The Movement in Towns
This movement started with middle-class participation in the cities in which thousands of students left their government-controlled colleges and universities, headmaster, teachers resigned from government schools, and lawyers gave up their legal practices and left the government court just to the call of swaraj and to join the movement. Some of the states have boycotted the council elections except Madras. In Madras, the justice party, the party of Brahmans has feelings and beliefs that winning the elections is also another way of gaining power only to which Brahmans had access.
This movement’s effects on the economy were huge that the import of foreign cloth just reduces to half and its value dropped from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore between 1921 and 1922 because foreign goods were boycotted, and foreign clothes were burnt by the people in huge bonfires and liquor shops also picketed. This boycott led to an increase in the production of Indian textile mills and handlooms.
But soon after this, the movement started to slow down due to a variety of reasons, like the expensive khadi cloth produced traditionally by Indians compared to the cheap mass-produced mill cloth which the poor people could not afford. Slowly, the institution boycott did not prevail either, as no Indian institutions were set up. That resulted in the reduction of participation of school students and teachers in the boycott as they began to return to government-controlled colleges for their studies and teacher resumed their jobs and lawyers got back to their government courts.
Non-Cooperation Movement
The Non-Cooperation Movement was a significant event in the history of India’s freedom struggle against British colonialism. The Non-cooperation movement was a non-violent and peaceful protest launched by the Indian National Congress (INC) on 5th September 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.
The movement is launched after deliberation of events including the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and was called off because of the Chauri Chaura incident of 1922. Mahatma Gandhi was the focal point behind the movement. In March 1920, he issued a manifesto declaring a doctrine of the non-violent and non-cooperation movements. Through this manifesto, he wanted people to:
- Adopt Swadeshi principles.
- Adopt swadeshi habits like hand spinning.
- Work for eradication of untouchability from society.