ABSTRACT
This chapter and the following one examine the coercive measures deployed against the non-cooperation movement (1920-22) and the civil disobedience movement (1930-34). They also analyse the strategies which the mainstream nationalist movement developed to turn punishment and state violence into sites of political drama. Because the non-cooperation movement followed quickly on the heels of the Punjab disturbances, the events of 1919 inevitably coloured the new agitation. In this sustained campaign, the Congress modelled the political prisoner into a nationalist icon and challenged the practices of whipping and firing on crowds using similar tactics to those developed during the Punjab disturbances. Their relentless criticism of nearly every aspect of the criminal justice system forced central and provincial governments to introduce concessions for these middle-class non-violent convicts into the practices of confinement and corporal punishment. As a result, the practices of punishment diversified as class distinctions proliferated. For its part, the central government attempted to counter the non-cooperation movement centrally, but continued to suffer from internal disobedience. The administration remained riven by quarrels over which methods to use to confront political activity, and over how much independence local officers should be given as they carried out their duty to ‘preserve law and order’ in the face of such a threat. As a whole, therefore, the government could not be said to have responded adroitly to the non-cooperation movement. Rather, the imperial side lost several battles during this campaign.
