Revision summary
Non-Cooperation and Khilafat turned Congress toward a mass public. Swarajists and no-changers split method, not always the goal. AITUC, HSRA, and early communism added class and revolutionary strands. Peasants, Non-Brahmin politics, and Ambedkar widened the social question. A larger base was the product of many ideologies under and beside the Gandhi centre.
Model answer
Introduction
The 1920s opened with Non-Cooperation and Khilafat. Gandhi made Congress a mass address. Around that centre grew Swarajists, no-changers, socialists, communists, revolutionaries, Non-Brahmin and peasant voices. Ideology multiplied, and so did who counted as the nation.
Body
Gandhi, Khilafat, and the new mass
- Non-Cooperation (1920–22) pulled students, lawyers, and many peasants into hartal and boycott. Khilafat briefly widened the Muslim street inside the same campaign.
- Constructive work — khadi, anti-untouchability, village spinning — created a social base that petition-Congress had lacked.
- Chauri Chaura and withdrawal showed both the power and the ceiling of a moral mass.
Constitutional and revolutionary strands
- Swarajists (C. R. Das, Motilal Nehru) took councils; no-changers stayed with constructive work. Two methods, one nationalist roof.
- Hindustan Republican Association and later HSRA (Kakori, Bhagat Singh’s generation) added a revolutionary socialist strand that spoke to youth beyond the ashram.
- AITUC (1920) and mill strikes brought labour as a class, not only as a crowd.
Left, peasant, caste, and region
- M. N. Roy, the CPI’s early years, and later the Congress Socialist Party (1934) gave a class reading of swaraj.
- Peasant leagues and Bardoli (1928) under Patel showed a landed-peasant base; Eka and other movements showed a poorer agrarian edge.
- Non-Brahmin, Self-Respect (Periyar), and depressed-class organising, including Ambedkar’s independent path, expanded the social question inside and beside Congress.
- Women in pickets and Prabha-style publicity made gender a visible strand, still limited in leadership share.
Thereby the base
- From an urban professional Congress the movement became multi-class and multi-regional, though not equally deep in every jati and princely zone.
- The 1920s template — mass satyagraha plus rival ideologies — fed Civil Disobedience and 1942.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD G[Gandhi Khilafat mass] --> N[National movement] SW[Swarajists] --> N L[Left labour peasants] --> N R[Revolutionaries] --> N C[Caste gender region] --> N
Conclusion
From the 1920s the national movement was a coalition of Gandhians, council-entry liberals, revolutionaries, leftists, peasants, labour, and anti-caste voices. Ideological variety was the method by which the social base grew. It also left unresolved class and caste files for the republic.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
The interlinking of revivers can provide viable solutions to the multi-dimensional inter-related problems of droughts, floods and interrupted navigation. Critically examine.
Next question in the 2020 paper (Q14). View answer →
-
Did Gandhi monopolise the 1920s?
He set the mass grammar. Councils, bombs, mills, and anti-caste leagues still ran their own strands.
-
Did the social base include everyone?
It widened sharply. Princely subjects, many Dalits, and most women still faced a high door.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2021 · Q11 · GS I · 15 marks
To what extent did the role of the moderates prepare a base for the wider freedom movement? Comment. -
2021 · Q12 · GS I · 15 marks
Bring out the constructive programmes of Mahatma Gandhi during Non-Cooperation Movement and Civil Disobedience Movement. -
2020 · Q3 · GS I · 10 marks
Evaluate the policies of Lord Curzon and their long term implications on the national movements. -
2019 · Q2 · GS I · 10 marks
The 1857 uprising was the culmination of the recurrent, big and small local rebellions that had occurred in the preceding hundred years of British rule. Elucidate. -
2019 · Q11 · GS I · 15 marks
Many voices had strengthened and enriched the nationalist movement during the Gandhian phase. Elaborate. -
2018 · Q3 · GS I · 10 marks
Throw light on the significance of the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi in the present times. -
2017 · Q3 · GS I · 10 marks
Why did the 'Moderates' failed to carry conviction with the nation about their proclaimed ideology and political goals by the end of the nineteenth century? -
2017 · Q13 · GS I · 15 marks
Highlight the importance of the new objectives that got added to the vision of Indian Independence since the twenties of the last century. (250 words).
More from this paper
Q1 · UPSC Mains 2020 · GS I · 10 marks
The rock-cut architecture represents one of the most important sources of our knowledge of early Indian art and history. Discuss.
Indian Heritage and Culture
Rock-cut work survives as dated sculpture, painting, and inscription. Ajanta keeps Vakataka murals and Buddhist narrative. Ellora shows Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain patronage on one hill, including Kailasa. Mahabalipuram records Pallava rathas and the turn to structural temples. The caves are a core source, though they under-represent ordinary life.
Q2 · UPSC Mains 2020 · GS I · 10 marks
Pala period is the most significant phase in the history of Buddhism in India. Enumerate.
Indian Heritage and Culture
Pala kings endowed Nalanda and raised Vikramshila and related mahaviharas. The phase matured Mahayana and Vajrayana when much of India had other royal cults. Pala bronze and manuscript painting set an eastern Buddhist style. Atisha carried this learning into Tibet. It is the last organised Indian Buddhist university age.
Q3 · UPSC Mains 2020 · GS I · 10 marks
Evaluate the policies of Lord Curzon and their long term implications on the national movements.
The Freedom Struggle
Curzon pursued efficient empire: frontier, municipal control, and universities. The 1904 Universities Act tightened official grip on campuses. The 1905 Partition of Bengal triggered Swadeshi, boycott, and Extremist politics. Reunion in 1911 did not erase communal and revolutionary afterlives. Long term, Curzon expanded the national movement more than he pacified it.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.