RAS question
The Chauri Chaura incident (1922) led Gandhi to:
Correct answer: (B) Withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement.
The Chauri Chaura incident of 1922 led Gandhi to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Explanation
The link is the movement's commitment to non-violent mass action. On 5 February 1922, at Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur, a violent mob burned a police station and killed 22 policemen. Gandhi suspended civil resistance in 1922 as a result of the killing of policemen in Chauri Chaura. That is why the incident is treated as the immediate trigger for withdrawing the Non-Cooperation Movement. It was not a tactical escalation; Gandhi read the violence as a breach of the discipline on which the movement depended.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) This reverses Gandhi's response: the consequence of Chauri Chaura was suspension and withdrawal after violence, not intensification of civil disobedience.
- (C) Chauri Chaura is connected with withdrawing the Non-Cooperation Movement, not with launching the Quit India Movement.
- (D) A hunger strike was not Gandhi's response; the response was withdrawal or suspension of the movement.
Concept
This tests the modern Indian history concept of Gandhian mass movements and the effect of violence on nationalist strategy. It recurs in RAS because Chauri Chaura is a direct event-to-decision link within the Non-Cooperation Movement.