Chauri Chaura incident

The incident

On 4 February 1922, volunteers of the Non-Cooperation Movement, then at its peak following the launch of civil disobedience by the Indian National Congress, marched in Chauri Chaura to protest high prices and alleged police harassment of participants. Police fired on the crowd, and in the ensuing confusion a section of the crowd turned on the local police station, setting it alight while officers were inside; a number of policemen died in the fire or were killed by the mob. It was among the most serious instances of mob violence associated with the movement, which Gandhi had insisted must remain strictly nonviolent.

Gandhi's response and its consequences

Gandhi, who was then leading a mass civil disobedience campaign in Bardoli, Gujarat, viewed the violence as a betrayal of the movement's core discipline and, on 12 February 1922, persuaded the Congress Working Committee to suspend the Non-Cooperation Movement across the country, including the planned Bardoli satyagraha. The decision drew criticism at the time, including from younger nationalists such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, who felt a national movement should not be halted over a local incident, and it remains a point of historiographical debate over Gandhi's judgment and the movement's trajectory. Colonial authorities prosecuted a large number of participants; a special tribunal handed down a substantial number of death sentences, most of which were commuted to transportation or imprisonment on appeal before the Allahabad High Court, though several executions did take place.