Page:Sketch of the Non-cooperation Movement by Babu Rajendra Prasad.pdf/27

 appeal to the finer instincts of the youth of the country to devote themselves to its service and to shun the institutions which had been created and maintained to kill all manliness in them was responded to with enthusiasm. Nor was the work confined merely to boycott. National Universities, National Colleges, and National schools of all grades were started in different parts of the country. We have already referred to the student movement in the U. P., the Punjab, and the Bombay Presidency. Bengal was not behind hand and Calcutta witnessed one of those thrilling scenes which have not been few in the course of the last year and a half. About the middle of January, on an appeal by Desabandhu C. R. Das, thousands of students left their colleges and examinations. Mahatma Gandhi visited Calcutta and opened the National College on the 4th of February. He also visited Patna for a second time and formally opened the National College and inaugurated the Behar Vidyapith. Thus in the course of less than four months, the National Muslim University of Aligarh, the Gujrat Vidyapith, the Behar Vidyapith, the Benares Vidyapith, the Bengal National University, the Tilak Maharastra Vidyapith and a large number of national schools of all grades with thousands of students on the rolls were started in all parts of the country as a result of the great impetus given to National Education.

In the matter of the organisation of Swadeshi, the result achieved in popularising spinning wheels and the use of khaddar (hand spun and hand woven cloth) has been marvellous. In homes which had altogether forgotten even the name of charkha (spinning wheel) its musical hum can now be heard. It has invaded even the parlour of the rich, while it has given a source of livelihood to lakhs of poor women in the country.