Non-Cooperation Movement and Khilafat Aandolan

• During 1919-22, British were opposed, Khilafat and Non-Cooperation.
• Khilafat issue was not directly linked to Indian politics but it provided the immediate background to the movement. Gave advantage of Hindu-Muslim unity against the British.

Background

• Economic situation - Rise in price, decrease in production & increase in burden of taxes and rents etc.
• Rowlatt Act, imposition of martial law in punjab & Jallianwalla Bagh massacre.
• Hunter Committee on the Punjab atrocities prove an eyewash.
• Helping The Morning Post collect 30,000 pounds for General Dyer.
• Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms - failed to satisfy the rising demand of the Indians for self-government.
• Post-First World War, ground for common political action by Hindus and Muslims
• Lucknow Pact (1916) had stimulated Congress-Muslim League cooperation.
• The Rowlatt Act agitation brought Hindus and Muslims, and also other sections of the society, together.
• Radical nationalist Muslims like Mohammad Ali, Abul Kalam Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Hasan Imam.
• younger elements advocated militant nationalism and active participation in the nationalist movement.

Khilafat issue emerged developed the historic Non-Cooperation Movement.

The Khilafat Issue

• Emergence of a radical nationalist, traditional Muslim scholars who were becoming increasingly critical of British rule.
• Angered by the treatment meted out to Turkey by the British after the First World War. Muslims all over the world, regarded the sultan of Turkey as their spiritual leader, Khalifa, so naturally their sympathies were with Turkey.
• British took a stern attitude towards Turkey, incensed Muslims all over the world.
• India Muslim demand British
• Khalifa’s control over Muslim sacred places should be retained.
• Khalifa should be left with sufficient territories after territorial arrangements.
• 1919, a Khilafat Committee by Ali brothers, to force the British government to change its attitude towards Turkey. Country-wide agitation was prepared.

Development of the Khalifat-Non-Cooperation Programme

• Khilafat leaders limited their actions, militant trend emerged, demanding an active agitation such as stopping all cooperation with the British.
• All India Khilafat Conference in November 1919 for boycott of British goods.
• Gandhi, who was the president of the All India Khilafat Committee.
• Favourable to Turkey they would stop all cooperation with the Government.

Congress Stand on Khilafat Question

• Support of the Congress was essential for the Khilafat movement to succeed.
• Gandhi was in favour of launching satyagraha and on-cooperation.
• Congress was not united on this form of political action, Tilak was opposed to having an alliance with Muslim leaders over a religious issue.
• Gandhi made a concerted bid to convince Tilak an alliance with the Muslim community over the Khilafat issue.
• Later, Gandhi get the approval of the Congress for his programme of political action.
• Golden opportunity to cement Hindu-Muslim unity & also different sections of society fighting for their own rights
• Congress was losing faith in constitutional struggle.
• Congress was aware that the masses were eager to give expression to their discontent.

Muslim League Stands

• Muslim League also decided to give full support to the Congress.

The Non-Cooperation Khilafat Movement

• February 1920, joint Hindu-Muslim deputation was sent to the viceroy.
• February 1920, Gandhi announced issue of Punjab & soon lead a movement of non-cooperation if the terms of the peace treaty failed to satisfy the Indian Muslims.
• May 1920, The Treaty of Sevres with Turkey, completely dismembered Turkey.
• June 1920, all-party conference at Allahabad approved a programme of boycott of schools, colleges and law courts, and asked Gandhi to lead it.
• August 31, 1920, campaign of non-cooperation (Tilak died in August 1).
• September 1920, special session in Calcutta. Congress approved a non-cooperation programme till the Punjab and Khilafat wrongs were removed and swaraj was established
• Boycott of government schools and colleges.
• Boycott of law courts.
• Boycott of legislative councils.
• Leaders boycotted elections held in November 1920.
• Boycott of foreign cloth & use of khadi instead.
• Renunciation of government honours and titles.
• Resignation from government service.
• Non-payment of taxes.
• Participants supposed to work for Hindu-Muslim unity & removal of untouchability.
• December 1920, Nagpur session of the Indian National Congress.
• Non-cooperation was endorsed.
• Attainment of self-government through constitutional means as its goal, Attainment of swaraj through peaceful and legitimate means.
• Congress working committee (CWC) of 15 members, provincial congress committees on linguistic basis, entry fee was reduced to four annas.
• Gandhi declared, Non-cooperation programme was implemented completely, swaraj would be ushered in within a year.
• Revolutionary terrorists support to the Congress.
• Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant, G.S. Kharpade and B.C. Pal left the Congress as they believed in a constitutional and lawful struggle while some others like Surendranath Banerjea founded the Indian National Liberal Federation, play minor role.

Spread of the Movement

• Gandhi accompanied by the Ali brothers undertook a nationwide tour.
• These educational institutions were organised under the leadership of Acharya Narendra Dev, C.R. Das, Lala Lajpat Rai, Zakir Hussain, Subhash Bose (who became the principal of National College at Calcutta) and included Jamia Millia at Aligarh, Kashi Vidyapeeth, Gujarat Vidyapeeth and Bihar Vidyapeeth.
• Many lawyers gave up their practice - Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, C.R. Das, C. Rajagopalachari, Saifuddin Kitchlew, Vallabhbhai Patel, Asaf Ali, T. Prakasam and Rajendra Prasad.
• Heaps of foreign cloth were burnt publicly.
• Tilak Swaraj Fund one crore rupees collected.
• July 1921, Ali brothers gave a call to the Muslims to resign from the Army as it was unreligious.
• Local Congress bodies to start civil disobedience - no-tax movement against union board taxes in Midnapore (Bengal) and in Guntur (Andhra) was going on.
• Assam, strikes in tea plantations, steamer services and Assam-Bengal Railways had been organised. J.M. Sengupta.
• November 1921, the visit of the Prince of Wales to India invited strikes and demonstrations.
• Many local struggles such as Awadh Kisan Movement (UP), Eka Movement (UP), Mappila Revolt (Malabar) and the Sikh agitation for the removal of mahants in Punjab.

People’s Response

Middle Class

• Led the movement at the beginning but later they showed a lot of reservations about Gandhi’s programme & not taken seriously.
• Rajendra Prasad in Bihar and Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat provided solid support.
• Found non-cooperation political alternative to terrorism in order to fight against a colonial government.
• Business Class - big business remained sceptical.

Peasants

• Participation was massive.
• Bihar, the confrontation between the ‘lower and upper castes’, peasants turned against the landlords and the traders.
• Express their real feelings against the British as well as against their Indian masters and oppressors (landlords and raders).

Students

• Active volunteers of the movement, thousands of them left government schools and colleges and joined national schools and colleges.

Women

• Gave up purdah and offered their ornaments for the Tilak Fund.
• They took active part in picketing

Hindu-Muslim Unity

• Moppila Uprisings, were great achievements.
• Gandhi and other leaders addressed the Muslim masses from mosques, and Gandhi was even allowed to address meetings of Muslim women in which he was the only male who was not blind-folded.

Government Response

• Talks between Gandhi and Reading, the viceroy, broke down in May 1921.
• Gandhi realised that the government was trying to drive a wedge between him and the Khilafat leaders and refused to fall into the trap.
• Volunteer corps were declared illegal, public meetings were banned, the press was gagged and most of the leaders barring Gandhi were arrested.

The Last Phase of the Movement

• Gandhi was now under increasing pressure from the Congress rank and file to start the civil disobedience programme
• Ahmedabad session in 1921, appointed Gandhi the sole authority on the issue.
• On February 1, 1922 Gandhi threatened to launch civil disobedience from Bardoli (Gujarat) if
1. Political prisoners were not released, and
2. Press controls were not removed.

Chauri Chaura Incident

• Violence on February 5, 1922, prompt Gandhi to withdraw the movement.
• Beaten up the leader of a group of volunteers campaigning against liquor sale and high food prices, opened fire on the crowd to protest before the police station.
• Agitated crowd torched the police station with policemen inside.
• Twenty-two policemen were killed.
• Gandhi, not happy with the increasingly violent trend of the movement, immediately announced the withdrawal of the movement.
• Congress Working Committee met at Bardoli in February 1922 and resolved to stop all activity.
• Get down to constructive work, instead popularisation of khadi, national schools, and campaigning for temperance, for Hindu-Muslim unity and against untouchability.
• C.R.Das, Motilal Nehru, Subhash Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, however, expressed their bewilderment at Gandhi’s decision to withdraw the movement.
• March 1922, Gandhi was arrested and sentenced to six years in jail.
• Gandhi speeach, I am here, therefore, to invite and submit cheerfully to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is deliberate crime, and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen.

Reason for Gandhi Withdrew the Movement

• Gandhi felt that people had not learnt or fully understood the method of non-violence.
• Violent movement could be easily suppressed by the colonial regime.
• Movement was also showing signs of fatigue.
• Government seemed to be in no mood for negotiations.
• November 1922, the people of Turkey rose under Mustafa Kamal Pasha and deprived the sultan of political power.
• Turkey was made a secular state, Khilafat question lost its relevance.
• A European style of legal system was established in Turkey and extensive rights granted to women. Education was nationalised and modern agriculture and industries developed.
• In 1924, the caliphate was abolished.

Evaluation of Khilafat Non-Cooperation Movement

• Urban Muslims into the national movement, but communalised the national politics.
• National leaders failed to raise the religious political consciousness of the Muslims to a level of secular political consciousness.
• Non-Cooperation Movement reached every nook and corner of the country.
• Colonial rule was based on two myths -
• One, that such a rule was in the interest of Indians and
• Two, that it was invincible.
• First myth had been exploded by the economic critique by Moderate nationalists & second myth had been challenged by satyagraha through mass struggle.