Question

How did the Non-Cooperation movement start with participation of middle-class people in the cities? Explain its impact on the economic front.

Answer 1

Hint: On 31st august, the non-cooperation movement was successfully launched by Indian National Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi with the aim of self-governance and obtaining “Poorna Swaraj”i.e. full independence.

Complete answer:
The effects of non-cooperation on the economic front were more intense, widespread dramatized. The movement persuaded the Indians to boycott and eliminate foreign goods from the markets. Liquor shops were picketed and foreign cloth was burnt in large bonfires. As the awareness of the movement increased among the masses, between 1921 and 1922, the import of foreign cloth reduced to half. As the boycott movement gained momentum the middle-class sections started wearing only “Khadi” clothes and discarding and rejecting imported clothes, therefore, production of Indian textile mills and handlooms went up.

But the Non-cooperation movement in the cities slowed down, as the Indian Khadi cloth was normally more expensive than mass-produced mill cloth and poor people could not afford to buy it. Similarly, the Indian students and teachers began moving back to government schools and lawyers restarted their work in government courts as the Indian institutions had to be set up in place of British ones.

Note: GandhiJi was arrested on 10th March and was imprisoned for six years on 18th March 1922, which subsequently led to the suppression of the movement, also the violent chauri-chaura incident in Gorakhpur district ( now in Uttar Pradesh) forced Gandhi ji, to withdraw the movement