Mahatma Gandhi officially launches the Non-Cooperation Movement

On August 1, 1920, Mahatma Gandhi formally launched the Non-Cooperation Movement, marking a decisive shift in India's freedom struggle from elite parliamentary petitioning to mass non-violent resistance. The campaign was catalyzed by intense national indignation over three primary grievances: the horrifying violence of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the lenient treatment of its perpetrators, the repressive Rowlatt Act, and the Khilafat agitation concerning the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire after World War I.

Gandhi initiated the campaign by returning his Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal to the British Viceroy, signaling a complete severance of moral cooperation with imperial rule. He called upon millions of citizens to boycott British-run schools, law courts, government titles, legislative councils, and imported foreign textiles. Instead, Indians were encouraged to embrace indigenous hand-spun khadi cloth and establish independent national institutions.

The launch day was solemnized by the unexpected death of nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak early that morning, turning the initial protests into a massive national vigil. The movement united Hindus and Muslims in unprecedented anti-colonial solidarity, crippling British civil administration across cities and rural provinces alike. Although Gandhi suspended the campaign in February 1922 following the violent Chauri Chaura incident, it permanently transformed the Indian National Congress into a popular mass movement and established satyagraha as the central strategy against British rule.