Discuss the various forms that the Non-Cooperation Movement took in different parts of India. How did the people understand Gandhiji?

During the 1921 and 1922 the non-cooperation movement gained momentum. Students left their schools. Lawyers gave up their practices, British titles were surrendered and people lit public bonfires of foreign cloths.

I. The Non-Cooperation movement gained momentum differently in different parts of India:

a.) In Kheda, Gujarat, Patidar peasants organized non-violent campaigns against the high land revenue demand of the British.

b.) In coastal Andhra and interior Tamil Nadu, liquor shops were picketed.

c.) In the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, tribals and poor peasants staged a number of “Forest Satyagrahas”, sometimes sending their cattle into forest without paying grazing fee.

d.) In Bengal, the Khilafat-Non-Cooperation movement alliance gave enormous communal unity and strength to the national movement.

e.) In Punjab, the Akali agitation of the Sikhs sought to remove corrupt mahants supported by the British from their gurudwaras.

f.) In Assam, tea gardens labourers demanded in big increase in their wages.

II. The way in which the people understood Mahatma Gandhi:

Gandhi Ji was thought of by people as a messiah someone who could help them overcome their misery and poverty. Peasants were hopeful that Gandhiji wished to build their fight against Zamindars. For instance, at the end of a powerful movement, peasants of Pratapgarh in the United Provinces managed to stop illegal eviction of tenants but they felt it was Gandhiji who had won this demand for them. Agricultural labor felt that he provide them with the land.