Nationalism in India

Social Groups who took part in the Non ­Cooperation Movement. In the Non- Cooperaton Movement (1920-1922), the following social groups took part.
(I) Middle-class people in the towns.
(i) The movement in the cities : The  Movement started with middle-class participation in the cities. Thousands of students left government-controlled schools and colleges, headmasters and teachers resigned, and lawyers gave up their legal practices.
(ii) Boycott of council elections : The  Council elections were boycotted in most provinces except Madras (Chennai), where the Justice Party, the party of the non ­Brahmans, felt that entering the council was one way of gaining some power, something that usually only Brahmans had an access to.
(iii) Swadeshi : The Non-Cooperation  Movement had a great impact on the Indian textile industry. Swadeshi goods, especially cloth got a great impetus. Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed, and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires.
(iv) Impact on industry : In many places, merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade. Due to this, the demand of Indian textile mills and handlooms went up. The increase in demand provided a big relief to the vanishing textile industry of India.
(v) Movement in the countryside: Though people in the countryside interpreted the idea of ‘Swaraj' in their own way but they participated in the movement on large scale. In Awadh, peasants launched the movement against the talukdars and landlords. Whereas the plantation workers launched the movement against the tea estate owners.
(II) Peasants in the rural areas.
(i) Participants : In the countryside, the movement was led by the peasants, tribals and the local leaders. For example, in Awadh, it was Baba Ramchandra sanyasi, who had earlier been to Fiji as an indentured labourer.
(ii)   Why the rural people participated ?
The  movement here was not against the Britishers but against talukdars and landlords. The problems of the rural people were different from those of the urban people:

• The talukdars and landlords were demanding very high rents and a variety of other taxes.
• Peasants had to do begarand work at the landlord's farms without any payment.
• The peasants had no security of tenure. They were regularly evicted so that they could acquire no security of tenure.

As the problems of the people were different, their demands were also different. The peasant
movement demanded:

• Reduction of revenue
• Abolition of begar
• Redistribution of land
• Social boycott of oppressive landlords.

(iii) Ways of protests : The Movement in the countryside had a different angle. In many places, Nai-dhobi bandhs were organised by the Panchayats to deprive the landlords of the services of barbers, cobblers, washermen, etc. Even national leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru went to villages in Awadh to know the grievances of the people. By October, the Awadh Kissan Sabhas were set up headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra, and a few others.
When the movement spread in 1921, the houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked. The movement turned violent which was not liked by some of the Congress leaders.
(III) Tribal people.
Most of the tribal people were dependent on forests for their livelihood but under the new Forest Policy, the government had put several restrictions on the people :

• Closing large forest area for the tribal people.
• Forcing the local people to contribute begar.
• Preventing people from entering the forests to graze their cattle, or to collect fuelwood and fruits.

All these steps enraged the hill people. Not only were their livelihoods affected, but they felt that their traditional rights were also being denied. So the people revolted.
(IV)  Plantation workers.
(i) 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 from which they had come.

• The government had passed the Inland Emigration Act of 1859 under which plantation workers were not permitted to leave the tea estates without permission, and in fact, they were rarely given such permission.
• When the plantation workers heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of them defied the authorities, left the plantations and headed towards their homes.
• The plantation workers believed that the Gandhi Raj was coming, and everyone would be given land in their own villages.