Thousands of people, especially students and teachers, participated in the non-cooperation movement. Gandhiji wanted the movement to be absolutely peaceful and free from violence. The British government used all measures to crush the movement. Prominent leaders were arrested. In two months, nearly 30,000 people were imprisoned. This led to violence in some parts of the country.
Mob violence took place at Chauri Chaura village in the Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh. The agitationists set the police station on fire. Gandhiji was unhappy at this incident and decided to withdraw the non-cooperation movement. He was of the strong opinion that violence cannot attain anything.
This movement brought many leaders like Dr. “Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, C. Rajagopalachari, Motilal Nehru, Chittaranjan Das, Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali to the forefront of the freedom struggle. Jawaharlal Nehru emerged as a popular leader in the course of the non-cooperation movement.