Page:Sketch of the Non-cooperation Movement by Babu Rajendra Prasad.pdf/29

 was the great agrarian movement in U. P. which had its origin in the agrarian trouble between landlords and tenants, on account of the latter’s refusal to pay illegal and oppressive cesses. Large bodies of men collected at various place and several riots took place in several places. The police dispersed the mob by opening fire in some of these places, and it took more than a month to restore quiet. Another movement which having an independent origin was deeply affected by the N. C. O. movement has been the Akali movement of the Sikhs. Starting as a purely religious movement for the reform of the Sikh Gurdwaras, it has been more and more drawn into adopting the principles of the Non-co-operation movement by the conduct of the Government. In February occurred what is known as the Nankana tragedy in which nearly two hundred Sikhs lost their lives amidst scenes of indescribable horror. The news created great indignation among Sikhs and others in all parts of the country and Mahatma Gandhi had to visit the Punjab early in March.

The Reaction of the Government to the Movement.—The Government had watched the growth of the movement. It first tried to pooh-pooh it. In August 1920, Lord Chelmsford had described it as “the most foolish of all foolish schemes”. Subsequently the Government of India issued a communique on the 6th November 1920, stating that the Government had refrained from instituting criminal proceedings, because the promoters of the movement had advocated simultaneously with Non-co-operation, abstention from violence and that “they had instructed local Government to take action against those persons only who in furtherance of the movement had gone beyond the limits originally set by its organisers and had by speech or writing incited the public to