The Khilafat Committee accepted Mahatma Gandhi's suggestion for a non-violent non-cooperation protest against the Government in its meeting at

Correct — C, (c) Allahabad.

The meeting was at Allahabad. The standard account of the Non-cooperation Movement records that Gandhi, who had been close to the Khilafat leaders and had attended their conference in November 1919 as a special invitee, suggested to the Khilafat Committee in February 1920 that it adopt a programme of non-violent non-cooperation to protest against the Government’s conduct. On 9 June 1920 the Khilafat Committee, meeting at Allahabad, unanimously accepted that suggestion and asked Gandhi to lead the movement.

The stem follows that sentence closely, and the sequence around it is worth holding in order because the other three options are drawn from it.

The grievance was the treatment of Turkey after the First World War, sharpened by the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres of May 1920, which made the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire plain; Indian Muslims had been assured that the position of the Caliph would be respected, and felt the assurance broken. The Congress reached the same destination by its own road: disgusted by the Hunter Committee’s report on the Punjab and sceptical of constitutional advance, the All India Congress Committee met in May 1920 and resolved to call a special session in September to decide its course.

So the Khilafat Committee moved first, at Allahabad in June. The movement was formally launched on 1 August 1920. The Congress accepted non-cooperation as its own at the special session in Calcutta in September, and confirmed it at the annual session in Nagpur in December, where C.R. Das moved the main resolution.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)Bombay — ‘Bombay’ does not appear in this chain of meetings at all. The venues that matter between February and December 1920 are Allahabad, where the Khilafat Committee accepted the non-cooperation programme on 9 June; Calcutta, where the Congress held the special session in September that made non-cooperation its own; and Nagpur, where the annual session in December confirmed it. Bombay is on the option list because it is the city a candidate is most likely to associate with organised nationalist politics in general, and a plausible-sounding venue is what a distractor needs to be. The corrective is to learn this stretch of the freedom struggle as a dated sequence of named meetings rather than as a general atmosphere, since the questions set on it almost always turn on which body met where.
• (b)Nagpur — ‘Nagpur’ is the strongest wrong answer, because a real and important meeting on non-cooperation was held there — but it was the Congress, not the Khilafat Committee, and it came six months later. At its annual session in December 1920 the Congress adopted the programme of non-cooperation, with C.R. Das moving the main resolution and the earlier opposition to the boycott of the legislative councils having faded once the elections were past. That session committed the Congress to extra-constitutional mass action. The item is asking about the earlier and separate decision of the Khilafat Committee, which is what set the whole sequence going, and confusing the two collapses the distinct roles of the two organisations in 1920.
• (d)Kanpur — ‘Kanpur’ does not belong to this sequence either. The Khilafat Committee’s decision was taken at Allahabad in June 1920, and the two Congress meetings that followed were at Calcutta and Nagpur. The option is the fourth that the format requires, and it is chosen from the same class as the others — a large city of northern India that hosted political gatherings in the period — so that the option list cannot be narrowed by geography alone. It is worth noticing how tightly this set is built: all four are places where nationalist meetings of one kind or another took place, and only a dated recollection of this particular meeting separates them. That is the standard shape of a venue question.

The Khilafat and Non-cooperation movements of 1919 to 1922 were two campaigns that ran as one, and the examination value of the episode lies in keeping the two strands distinct while remembering that they converged.

The Khilafat grievance was about the Ottoman Sultan, recognised by many Indian Muslims as Caliph. After the First World War the victorious Allies dismembered his empire, and the peace terms of 1920 confirmed it. The Khilafat leaders organised a committee, held conferences, and looked for a way to press the British Government.

Gandhi’s contribution was a method. He had supported the Khilafat cause from early on, and in February 1920 proposed non-violent non-cooperation as the form the protest should take. The Khilafat Committee accepted it at Allahabad on 9 June 1920 and asked him to lead.

The Congress arrived separately. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919 and the Hunter Committee’s handling of it had destroyed confidence in constitutional methods; the All India Congress Committee met in May 1920 and called a special session, which met at Calcutta in September and accepted non-cooperation. Nagpur in December sealed it.

The programme itself included the surrender of titles, the boycott of legislative councils, courts and government schools, the boycott of foreign cloth, and the promotion of hand-spinning, Hindu-Muslim unity, the removal of untouchability and strict non-violence.

Key facts

• On 9 June 1920 the Khilafat Committee, meeting at Allahabad, unanimously accepted Gandhi’s suggestion of non-cooperation and asked him to lead the movement.
• Gandhi had made the suggestion to the Committee in February 1920, and had attended the Khilafat Conference of November 1919 as a special invitee.
• The Treaty of Sèvres, signed with Turkey in May 1920, made the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire plain and sharpened the Khilafat grievance.
• The All India Congress Committee met in May 1920 and resolved to convene a special session in September; that session, at Calcutta, accepted non-cooperation.
• The Congress annual session at Nagpur in December 1920 confirmed the programme, with C.R. Das moving the main resolution, and committed the Congress to extra-constitutional mass action.
• The movement was formally launched on 1 August 1920, the day Lokamanya Tilak died.

Common traps

• Merging the Khilafat Committee’s decision at Allahabad with the Congress decisions at Calcutta and Nagpur into a single event.
• Attributing to the Congress a decision taken by the Khilafat Committee, and the other way round.
• Assuming the largest or most politically prominent city on the list must be the venue.
• Losing the order of the year: February, the suggestion; June, its acceptance; August, the launch; September and December, the Congress sessions.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  At which session did the Indian National Congress first accept the programme of non-cooperation as its own ?

  • (a)The Amritsar session of 1919
  • (b)The special session at Calcutta in September 1920
  • (c)The annual session at Nagpur in December 1920
  • (d)The Ahmedabad session of 1921

  Answer(b) The special session at Calcutta in September 1920 — the All India Congress Committee had resolved in May to convene it, and it was there that the Congress accepted non-cooperation. The Nagpur session in December confirmed the programme rather than adopting it first, and the Amritsar and Ahmedabad sessions fall on either side of the decision.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Non-cooperation Movement was formally launched on

  • (a)9 June 1920
  • (b)1 August 1920
  • (c)26 September 1920
  • (d)31 December 1920

  Answer(b) 1 August 1920 — the launch followed the expiry of the notice Gandhi had given the Viceroy in his letter of 22 June, and the day coincided with the death of Lokamanya Tilak. The date in option (a) is that of the Khilafat Committee’s meeting at Allahabad, and the other two belong to no event in this sequence.