Describe why did the plantation workers of Assam join the Non-Cooperation Movement. What were its results ? What was the importance of movement of plantation workers and other such movements ?
(a) Object : Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation workers in Assam were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission. In practice they were rarely given such permission. For them freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the Confined space in which they were enclosed and it meant retaining a link with the village from which they had come. They believed that under Gandhi Raj everyone would be given land in their own village. (b) Events : During the movement, thousands of workers defied the authorities. They left the plantations and headed home. They, however, never reached their destination. Stranded on the way by a railway and steamer strike, they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up. (c) Importance : The objects of movement of plantation workers and other such movements (of tribal people in Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh) were not defined by the Congress programme. They interpreted the term Swaraj in their own ways. They hoped that time will come when their all miseries would come to an end. The tribals chanted Gandhiji’s name and raised slogans demanding ‘Swatantra Bharat This way they were also emotionally relating to an all India agitation. When they acted in the name of Mahatma Gandhi or linked their movement with Congress, they were identifying with a movement which went beyond the limits of their immediate locality.
