Page:Sketch of the Non-cooperation Movement by Babu Rajendra Prasad.pdf/31

 Congress propaganda was making such rapid progress and the country passing through the first spell of repression that the All-India Congress Committee met at Bezwada in the last week of March 1921, and chalked out a programme of work for the following three months. It required that, before the 30th of June 1921, the Congress should raise one crore of rupees for the Tilak Swarajya Fund, enrol one crore of members for the Congress and see 20 lakhs of spinning wheels working in the country. On account of policy of repression started by the Government which was held by the Committee to be totally unwarranted by the situation in the country, there was a desire expressed by many of the members that Civil Disobedience should be resorted to. The Committee however held that the country was not yet sufficiently disciplined, organised or ripe for the immediate taking up of Civil Disobedience, and it advised all those upon whom orders might be served voluntarily to conform to them, trusting that new workers would take the place of those disabled by the Government and that the people at large; instead of becoming frightened or disheartened, would continue their work of quite organisation and construction. The following months witnessed tremendous efforts by the thousands of workers spread all over the country and engaged in organising it to fulfil the programme sketched out at Bezwada, and when the 30th of June was reached, Mahatma Gandhi could safely declare that the nation had collected the requisite sum, and although the number of members enrolled and charkhas was not accurately known, there was no doubt that the programme in this respect also had been nearly if not altogether fulfilled. Mabatma Gandhi himself had been as unremitting in his labours as ever, carrying the gospel of Non-co-operation and Non-violence from district to dis-