Question 8 - Past Year Questions - 5 Marks - Chapter 2 Class 10 History - Nationalism in India - History

The Civil Disobedience Movement saw the participation of different social classes and groups. Give reasons for the participation of the following:

(a) rich peasants

(b) poor peasants

(c) business classes

(d) industrial working classes

(e) women

Answer to be written in the exam

The reason for participation of various classes was  

Rich Peasants

• Being producers of commercial crops , they were very hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices.
• Their cash income disappeared , they found it impossible to pay the government’s revenue demand.
• Refusal of the government to reduce the revenue demand led to widespread resentment.
• For them the fight for swara j was a struggle against high revenues.

B. Poor Peasants

• Poorer peasantry was not just interested in lowering revenue demand . 
• They were small tenants cultivating land they had rented from landlords .
• Depression continued and cash incomes dwindled , the small tenants found it difficult to pay their rent .
• They wanted the unpaid rent to the landlords to be remitted .

C. Business Class

• During the First World War , Indian merchants and industrialists had made huge profits and had become powerful .
• Keen on expanding their business , they now reacted against the colonial policies that restricted business activities .
• They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods .
• To organize business interests , they formed the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920 and the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927.

D. Industrial Working Class

• The industrial working classes did not participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement in large numbers , except in the Nagpur region.
• Workers stayed aloof , as the Industrialists came closer to the Congress .
• Congress was reluctant to include workers demands as part of its programme of struggle .
• Congress felt that this would alienate industrialists and divide the anti-imperial forces .

E. Women

• Another important feature of the Civil Disobedience Movement was the large-scale participation of women .
• During Gandhiji’s salt march , thousands of women came out of their houses to listen to him.
• They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt , and picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops .
• Many women went to jail also.