How Did the Non-cooperation Movement Spread in Cities Across the Country? Explain Its Effect on the Economic Front.

In January 1921, the Non-Cooperation Khilafat movement was started in which different social groups participated with different aspirations from the Swaraj. This movement was started with the middle class people of the towns and cities. The students left the schools and colleges, the teachers and headmasters resigned and the lawyers gave up their practices.

The council elections were also boycotted except in Madras. The Justice Party which was a party of the non-Brahmins in Madras felt that power can be acquired only through the council elections.

The economic effects of the Non¬Cooperation Movement – foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops were picketed, foreign clothes were burnt, import of the foreign clothes came down by half, the value of import dropped, merchants and traders refused the trade of foreign goods, production of Indian mills and handloom rose.

The Non-Cooperation Movement gradually slowed down in towns and cities because the khadi clothes were expensive which the poor people could not afford. There was need for Indian institutions for the teachers, students and the lawyers but these were very slow to come up. Thus once again people started using the mill made British clothes and the students, teachers and the lawyers rejoined their respective institutions.