Why did Gandhiji Withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement?

On February 4, 1922, in Chauri Chaura village in the Gorakhpur district of UP, a procession of Non-Cooperation Movement protesters clashed with local police.

The police opened fire on the crowd. Enraged protesters retaliated by setting fire to the police station, killing 22 policemen trapped inside.

This single act of mass violence deeply shocked Gandhi, who was committed to the principle of Ahimsa (Non-Violence) as the absolute moral foundation of the movement.

Gandhi immediately announced the withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation Movement on February 12, 1922, stating:

"No provocation can possibly justify...the brutal murder of men who had been rendered defenseless and who had thrown up their arms."

He believed that a movement based on violence had no moral authority and would ultimately produce a violent, not a free, India.

• Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose were deeply disappointed — they felt the movement was at its peak and withdrawal was a massive strategic blunder.
• Gandhi was arrested in March 1922 and sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for sedition.
• The movement's sudden end created a political vacuum and a period of disillusionment in the independence struggle.