The Prime Minister inaugurated Chauri Chaura Centenary Celebrations on 4th February 2021. A postage stamp was also released to mark the centenary of the event.
Chauri Chaura Incident
On August 1, 1920, Gandhi had launched the Non-Cooperation Movement against the British rule, which involved a boycott of foreign goods, especially machine-made cloth, and legal, educational and administrative institutions, and refusing to assist a ruler who misrules.
In the winter of 1921-22, volunteers of the Congress and the Khilafat movement were organised into a national volunteer corp.
In mid-January 1922, after a meeting addressed by a functionary of the Gorakhpur Congress and Khilafat Committees, peasant “officers” were appointed to fill out pledges of non-cooperation, collect subscriptions, and lead the picketing of shops selling foreign items.
The police cracked down on volunteers who were trying to stop trade in foreign cloth, and enforce a just price for meat and fish, and severely beat up one Bhagwan Ahir, a demobilised soldier from the British Indian Army.
On February 4, volunteers congregated in the town and took out a procession to the local police station at Chauri Chaura. They ignored warning shots fired in the air by police and pelted the police with stones.
The police fired into the crowd, killing three people and injuring many others. The crowd put the Local Police Station on fire, killing the policemen inside the building.
After the incident, Gandhiji withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement and on February 12, 1922, the NCM was formally suspended.
