The significance of Chauri Chaura, 1922

On February 4, 1921, in Chauri Chaura, the noncooperation movement — Mahatma Gandhi’s first national agitation against British rule — took a turn towards violence. A group of protesters burnt down a local police station. Three civilians, and 22 policemen, died in the incident. A week later, due to the violence, the Mahatma called off the movement, overruling many of his close associates who believed that one incident should not lead to a retreat from the wider struggle.

As India approaches the centenary of Chauri Chaura, there are abiding lessons. The first is the significance of Gandhi’s commitment to nonviolence. This was tactically astute, but it was also based on the recognition that violence undermines just causes. At a time when India is witnessing a spate of social movements, this is a principle that protest organisers must internalise. If Gandhi could pull back against a colonial power because violence was unacceptable, surely, non-violent methods should be sacrosanct when opposing policies of a democratically-elected government.

At the same time, as historian Shahid Amin has shown, the incident reflected the nationalist impulse of the local peasantry — and depicting it as criminal discounts the local roots of political discontent. But there is a way to reconcile the differing schools of thought, for all three things can be right at the same time: Chauri Chaura violence had roots in local discontent and nationalist sentiment; the violence was wrong; and Gandhi displayed moral conviction in pulling back.