Meera is preparing a school project on the years 1919 to 1922. In an old district report from 1921 she reads that students left government colleges, lawyers stayed away from the courts and mill workers went on strike. The report adds that in one hill district peasants refused to carry loads for colonial officials. Her teacher explains that Gandhiji had linked this campaign to a movement of Indian Muslims about the Ottoman Caliph, and that a biographer of Gandhiji later gave the campaign a famous description. The campaign ended suddenly after an incident in a village of the United Provinces in February 1922.
What reason did Gandhiji give for calling off the campaign after the incident of February 1922?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → No provocation could justify the brutal murder of men who had been rendered defenceless.
Option (1) The movement had failed to win swaraj within the promised year. — Incorrect. Gandhiji had promised swaraj within a year, but he did not give the delay as his reason for stopping the movement.
Option (2) The government had agreed to hold talks with the Congress on self-rule. — Incorrect. No such talks were offered; the movement ended because of violence, and Gandhiji was soon arrested.
Option (3) No provocation could justify the brutal murder of men who had been rendered defenceless. — Correct. At Chauri Chaura peasants torched a police station and several constables died. Gandhiji insisted that no provocation could justify the brutal murder of defenceless men, so he called off the movement.
Option (4) Muslim leaders had withdrawn their support from the joint campaign. — Incorrect. The Khilafat leaders had joined hands with Gandhiji; their withdrawal was not the reason he gave.
NCERT (2026-27): “2.1 Knitting a popular movement … ““No provocation,” he insisted, “can possibly justify (the) brutal murder of men who had been rendered defenceless and who had virtually thrown themselves on the mercy of the mob.”” |