RAS question
Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in which year?
Correct answer: (D) 1920.
Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920, with its formal start on 1 August 1920.
Explanation
The Non-Cooperation Movement began in August 1920 and was formally started on 1 August 1920. The date matters because the question asks for the launch year, not the period during which the movement gathered force or the year in which it was withdrawn. Its immediate background was the Khilafat issue and the anger that followed the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Those causes explain why Gandhi moved towards non-cooperation as a political method, but they do not change the starting year. On that chronology, 1920 is the only option that matches the formal launch of the movement.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) 1922 belongs to the withdrawal of the movement after Chauri Chaura, so it marks the end point rather than the launch.
- (B) 1921 was a year when the Non-Cooperation Movement was already in full swing, not the year in which it started.
- (C) 1919 was the year of the Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, which were precursors to the movement rather than its launch year.
Concept
This tests the chronology of Gandhian mass movements in Modern Indian History. It recurs in RAS because causes, launch dates and withdrawal dates are often used to separate closely placed events in the national movement.