The Non-Cooperation Movement

In 1919, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered to shoot at a peaceful gathering of men, women and children in Jallianwala Bagh, who had gathered to celebrate Baisakhi and to condemn the arrest of Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satya Pal. This inhuman act of the British sent shockwaves across India, and received strong criticism and protests all over India. Mahatma Gandhi too denounced this cowardly behavior and strongly condemned it. 

The national movement was slowly building-up and the Jallianwalah Bagh incident played an important role in the start of the ‘Non-cooperation Movement.’ It was the first big Satyagraha movement under Gandhi’s leadership. He requested the support of other political and religious leaders and gave a call to Indians to stop using British products. 

Gandhiji advocated the use of Khadi over British textiles. He also asked government servants to quit their jobs, and return the British titles and honors. Many Indians refused to pay taxes and many teachers and lawyers gave up their respective profession. The non-co-operation movement became a huge success throughout India until it was called off by Gandhiji in the wake of the Chauri Chaura incident, in which three civilians and 22 policemen were killed.   

The Non-cooperation movement had seen an unprecedented and large-scale participation from the people of all regions and status. The entire country was transformed into a different zone and the protests were largely successful, but the unfortunate incident at Chauri Chaura forced Gandhi to call the movement off. He said that people were still not ready for mass-movements of this nature. 

The decision to call-off the non-cooperation movement left many disappointed and was criticized by several leaders.

Revolutionary Movement & its Role in Freedom Movement

While the Indian National Congress, led by leaders like Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Mahatma Gandhi, advocated civil disobedience and non-violent protests, many firebrand leaders believed in overthrowing the British with the use of force. The revolutionary movement had begun as early as the late 1750s, but it was during the Partition of Bengal that it began to take shape. Under the leadership of Barin Ghosh, many revolutionaries began to collect arms and explosives. They even started manufacturing bombs and some were even sent to foreign countries to acquire knowledge about bomb-making and other military training. 

By 1924, Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) was formed and firebrand revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Ashfaqullah Khan, Ramprasad Bismil, Shivaram Rajguru, Surya Sen, etc. began to involve themselves in various revolutionary activities. Some of the famous revolutionary activities include Alipore bomb conspiracy, Chittagong armoury raid, Kakori train robbery, Delhi-Lahore conspiracy case, etc.