Nationalism in India: Non-Cooperation to Civil Disobedience

Why this chapter matters for UPSC: This is Chapter II of NCERT's India and the Contemporary World II (Reprint 2026-27), in Section I, "Events and Processes". It picks up the story "from the 1920s" and studies "the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements": how the Congress built the movement, how "different social groups participated", and "how nationalism captured the imagination of people". Its argument is that colonial rule gave Indians a shared bond, but "each class and group felt the effects of colonialism differently". That is the core of GS1 modern India: the Gandhian phase, its social base and its limits.

Contemporary hook: NCERT says Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay "In the 1870s ... wrote 'Vande Mataram' as a hymn to the motherland". The Government of India dates it more exactly: the song "was written during the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Navami which was on 7th November in 1875". On 7 November 2025 the Prime Minister launched "a year-long nationwide commemoration from 7th November 2025 to 7th November 2026" of its 150 years and released a commemorative stamp and coin (PMO, 7 November 2025).

🧠 First Principles — Read This First

Nationalism through anti-colonialism. In Europe nationalism came with the making of nation-states. "In India and as in many other colonies, the growth of modern nationalism is intimately connected to the anti-colonial movement." People "began discovering their unity in the process of their struggle with colonialism" (exercise "Write in brief" 1a).

One movement, many meanings of swaraj. "All of them responded to the call of Swaraj, but the term meant different things to different people." For a rich peasant it meant lower revenue, for a plantation worker the right to go home, for a businessman freedom from colonial restrictions.

Satyagraha as a method. Non-violent mass action, appealing "to the conscience of the oppressor", with stages that escalate: non-cooperation first, then civil disobedience if the government used repression.

Unity with conflict. The Congress "tried to forge these groups together within one movement. But the unity did not emerge without conflict." The chapter ends: "what was emerging was a nation with many voices wanting freedom from colonial rule."

PART 1 — Quick Reference

Table 1: Timeline of the chapter

Source: NCERT ch. II "Nationalism in India" (Reprint 2026-27), pp. 29-49, including "Some important dates" (p. 42); rows with another basis: Hansard, D.G. Tendulkar's Mahatma and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches (details in the Sources list).

Table 2: Who joined, and what swaraj meant to them (NCERT exercise "Discuss" 1)

Source: NCERT ch. II, pp. 34-43.

Table 3: Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience compared

Source: NCERT ch. II, pp. 33-44.

Table 4: Separate electorates: who stood where (NCERT exercise "Discuss" 4)

Source: NCERT ch. II, pp. 44-45.

Table 5: Symbols of the nation (section 4)

Source: NCERT ch. II, pp. 46-48.

Table 6: NCERT lines to read with care

Source: NCERT ch. II, pp. 36-48, and ch. IV, p. 97 (Reprint 2026-27); the other source named in each row is in the Sources list.

PART 2 — Concepts & Narrative

1. The First World War, Khilafat and Non-Cooperation

After 1919 the movement spread "to new areas, incorporating new social groups, and developing new modes of struggle" (exercise "Write in brief" 1b). The war "created a new economic and political situation":

• defence spending financed by war loans and taxes: "customs duties were raised and income tax introduced";
• prices "doubling between 1913 and 1918";
• forced recruitment in villages, which "caused widespread anger";
• crop failures in 1918-19 and 1920-21, and an influenza epidemic: "According to the census of 1921, 12 to 13 million people perished as a result of famines and the epidemic."

1.1 The idea of satyagraha (exercise "Write in brief" 2). Gandhi "returned to India in January 1915" from South Africa, where he had fought the racist regime with "a novel method of mass agitation, which he called satyagraha". It "emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for truth": if the cause was true and the struggle against injustice, "then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor". A satyagrahi would win "through non-violence", by "appealing to the conscience of the oppressor". In India he led satyagrahas at Champaran in Bihar (1917), against "the oppressive plantation system"; among Ahmedabad's cotton mill workers (1918); and for the Kheda peasants (1918), who after crop failure and plague "could not pay the revenue".

1.2 The Rowlatt Act (exercise "Write in brief" 1c, 3a). In 1919 Gandhi launched "a nationwide satyagraha against the proposed Rowlatt Act (1919)". The Act "had been hurriedly passed through the Imperial Legislative Council despite the united opposition of the Indian members"; it "allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years". The hartal began on 6 April. On 10 April the police in Amritsar fired on a peaceful procession; martial law followed under General Dyer.

Jallianwalla Bagh, 13 April 1919. A crowd gathered in the enclosed ground, some to protest, "Others had come to attend the annual Baisakhi fair", many unaware of martial law. "Dyer entered the area, blocked the exit points, and opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds." His object, he declared later, was to "produce a moral effect". Repression followed: satyagrahis "were forced to rub their noses on the ground, crawl on the streets, and do salaam (salute) to all sahibs", and villages around Gujranwala were bombed (Fig. 3). Gandhi called off the movement.

On the toll, the record has two figures. The official one, which Winston Churchill gave the Commons on 8 July 1920: 379 killed, "1,200 or more" wounded (Hansard). The Congress inquiry said the exact figure "will never be known" and held that Lala Girdhari Lal's computation of 1000 "is by no means an exaggerated calculation" (Report of the Commissioners, 1920). A newspaper report on the massacre (exercise 3a) should give both with their source.

Khilafat. The Rowlatt satyagraha "was still limited mostly to cities and towns", and Gandhi felt no broad movement was possible "without bringing the Hindus and Muslims closer together". The war had ended with Ottoman Turkey's defeat, and a harsh treaty was feared for the Khalifa. A Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919; Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali discussed united action with Gandhi. At the Calcutta session in September 1920 he convinced the Congress to start non-cooperation "in support of Khilafat as well as for swaraj". On 1 August 1920 he returned his Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, writing, "I cannot wear them with an easy conscience so long as my Musalman countrymen have to labour under a wrong done to their religious sentiment" (Tendulkar, vol. 2).

1.3 Why non-cooperation? In Hind Swaraj (1909) Gandhi argued that British rule "was established in India with the cooperation of Indians, and had survived only because of this cooperation". If Indians refused, "British rule in India would collapse within a year, and swaraj would come". The movement would unfold in stages: "the surrender of titles", then a boycott of "civil services, army, police, courts and legislative councils, schools, and foreign goods", and, if the government used repression, "a full civil disobedience campaign". At Nagpur in December 1920 "a compromise was worked out and the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted".

2. Differing strands within the movement

"The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921" (exercise "Discuss" 1; Table 2).

2.1 In the towns. Students left government schools and colleges, teachers resigned and lawyers gave up practice. Council elections were boycotted in most provinces "except Madras, where the Justice Party, the party of the non-Brahmans" saw the council as a route to power. Foreign cloth was burnt and liquor shops picketed: "The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, its value dropping from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore" (Fig. 4), and Indian mills and handlooms produced more. Then it slowed: "Khadi cloth was often more expensive than mass-produced mill cloth and poor people could not afford to buy it", and Indian institutions to replace British ones "were slow to come up".

2.2 Rebellion in the countryside. In Awadh, peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra, "a sanyasi who had earlier been to Fiji as an indentured labourer", against talukdars who demanded "exorbitantly high rents and a variety of other cesses". Peasants had to do begar and had no security of tenure. They demanded "reduction of revenue, abolition of begar, and social boycott of oppressive landlords"; panchayats organised nai-dhobi bandhs. Nehru began touring the villages in June 1920; by October the Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up under Nehru, Baba Ramchandra and others. In 1921 houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked and grain hoards seized, and local leaders said Gandhi had declared "that no taxes were to be paid and land was to be redistributed among the poor". "The name of the Mahatma was being invoked to sanction all action and aspirations."

Tribal peasants. In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh "a militant guerrilla movement spread in the early 1920s". The government had closed large forest areas to grazing and fuelwood and then forced the hill people into begar for road building. Their leader, Alluri Sitaram Raju, claimed special powers; the rebels called him an incarnation of God. He spoke of Gandhi's greatness and urged khadi and temperance, "But at the same time he asserted that India could be liberated only by the use of force, not non-violence." "Raju was captured and executed in 1924, and over time became a folk hero."

2.3 Swaraj in the plantations. "For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the confined space in which they were enclosed". "Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation workers were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission". Hearing of the movement, thousands left for home, believing "Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land in their own villages". Stranded by a railway and steamer strike, they were beaten by the police.

These visions "were not defined by the Congress programme", yet when tribals chanted Gandhi's name and raised slogans for "Swatantra Bharat", "they were also emotionally relating to an all-India agitation". At Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur a peaceful demonstration "turned into a violent clash with the police", and Gandhi called a halt (Fig. 5; exercise "Write in brief" 1d).

3. Towards Civil Disobedience

"In February 1922, Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement." He felt it was turning violent and "satyagrahis needed to be properly trained". C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress "to argue for a return to council politics"; younger leaders, Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, "pressed for more radical mass agitation and for full independence". Two factors then shaped politics:

• The depression. "Agricultural prices began to fall from 1926 and collapsed after 1930." "By 1930, the countryside was in turmoil."
• The Simon Commission (exercise "Write in brief" 3b). The Tory government's Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon "did not have a single Indian member". It was greeted in 1928 with "Go back Simon"; Lala Lajpat Rai died of injuries from a police assault at a demonstration. Irwin's offer of October 1929 did not satisfy the Congress.

"In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalised the demand of 'Purna Swaraj' or full independence for India", and 26 January 1930 was to be celebrated as Independence Day. "But the celebrations attracted very little attention."

3.1 The Salt March (exercise "Discuss" 2). Gandhi "found in salt a powerful symbol that could unite the nation". On 31 January 1930 he sent Irwin a letter "stating eleven demands", so "that all classes within Indian society could identify with them". "The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax": salt "was something consumed by the rich and the poor alike", and the tax and monopoly "revealed the most oppressive face of British rule". The letter was "an ultimatum": if the demands were not met by 11 March, civil disobedience would begin. With "78 of his trusted volunteers" Gandhi walked "over 240 miles" from Sabarmati to Dandi, "for 24 days, about 10 miles a day" (Fig. 7). "On 6 April he reached Dandi, and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water." "This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement." (On NCERT's dates box, see Table 6.)

The difference from 1921-22 (Table 3): people were asked to break colonial laws. Salt was made and government salt factories picketed; peasants refused revenue and chaukidari taxes; forest people went into Reserved Forests. When Abdul Ghaffar Khan was arrested in April 1930, crowds in Peshawar faced armoured cars and firing; after Gandhi's arrest a month later, Sholapur workers attacked buildings "that symbolised British rule". About 100,000 people were arrested. On 5 March 1931 the Gandhi-Irwin Pact: Gandhi agreed to attend a Round Table Conference in London, and the government agreed to release political prisoners. The negotiations broke down (on the dates, see Table 6); back in India he relaunched the movement in 1932. "For over a year, the movement continued, but by 1934 it lost its momentum." In July 1933 mass civil disobedience was suspended and individual civil disobedience allowed, and on 7 April 1934, in a statement issued from Patna, Gandhi suspended civil resistance for swaraj, deciding that for the time being he alone should offer it (Tendulkar, vol. 3).

3.2 How participants saw the movement (Table 2). The rich peasants, "the Patidars of Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh", were hit by falling prices; "For them the fight for swaraj was a struggle against high revenues", and many refused to rejoin in 1932. Poorer tenants wanted unpaid rent remitted and joined movements "often led by Socialists and Communists", but the Congress "was unwilling to support 'no rent' campaigns in most places".

Business. "During the First World War, Indian merchants and industrialists had made huge profits and become powerful" (on NCERT's cross-reference, see Table 6). They wanted protection against imports and "a rupee-sterling foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports". They formed "the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920 and the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927". Led by Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G.D. Birla, they backed the movement at first; after the Round Table Conference failed they feared militancy and "the growing influence of socialism amongst the younger members of the Congress".

Workers. They "did not participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement in large numbers, except in the Nagpur region". Some adopted boycott in their own struggles: railway strikes in 1930, dockworkers in 1932, and "In 1930 thousands of workers in Chotanagpur tin mines wore Gandhi caps". The Congress kept workers' demands out, fearing it "would alienate industrialists and divide the anti-imperial forces".

Women (exercise "Discuss" 3). During the salt march "thousands of women came out of their homes to listen to him"; they marched, made salt, picketed and went to jail (Fig. 9). Urban women "were from high-caste families; in rural areas they came from rich peasant households". Yet Gandhi "was convinced that it was the duty of women to look after home and hearth, be good mothers and good wives", and the Congress was "keen only on their symbolic presence".

3.3 The limits of Civil Disobedience (exercise "Discuss" 4; Table 4). The "untouchables" had from around the 1930s "begun to call themselves dalit or oppressed". Gandhi "declared that swaraj would not come for a hundred years if untouchability was not eliminated", called them harijan, "or the children of God", organised satyagraha for temple entry and access to wells, tanks, roads and schools, and cleaned toilets himself. Many dalit leaders sought "a different political solution": reserved seats and a separate electorate. "Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930, clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at the second Round Table Conference". In August 1930 Ambedkar presided over the All India Depressed Classes Congress at Nagpur (Writings and Speeches, vol. 17). When the British conceded separate electorates, Gandhi fasted unto death; the result was the Poona Pact of September 1932. "The dalit movement, however, continued to be apprehensive of the Congress-led national movement."

Muslims. After Khilafat's decline "a large section of Muslims felt alienated from the Congress", which "From the mid-1920s" was "more visibly associated with openly Hindu religious nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha"; riots deepened the distance. "In 1927 it appeared that such a unity could be forged", but the 1928 All Parties Conference failed when M.R. Jayakar opposed compromise. Many Muslims "feared that the culture and identity of minorities would be submerged under the domination of a Hindu majority".

4. The sense of collective belonging

Belonging came "partly through the experience of united struggles", and partly through culture: "History and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols" (Table 5; exercise "Write in brief" 4).

• Bharat Mata. "The image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay." His 'Vande Mataram' (see the hook) was "Later ... included in his novel Anandamath and widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal". Abanindranath Tagore's Bharat Mata (1905, Fig. 12) is "an ascetic figure; she is calm, composed, divine and spiritual", "dispensing learning, food and clothing". "Devotion to this mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one's nationalism."
• Folklore. Nationalists recorded folk tales to recover "a true picture of traditional culture that had been corrupted and damaged by outside forces". Rabindranath Tagore collected "ballads, nursery rhymes and myths"; in Madras, Natesa Sastri published "a massive four-volume collection of Tamil folk tales".
• Flags. The Swadeshi tricolour (red, green, yellow) "had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of British India, and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims". The Swaraj flag (red, green, white) "had a spinning wheel in the centre" (on who designed it, see Table 6). "Carrying the flag, holding it aloft, during marches became a symbol of defiance."
• History. Against British views of Indians as "backward and primitive", nationalists wrote of a glorious ancient past followed by "a history of decline, when India was colonised".

Conclusion and Quit India

The Congress "continuously attempted to resolve differences, and ensure that the demands of one group did not alienate another. This is precisely why the unity within the movement often broke down." "In other words, what was emerging was a nation with many voices wanting freedom from colonial rule."

Did the 2020-21 edition differ?

Only in one passage; the lines in Table 6 were already there. In section 1.1 the 2020-21 edition reads "Then in 1917, he organised a satyagraha to support the peasants of the Kheda district", followed by Ahmedabad "In 1918"; Reprint 2026-27 puts Ahmedabad first ("In 1918") and then Kheda ("Then in 1918"). This page follows Reprint 2026-27: an exam key set on the older book may still say 1917 for Kheda.

Source: NCERT ch. II, 2020-21 edition (jess302.pdf in the whole-book zip, Wayback Machine capture of 9 October 2021).

PART 3 — UPSC Integration

Frames for Mains Answers

1. Constructive work in the two movements (gs1-pyq-2021-02). NCERT gives the material without the label: khadi in place of foreign cloth; picketing of liquor shops; Indian schools and courts (and why they lagged); Raju urging khadi and temperance; temple entry and Gandhi cleaning toilets; salt made by the people.

2. How Gandhi changed the movement (gs1-pyq-2015-03). Mass satyagraha; Hindu-Muslim unity through Khilafat; a staged plan; salt as a symbol for "the rich and the poor alike"; villages, tribals, workers and women drawn in. Then the limits: withdrawals in 1922 and 1931, dalit and Muslim distance.

3. Strands and social base in the 1920s (gs1-pyq-2020-02; gs1-pyq-2019-14). Swarajists vs Nehru-Bose radicals; the HSRA; Socialists and Communists leading poor tenants; FICCI; the Justice Party, dalit leaders, the Muslim League. Close with "a nation with many voices".

4. Women in the Gandhian phase (gs1-pyq-2016-04). Salt-making, picketing and jail in 1930; their social base; Gandhi's view of women's duty; the Congress's "symbolic presence"; Quit India's women leaders.

5. Gandhi and Ambedkar (gs1-pyq-2015-04; adjacent gs1-pyq-2015-13). Temple entry vs separate electorates; the 1932 fast; the Poona Pact's reserved seats under the general electorate; the dalit movement's lasting apprehension.

Exam Strategy

Prelims fact-traps:

• Bardoli (1928, Vallabhbhai Patel) was against "enhancement of land revenue"; the Awadh peasants fought talukdars' rents and begar.
• Civil Disobedience began when the salt law was broken at Dandi on 6 April 1930; the march set out after the 11 March deadline.

Mains: use Table 2 for any "social base" question, Table 4 for separate electorates, and the conclusion's "many voices" line to close.

Practice Questions

NCERT's exercises for this chapter have no MCQs. Practice (UPSC-pattern, not past papers): questions 1-5.

1. With reference to the Non-Cooperation Movement, as described by NCERT, consider the following statements:
1. The programme was adopted at the Nagpur session of the Congress in December 1920.
2. The council elections were boycotted in every province, including Madras.
3. The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: (c). In Madras the Justice Party entered the council.

2. Arrange the following in chronological order:
1. Lahore Congress demands Purna Swaraj
2. Gandhi-Irwin Pact
3. Simon Commission arrives in India
4. Poona Pact
Select the correct answer:
(a) 1-3-2-4
(b) 3-1-2-4
(c) 3-1-4-2
(d) 1-3-4-2

Answer: (b). 1928, December 1929, 5 March 1931, September 1932.

3. Which of the following pairs are correctly matched?
1. Baba Ramchandra: peasant movement in Awadh
2. Alluri Sitaram Raju: Gudem Hills
3. Purshottamdas Thakurdas: Hindu Mahasabha
Select the correct answer:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: (a). Thakurdas was an industrialist who led business interests with G.D. Birla; NCERT's Hindu Mahasabha leader is M.R. Jayakar.

4. Consider the following statements:
1. The flag of the Swadeshi movement in Bengal had eight lotuses representing eight provinces.
2. The Swaraj flag had a spinning wheel in the centre.
3. The Swadeshi flag was red, green and white.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: (a). The Swadeshi flag was red, green and yellow; the Swaraj flag was red, green and white.

5. "What was emerging was a nation with many voices wanting freedom from colonial rule." Examine with reference to the Civil Disobedience Movement. (150 words)

NCERT exercises (where the answers are on this page): Write in brief 1 (a) First Principles, (b) section 1, (c) 1.2, (d) section 3 and 2.3 (Chauri Chaura); 2 section 1.1 with Source A; 3 (a) Jallianwalla Bagh in 1.2, (b) section 3; 4 section 4 and Table 5, with Germania on our Chapter I page. Discuss 1 section 2 and Table 2; 2 section 3.1; 3 Women in 3.2; 4 section 3.3 and Table 4. Project: our Indo-China page.

📦 Revision Capsule

Sources

• NCERT, India and the Contemporary World II, Textbook in History for Class X, ch. II "Nationalism in India", Reprint 2026-27 — ncert.nic.in PDF; ch. IV "The Age of Industrialisation" — ncert.nic.in PDF.
• NCERT, India and the Contemporary World II, front matter (Contents and "For Extended Learning"), Reprint 2026-27 — ncert.nic.in PDF.
• NCERT, India and the Contemporary World II, 2020-21 edition (whole-book zip), as archived on 9 October 2021 — Wayback Machine.
• House of Commons, "Army Council and General Dyer", 8 July 1920 (Hansard) — api.parliament.uk.
• Indian National Congress, Punjab Sub-Committee, Report of the Commissioners, vol. I (1920) — Internet Archive.
• D.G. Tendulkar, Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, vol. 2 (1920-1929), first edition December 1951, and vol. 3 (1930-1934), first edition 1951, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting — vol. 2, vol. 3 (mkgandhi.org).
• Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, vol. 17, part I (first published by the Education Department, Government of Maharashtra; reprinted by the Dr. Ambedkar Foundation, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, 2020) — Internet Archive.
• Prime Minister's Office, "PM inaugurates year-long commemoration of 150 years of the National Song 'Vande Mataram'", 7 November 2025 — pmindia.gov.in.