Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience in Chhattisgarh

Prerequisites

• The Gandhian Era and Independence (1919–1947): the all-India Non-Cooperation, Civil Disobedience and Quit India movements
• Tribal Revolts (including Bhumkal 1910): the older tradition of resistance in the forests
• British Rule, Princely States and Zamindaris: Chhattisgarh as part of the Central Provinces

The Hook: A Village That Refused to Pay for Water

Why it matters: Prelims asks the Kandel satyagraha (year, leaders), the dates of Gandhi’s two visits and the leaders of each phase. Mains GS-I asks you to trace Chhattisgarh’s role in the Gandhian movement.

Setting the Scene

• In this period Chhattisgarh was part of the British Central Provinces (later Central Provinces and Berar), with Raipur and Bilaspur as its main district towns. Much of the rest was under feudatory states such as Bastar, Rajnandgaon and Raigarh.
• The Nagpur session of the Indian National Congress (December 1920) endorsed the Non-Cooperation programme. Chhattisgarh’s leaders belonged to the Central Provinces Congress and attended that session.
• Local issues fed the national movement: canal water tax, forest laws and begar, and mill workers’ wages.

timeline
    title Chhattisgarh in the Gandhian phase
    1920 : Kandel canal satyagraha (from July)
         : BNC mill workers' strike at Rajnandgaon
         : Gandhi's first visit, 20 December
    1920-22 : Non-Cooperation Movement
    1922 : Sihawa-Nagri jungle satyagraha (January)
    1930 : Civil Disobedience and jungle satyagrahas
    1933 : Gandhi's second visit (Harijan tour), 22-28 November
    1942 : Quit India Movement

Kandel Canal Satyagraha, 1920 (कंडेल नहर सत्याग्रह)

Gandhi’s Two Visits to Chhattisgarh

Non-Cooperation Movement in Chhattisgarh (1920–1922)

1. Boycott and national education: students left government schools; national schools were opened. Lawyers suspended practice, and some title-holders gave up titles.
2. Swadeshi: picketing of liquor and foreign-cloth shops; spread of khadi.
3. Labour: the Bengal-Nagpur Cotton Mills (BNC Mills), Rajnandgaon saw a long workers’ strike in 1920, led by Thakur Pyarelal Singh (ठाकुर प्यारेलाल सिंह). It is counted among the region’s earliest organised labour struggles and linked labour grievances to the national movement.
4. Forests: the Sihawa-Nagri jungle satyagraha (January 1922), led by Shyamlal Som (श्यामलाल सोम), carried non-cooperation into the forests. See Jungle Satyagraha.
5. Arrests: leaders such as Pt. Sundarlal Sharma were jailed. The movement ended in February 1922 when Gandhi called it off after Chauri Chaura.

Between the movements (1922–1930)

• Constructive work: khadi, temperance and anti-untouchability. Sundarlal Sharma’s campaign for Dalit temple entry and social reform belongs here.
• Cooperatives and local bodies: leaders such as Pt. Vaman Rao Lakhe (पं. वामनराव लाखे) built the cooperative movement in Raipur; Congress leaders entered municipal bodies.

Civil Disobedience Movement in Chhattisgarh (1930–1934)

• Chhattisgarh is far from the sea, so breaking the salt law could only be symbolic. The Central Provinces Congress turned instead to breaking the forest laws, the laws that touched village life most closely. This produced the jungle satyagrahas of 1930 (Gatta-Silli, Rudri-Navagaon, Tamora and others).
• Raipur was the main centre. Leaders included Pt. Ravishankar Shukla, Pt. Sundarlal Sharma, Thakur Pyarelal Singh, Mahant Laxminarayan Das, Yatiyatan Lal and Dr. Khubchand Baghel, who left his government medical post to join the movement.
• Women and youth took part in picketing and processions, and young people formed volunteer groups.
• Many leaders were jailed. The movement was suspended in 1934. Gandhi’s 1933 Harijan tour fell in this phase.

Quit India Movement in Chhattisgarh (1942)

• After the “Do or Die” call (8 August 1942) and the arrest of national leaders, local leaders across Raipur, Bilaspur and Durg were arrested.
• Students and workers held strikes, processions and hartals; some young people turned to underground activity.
• The Raipur Conspiracy Case (also called the Raipur dynamite case) of 1942 is associated with young revolutionaries, notably Parsuram Soni, accused of making explosives.

Memory Tricks

Don’t Confuse

Common Mistakes

Practice

These are original practice questions written in CGPSC style. They are not previous-year questions.

Level 1: Foundation

1. The Kandel satyagraha of 1920 was against ________.
2. Gandhi first came to Chhattisgarh on ________.
3. The 1920 workers’ strike at the BNC Mills, Rajnandgaon, was led by ________.

Level 2: Prelims MCQs

Q1. Consider the following statements:

1. The Kandel satyagraha was launched against a tax on the use of canal water.
2. Gandhi’s first visit to Chhattisgarh was connected with the Kandel satyagraha.
3. Gandhi’s second visit to Chhattisgarh was part of his Harijan tour of 1933.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only (b) 1 and 2 only (c) 2 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3

Q2. Match List-I (Event) with List-II (Leader):

(a) A-2, B-3, C-4, D-1 (b) A-2, B-3, C-1, D-4 (c) A-3, B-2, C-1, D-4 (d) A-2, B-1, C-3, D-4

Q3. Why did the Civil Disobedience Movement in Chhattisgarh take the form of jungle satyagraha?

(a) The Congress banned salt satyagraha in the Central Provinces (b) The region had no sea coast, and forest laws affected village life most directly (c) Gandhi personally directed forest satyagraha from Raipur (d) The princely states had abolished the salt tax

Q4. Arrange in chronological order:

1. Gandhi’s Harijan tour reaches Durg
2. Kandel canal satyagraha begins
3. Sihawa-Nagri jungle satyagraha
4. Quit India Movement

(a) 2-3-1-4 (b) 3-2-1-4 (c) 2-1-3-4 (d) 2-3-4-1

Level 3: Mains Answer Writing

Q1. Explain the significance of the Kandel canal satyagraha in Chhattisgarh’s freedom struggle. (150 words)

Q2. Trace the participation of Chhattisgarh in the national movement from 1920 to 1942. (250 words)

Quick Revision Table

Key Takeaways

What’s Next

• Jungle Satyagraha: the forest satyagrahas of 1922 and 1930 in detail
• Leaders of the Freedom Movement: Sundarlal Sharma, Pyarelal Singh and others
• The Gandhian Era and Independence: the national movements in full
• Formation of the State and Administrative Structure: how regional consciousness grew into statehood