RAS question
The Non-Cooperation Movement included boycott of all EXCEPT:
Correct answer: (C) Railways.
The Non-Cooperation Movement boycotted government schools, legislative councils and British courts, but railways were not a specific target of its formal boycott programme.
Explanation
The Non-Cooperation Movement was built around refusing cooperation with colonial institutions. NIOS notes that, after the Khilafat Conference call, the Congress programme adopted at the Calcutta special session in September 1920 included giving up titles and boycotting schools, courts, Councils and foreign goods, alongside national schools, national courts and khadi. That matches the standard list in the question: government schools, legislative councils, British courts, foreign goods and titles were boycott targets. Railways do not appear in that formal programme, so they are the exception. The point is not that Indians never used railways politically, but that railway boycott was not one of the specified planks of the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Government schools were part of the boycott because the movement asked students to leave government-aided schools and colleges and join national institutions.
- (B) Legislative councils were boycotted because the Congress programme specifically included a boycott of Councils.
- (D) British courts were boycotted because the programme called for avoiding colonial courts and creating national courts to settle matters outside the government judicial system.
Concept
This tests the programme and methods of the Gandhian mass movements, especially the precise institutional targets of Non-Cooperation. RAS repeats this area because small differences between Swadeshi, Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience often decide factual MCQs.