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Indian Freedom Struggle (1707–1947 A.D.)

Notes

The Congress organization was to reach down to the village and the mohalla level by
the formation of village and mohalla or ward committees.

The membership fee was reduced to four annas per year to enable the poor to become members.
Mass involvement would also enable the Congress to have a regular source of income. In other
ways, too, the organization structure was both streamlined and democratized. The Congress was
to use Hindi as far as possible. The adoption of the Non-Cooperation Movement (initiated earlier
by the Khilafat Conference) by the Congress gave it a new energy and, from January 1921, it began
to register considerable success all over the country. Gandhiji, along with the Ali brothers (who
were the foremost Khilafat leaders), undertook a nation-wide tour during which he addressed
hundreds of meetings and met a large number of political workers. In the first month itself,
thousands of students (90,000 according to one estimate) left schools and colleges and joined more
than 800 national schools and colleges that had sprung up all over the country.
The educational boycott was particularly successful in Bengal, where the students in Calcutta
triggered off a province-wide strike to force the managements of their institutions to disaffiliate
themselves from the Government. C.R. Das played a major role in promoting the movement and
Subhas Bose became the principal of the National Congress in Calcutta. The Swadeshi spirit was
revived with new vigour, this time as part of a nation-wide struggle. Punjab, too, responded to the
educational boycott and was second only to Bengal, Lala Lajpat Rai playing a leading part here
despite his initial reservations about this item of the programme. Others areas that were active
were Bombay, U.P., Bihar, Orissa and Assam, Madras remained lukewarm. The boycott of law
courts by lawyers was not as successful as the educational boycott, But it was very dramatic and
spectacular. Many leading lawyers of the country, like C.R. Das, Motilal Nehru, M.R. Jayakar,
Saifuddin Kitchlew, Vallabhbhai Patel, C. Rajagopalachari, T. Prakasam and Asaf Ali gave up
lucrative practices, and their sacrifice became a source of inspiration for many. In numbers again
Bengal led, followed by Andhra Pradesh, U.P., Kamataka and Punjab.

Perhaps, the most successful item of the programme was the boycott of foreign cloth.
Volunteers would go from house to house collecting clothes made of foreign cloth, and
the entire community would collect to light a bonfire of the goods.

Prabhudas Gandhi, who accompanied Mahatma Gandhi on his nation-wide tour in the first part
of 1921, recalls how at small way-side stations where their train would stop for a few minutes,
Gandhiji would persuade the crowd, assembled to greet him, to at least discard their head dress
on the spot. Immediately, a pile of caps, dupattas, and turbans would form and as the train moved
out they would see the flames leaping upwards. Picketing of shops selling foreign cloth was also
a major form of the boycott. The value of imports of foreign cloth fell from Rs. 102 crore in 1920-
21 to Rs. 57 crore in 1921-22. Another feature of the movement which acquired great popularity in
many parts of the country, even though it was not pail of the original plan, was the picketing of
toddy shops. Government revenues showed considerable decline on this count and the Government
was forced to actually carry on propaganda to bring home to the people the healthy effects of a
good drink.
The Government of Bihar and Orrisa even compiled and circulated a list of all the great men in
history (which included Moses, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Shakespeare, Gladstone,
Tennyson and Bismarck) who enjoyed their liquor.
The AICC, at its session at Vijayawada in March 1921, directed that for the next three months
Congressmen should concentrate on collection of funds, enrolment of members and distribution

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