Dear Students, we studied about the Participation of people in the Non-Cooperation Movement in the Cities and in the countryside in Worksheet No. 74 & 75. In this worksheet, we will study about the participation of plantation workers and important incidences that happened after the Non-Cooperation Movement.

Swaraj in the Plantation

Plantation workers had their own understanding of Mahatma Gandhi and the notion of swaraj. For them in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the confined space in which they were enclosed, and it meant

retaining a link with the village from which they had come. Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation workers were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission. When they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of workers defied the authorities, left the plantations and headed home. They believed that Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land in their own villages. They, however, never reached their destination. Stranded on the way by a railway and steamer strike, they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up.

Towards Civil Disobedience

In February 1922, a violent incident occurred at Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement. Within the Congress, some leaders were by now tired of mass struggles and wanted to participate in the provincial councils. They felt that it was important to oppose British policies

within the councils. C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress. But younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose pressed for more radical mass agitation and for full independence.

Simon Commission- In response to the nationalist movement, British government set up a commission under Sir John Simon to look into the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes. The problem was that the commission did not have a single Indian member. They were all British. When the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928, it was greeted with the slogan ‘Go back Simon’. All parties, including the Congress and the Muslim League, participated in the demonstrations. In an effort to win them over, the viceroy, Lord Irwin, announced in October 1929, a vague offer of ‘dominion status’ for India in an unspecified future, and a Round Table Conference to discuss a future Constitution.

In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalized the demand of ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for India. It was declared that 26 January 1930, would be celebrated as the Independence Day when people were to take a pledge to struggle for complete independence.