India's Freedom Story by Ira Saxena

Author:Ira Saxena
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: Harper Children's
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

"If the people join me, as I expect they will, the sufferings they will undergo, unless the British nation sooner retraces its steps, will be enough to melt the stoniest hearts."

Mahatma Gandhi, in his letter to the Viceroy

VIOLENCE AT CHAURI-CHAURA

Gandhi then proceeded to Bardoli. But the battle was lost before it even began. A dastardly crime was committed in Chauri-Chaura, a village in Gorakhpur, U.P. After a clash between peasants and the police on 5th February 1922, constables opened fire on the mob from their police station premises. However, once the ammunition was over, the cops locked themselves inside the building to save themselves from the angry mob waiting outside. The police station was set ablaze by the raging crowd, burning all policemen inside the building to death.

Before violence could spread, a disappointed Gandhi called off the Civil Disobedience Movement with immediate effect. The first phase of non-cooperation ended.

Soon after, on 18th March 1922, Gandhi was sentenced to a six-year imprisonment for his “seditious” speeches and writings, which “incited the public into violence”.

To say that the Non-Cooperation Movement was a failure would be a mistake because it was successful in awakening the masses. Even to the uneducated lot, Swaraj was the sovereign remedy to all their problems. Thanks to the movement, Congress was turned into a real fighting force armed with the weapon of nonviolence. Due to the boycott, people conquered their fear of the British Raj. Men and women, rich and poor showed a willingness to endure hardships and suffer punishment. They fought social evils like drinking and untouchability through constructive programmes of the Congress. The practice of using charkha taught “bread labour” to the masses, as Gandhi called it. The emphasis on the use of khadi revealed a real understanding of rural needs and helped Gandhi win over the masses.

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