Read the passage and answer the questions:
Non-Cooperation Movement
“Non-cooperation”, wrote Mahatma Gandhi’s American biographer Louis Fischer, “became the name of an epoch in the life of India and of Gandhiji. Non-cooperation was negative enough to be peaceful but positive enough to be effective. It entailed denial, renunciation, and self-discipline. It was training of self-rule.” As a consequence of the Non-Cooperation Movement the British Raj was shaken to its foundations for the first time since the Revolt of 1857. Then, in February 1922, a group of peasants attacked and torched a station in the hamlet of Chauri Chaura, in the United Provinces. Several constables perished in the conflagration. This act of violence prompted Gandhiji to call off the movement altogether. During the Non-Cooperation Movement thousands of Indians were put in jail. Gandhiji himself was arrested in March 1922. The judge who presided over his trial, made a remarkable speech while pronouncing his sentence. “It would be impossible to ignore the fact,” remarked the judge, “that you are in a different category from any person I have tried or am likely to try. It would be impossible to ignore the fact that, in the eyes of millions of your countrymen, you are a great patriot and a leader. Even those who differ from you in politics look upon you as a man of high ideals and of even saintly life.” Since Gandhiji has violated the law it was obligatory for the Bench to sentence him to six years’ imprisonment. By 1922, Gandhiji has transformed Indian nationalism, thereby redeeming the promise he made in his BHU speech of February 1916. It was no longer a movement of professionals and intellectuals; now, hundreds of thousands of peasants, workers and artisans also participated in it.
Which movement became the ‘epoch in the life of India’, as per the passage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Non-Cooperation Movement
The passage opens with the words of Gandhiji’s American biographer Louis Fischer: “Non-cooperation became the name of an epoch in the life of India and of Gandhiji.” The movement he speaks of is the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920-22, which shook the British Raj to its foundations for the first time since the Revolt of 1857.
NCERT (2025-26): “2.1 Knitting a popular movement … ‘Non-cooperation,’ wrote Mahatma Gandhi’s American biographer Louis Fischer, ‘became the name of an epoch in the life of India and of Gandhiji. Non-cooperation was negative enough to be peaceful but positive enough to be effective. It entailed denial, renunciation, and self-discipline. It was training for self-rule.’ As a consequence of the Non-Cooperation Movement the British Raj was shaken to its foundations for the first time since the Revolt of 1857.…” |