and seeking control over its common affairs.
• Satyagraha — Resistance to injustice through truth, persuasion and disciplined non-violence rather than physical force.
• Ahimsa — Non-violence, requiring people to resist injustice without harming opponents or seeking revenge.
• Hartal — A strike or stoppage of work used to express protest against an injustice.
• Martial law — Military control replacing ordinary civil administration during a period of exceptional government repression.
• Khilafat agitation — The campaign defending the position and powers of the Turkish Sultan or Khalifa.
• Swaraj — Self-rule, a goal that different groups connected with their own grievances and hopes.
• Boycott — Refusal to buy goods, use institutions or join activities, usually as a form of protest.
• Picketing — Protesting at the entrance to a shop or building to prevent or discourage entry.
• Begar — Compulsory labour that villagers were forced to provide without receiving payment for their work.
• Khadi — Hand-spun and handwoven cloth promoted during the movement as an alternative to foreign cloth.
• Purna Swaraj — Complete independence, formally demanded by the Congress at its Lahore session in December 1929.
• Civil disobedience — Deliberately breaking unjust laws as a form of resistance, intended by Gandhi to remain non-violent.
• Separate electorate — An electoral arrangement in which a particular community chooses its own representatives separately.
• Reserved seats — Seats set aside for representatives of a specified community within a representative body.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: Satyagraha meant doing nothing. Correct: It required active resistance to injustice, disciplined non-violence and efforts to persuade an opponent.
• Misconception: Everyone at Jallianwala Bagh had come to protest. Correct: Some came to protest, while others came for the Baisakhi fair; many villagers did not know about martial law.
• Misconception: Every movement using Gandhi’s name followed non-violence. Correct: Some local groups used force, and Gandhi opposed these methods.
• Misconception: Gandhi stopped Non-Cooperation because independence had been achieved. Correct: He withdrew it after Chauri Chaura because of violence and the need to train satyagrahis.
• Misconception: Salt mattered only to poor people. Correct: Rich and poor both consumed salt, making the tax a grievance that could unite them.
• Misconception: The Gandhi-Irwin Pact granted complete independence. Correct: It arranged participation in negotiations and the release of political prisoners.
• Misconception: The Poona Pact established separate electorates. Correct: It provided reserved seats whose representatives would be voted in by the general electorate.
• Misconception: Large-scale participation meant all groups had identical aims. Correct: Peasants, workers, business groups and political communities had differing interests and expectations.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. The Rowlatt Act of 1919 permitted political detention without trial for two years and strengthened powers to suppress political activity. Using these facts, state two reasons Indians opposed it. [2 marks]

1. It allowed imprisonment without a trial, denying detained people the protection of having their case examined in court.
2. Its powers to suppress political activity restricted Indians’ ability to organise and express opposition to British rule.

Q2. Gandhi supported Champaran peasants against oppressive plantations in 1917, Ahmedabad cotton mill workers in 1918, and Kheda peasants unable to pay revenue after crop failure and plague in 1918. Explain three differences in the groups or grievances involved. [3 marks]

1. Champaran involved peasants resisting an oppressive plantation system. Their grievance concerned the conditions imposed on agricultural cultivators, and Gandhi supported their struggle in 1917.
2. Ahmedabad involved cotton mill workers in 1918. This was an industrial labour campaign, so its participants differed from the peasant groups in the other two places.
3. Kheda involved peasants whose crops and livelihoods had suffered from crop failure and plague. Their immediate problem in 1918 was inability to pay government revenue.

Q3. Non-Cooperation included leaving government schools, stopping legal practice and boycotting foreign cloth. Khadi was often expensive, alternative Indian institutions appeared slowly, and lawyers resumed work in government courts. Gandhi insisted on non-violence; violence at Chauri Chaura led him to withdraw the movement in February 1922. Explain four obstacles to sustaining this campaign. [4 marks]

1. Khadi was often expensive, making it difficult for poor people to sustain a cloth boycott by buying the promoted alternative.
2. Students leaving government schools faced a shortage of replacement institutions because alternative Indian institutions were developing slowly.
3. Lawyers resumed work in government courts, weakening the withdrawal of professional cooperation that had formed part of the campaign.
4. The violence at Chauri Chaura conflicted with Gandhi’s commitment to non-violence and caused him to withdraw the movement in February 1922.

Q4. Salt was essential to rich and poor. The state controlled its manufacture and sale and taxed it. Gandhi demanded abolition of the tax, marched from Sabarmati to Dandi with seventy-eight volunteers, addressed crowds, and broke the law on 6 April 1930. Explain five ways this campaign connected everyday life with national resistance. [5 marks]

1. Salt was used by rich and poor alike, so the campaign focused on a shared necessity rather than a grievance confined to one economic group.
2. The tax connected everyday consumption with British power. Opposition to it made a general demand for freedom understandable through an ordinary household need.
3. The state’s control over production and sale offered a concrete target. Making salt directly challenged that control through an act people could understand.
4. The march from Sabarmati to Dandi and Gandhi’s addresses to crowds publicised the issue. The seventy-eight volunteers accompanied an organised demonstration of resistance.
5. Breaking the law on 6 April 1930 converted the demand into action. It demonstrated civil disobedience through a specific challenge to colonial authority.

Q5. In 1931 Gandhi agreed to attend a Round Table Conference and the government agreed to release political prisoners. Negotiations failed; repression resumed; Gandhi relaunched Civil Disobedience in 1932. It lost momentum by 1934. Explain this sequence in four points. [4 marks]

1. The 1931 agreement created an opportunity for discussion: Gandhi would attend the conference, while the government would release political prisoners.
2. The conference did not settle the dispute because negotiations failed. Agreement to attend a meeting was therefore different from achieving a political settlement.
3. Renewed repression followed, and Gandhi responded by relaunching Civil Disobedience in 1932 rather than treating the failed talks as the end of resistance.
4. By 1934 the renewed campaign had lost momentum. Its continuation after 1932 did not mean that its strength remained unchanged.

Q6. In September 1932, the Poona Pact gave the Depressed Classes reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils, with representatives voted in by the general electorate. State its two main electoral features. [2 marks]

1. Seats were reserved for representatives of the Depressed Classes in both provincial and central legislative councils.
2. These representatives were voted in by the general electorate, rather than through a separate community electorate.

Key takeaways

• Gandhi connected truth and non-violence with active resistance, beginning with local grievances in Champaran, Ahmedabad and Kheda.
• The Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh intensified anger against British repression and restrictions on political freedom.
• Khilafat and Non-Cooperation linked different grievances with the demand for swaraj and the effort to build Hindu-Muslim unity.
• Different groups gave swaraj different meanings, and their actions did not always follow Gandhi’s intended methods.
• Chauri Chaura led Gandhi to withdraw Non-Cooperation in February 1922 because violence conflicted with his principles.
• The Lahore Congress demanded complete independence; the Salt March connected this goal to an everyday grievance.
• Civil Disobedience involved deliberate law-breaking, negotiation, renewed protest and declining momentum by 1934, alongside changing popular support.
• The Poona Pact combined reserved seats with the general electorate, while wider disagreements over representation continued.

Test yourself

What made satyagraha different from violent resistance?

It relied on truth, non-violence and persuasion of the opponent’s conscience instead of physical force or revenge.

Why did Kheda peasants seek relaxation of revenue collection?

Crop failure and a plague epidemic had left the peasants unable to pay the government’s revenue demand.

How did Tagore respond to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre?

He renounced his knighthood, expressing anger and pain at the massacre and British repression.

Why was the Simon Commission opposed?

It was to examine India’s constitutional system and suggest changes, but it contained no Indian member.

What did Purna Swaraj mean?

It meant complete independence, formally demanded by the Congress at Lahore in December 1929.

What was the central difference between Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience?

Non-Cooperation withdrew support from British institutions; Civil Disobedience also deliberately broke unjust colonial laws.

Why did many rich peasants refuse to rejoin in 1932?

They were disappointed that the 1931 suspension had occurred without a revision of government revenue rates.

Why must a report of popular belief be read carefully?

It can show what people believed without proving that the belief was true or shared by the leader concerned.