Peasants and Workers in Non-Cooperation Movement

The Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–1922) broadened its social base by integrating widespread peasant unrest into the national anti-colonial struggle. High rent demands, illegal cesses (abwabs), forced labor (begar), and eviction threats drove agrarian communities across multiple provinces to align with the Congress agenda.

Major Peasant Agitations

• United Provinces (Awadh Kisan Sabha): In Oudh (Awadh), peasants organized under Baba Ramchandra against high rents and begar. In October 1920, the Awadh Kisan Sabha was formed in Pratapgarh with Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra, and Gauri Shankar Misra as primary leaders. The movement later evolved into the violent Eka (Unity) Movement in late 1921 under Madari Pasi in Hardoi, Sitapur, and Bahraich.
• Andhra Pradesh (Rampa and Palnad): In the Agency tracts of Andhra, Alluri Sitarama Raju led tribal peasants against the Madras Forest Act of 1882, which restricted traditional podu (shifting) cultivation and forest access. In Palnad (Guntur), peasants conducted Forest Satyagrahas by grazing cattle in reserved forests without paying fees.
• Rajasthan (Bijolia Movement): Peasant resistance against 84 types of local cesses (lag-bag) and forced labor was led by Vijay Singh Pathik and Manikya Lal Verma in Bijolia (Mewar state). Pathik linked this struggle to national Non-Cooperation directives.
• Punjab (Akali Movement): Sikh peasants organized under the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Akali Dal to reclaim control of historical Gurdwaras from corrupt, government-backed Mahants.

Industrial Strikes and Working-Class Participation

The industrial working class actively joined the Non-Cooperation Movement through strikes, demonstrations, and unionization. Economic distress following World War I, including real wage declines and rising inflation, fueled labor protest across transport, tea, and manufacturing sectors.

Key Labor Actions

• Assam-Bengal Railway Strike: Led by J.M. Sengupta in 1921, railway workers struck in sympathy with tea plantation laborers in the Surma Valley. Steamship workers on the rivers of Bengal joined in a coordinated transport blockade.
• Chargola Valley Tea Garden Strike: Over 8,000 tea plantation workers in Assam walked off estates in May 1921, chanting “Gandhi Maharaj ki Jai” and demanding higher wages and return to their home villages.
• Buckingham and Carnatic Mills Strike: Industrial workers in Madras engaged in a prolonged strike from June to October 1921, which faced severe police firing and state suppression.
• Bombay Textile Strikes: Over 1,00,000 textile workers in Bombay held strikes against wage cuts and long working hours, aligning their protests with public boycotts during the visit of the Prince of Wales in November 1921.
• Calcutta Jute Mill Strikes: Workers across jute mills in Bengal downed tools repeatedly to protest low wages and support national hartal calls.

Integration of Local Grievances with Swaraj

While Congress sought to keep peasant and labor protests disciplined and non-violent, local movements often interpreted Swaraj through their own immediate socio-economic needs.

Features of Mass Action

• Symbolic Identification: Peasants viewed Mahatma Gandhi as a messianic figure who would abolish land revenue, eliminate rents, and restore customary forest rights.
• Refusal of Taxes: In Midnapore (Bengal), peasants refused to pay Union Board taxes, forcing the imperial authorities to withdraw the Union Boards in the region.
• Temperance Drives: Laborers and rural peasants picketed liquor shops, cutting off state excise revenue while promoting social reform within working-class households.
• Boycott of Foreign Goods: Working-class neighborhood associations organized bonfires of foreign cloth and replaced imported textiles with hand-spun Khadi.

Essential Historical Facts

Baba Ramchandra, whose original name was Shridhar Balwant Jodhka, was a Maharashtrian Brahmin who had worked as an indentured laborer in Fiji before moving to Oudh to organize peasants using recitations of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas. The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded on October 31, 1920, in Bombay, with Lala Lajpat Rai as its first President and Dewan Chaman Lall as its General Secretary, providing an organizational bridge between labor unions and the Indian National Congress. The Kisan Sabha movement in Bihar was initially organized under Swami Vidyanand, who led tenant protests against the Darbhanga Raj before the Non-Cooperation Movement expanded across the province. In Assam, the brutal police attack on fleeing tea garden laborers at Chandpur railway station in May 1921 prompted J.M. Sengupta to organize the historic Assam-Bengal Railway and River Steam Navigation strike. The Eka Movement formed small village units where peasants took religious oaths over holy water, promising to pay only recorded rents, refuse forced labor, and refrain from assisting landlords in evictions.