The First World War, Khilafat, and Non-Cooperation

Non-Cooperation depended on large numbers of people withdrawing cooperation while maintaining non-violence. Discipline was necessary because uncontrolled anger, attacks, or destruction could change the character of the movement and give the government a justification for repression. Option A states this connection. B contradicts non-violence, C denies mass participation, and D misunderstands an anti-colonial movement.

Gandhi’s politics treated non-violence as more than a temporary tactic: it was the ethical discipline that made mass resistance legitimate. When Chauri Chaura involved serious violence, he withdrew the campaign even though public participation had expanded. Therefore option A is correct. Option B contradicts his principles, while C and D falsely portray the decision as fear of the people or a secret colonial agreement.

Awadh peasants faced high rents, insecure tenancy, illegal dues and begar, or forced unpaid labour, under landlords and their agents. When they heard the language of swaraj and Non-Cooperation, many connected it with relief from these immediate rural burdens. Their interpretation therefore gave the national movement a specific local meaning. Option A is correct. The other options support colonial institutions or foreign goods and contradict the peasants’ grievances.

Baba Ramchandra helped organise peasants in Awadh around their concrete complaints, especially high rents, oppressive landlord practices and begar. Leadership transformed scattered rural discontent into collective petitions, meetings and resistance, allowing peasants to connect their local struggle with the wider national movement. Thus option A is correct. The other choices contradict the movement’s aims: peasants opposed exploitation, did not support higher rents or foreign rule, and their mobilisation expanded the rural reach of Non-Cooperation.

The governing concept is that a mass movement can acquire different meanings for different social groups. Plantation workers faced strict restrictions on leaving the estates under colonial plantation rules. Therefore, for them, swaraj meant freedom from forced confinement and the right to move freely, not merely boycott or political independence in an abstract sense. Option A is correct because it connects the workers' participation with their lived experience; the other options ignore or deny this social interpretation.

The governing principle was Gandhi's insistence that satyagraha must remain non-violent and disciplined. At Chauri Chaura, an angry crowd attacked and killed policemen, turning the protest into violence. Gandhi concluded that continuing the nationwide campaign in those conditions would violate its ethical basis, so he withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement. Option A is correct; the other options either reverse his position or make claims not supported by the withdrawal.