The following were the features of boycott and swadeshi Movements.
(a) British institutions and services were denied by students, teachers and lawyers.
(b) Picketing of foreign liquor shops by women.
(c) Refusal and bonfires of foreign clothes.
(d) Reduction in imports of cloth.
(e)  Refusal of traders to deal in foreign goods or finance foreign trade badly affected the British economy.
(f) Increase in the production of Indian handloom and textile and coming up of Indian industries.

Mahatma Gandhi sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin starting eleven demands. The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax. Salt was something consumed by the rich and the poor alike. He opposed the tax on salt and the Government monopoly over its production. When Irwin was unwilling to negotiate. Mahatma Gandhi started his famous salt march accompanied by 78 of his trusted volunteers. The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhiji's ashram in Sabarmati to the Gujarat coastal town of Dandi. The volunteers walked for 24 days, about 10 miles a day. Thousands came to heat Mahatma Gandhi wherever he stopped. He told them what he meant by Swaraj and urged them to peacefully defy the British.
On 6^th April he reached Dandi, and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water. People were was asked not only non - cooperation but also break colonial laws. Salt satyagraha proved to be a milestone with history of Indian Nationalism.

(a) The European Powers considered their culture more civilized, modern and superior. They forcefully started imposing their culture on the colonies. This also aroused the feeling of nationalism. The colonial powers exploit the people of their colonies so much that all sections of the people decide to throw off the foreign rulers.
In India, the growing anger against the colonial government brought together various groups and classes into a common struggle for freedom. Moreover, the oppressed people realised that it was necessary to fight colonial rule to restore their glorious past and their freedom. Thus, what started as Anti-Colonial Movement, turned into Nationalist Movement. Everybody had his own interpretation of anti-colonialism, but the ultimate aim was to get rid of them. This single point was the unifying factor for diverse mass of India. Finally, the idea of India as a nation started to emerge.
(b) The First World War created a new economic and political situation which led to increase in defence expenditure. This expenditure increase was financed by war loans and by increasing taxes. Moreover
• Price hike during the war years (1914-1918) led to extreme hardship for the commoners.
• Villagers and farmers were forcefully recruited in the British army, this caused widespread anger.
• Incidents such as implementation of Rowlatt Act, Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, Martial law in Punjab, disintegration of the Ottoman empire, further aggravated the situation, resulting in the emergence of the National Movement.
(c) Indians were outraged by the Rowlatt Act for the following reasons
(i) Rowlatt Act was introduced in 1919. This act had been hurriedly passed through the Imperial Legislative Council despite the opposition from Indian members.
(ii) Under this Act, the police could arrest anybody and put in prison without trial for two years. The provisions of this Act outraged Indians and hurt their nationalist sentiments and dignity. 
(iii) Meetings were held everywhere and processions taken out. It was the first time when the Indians unitedly opposed the Britishers.
(d) Gandhiji decided to withdraw Non-Cooperation Movement because the movement took a violent turn at Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh where the people set on fire a Police Station in which 22-23 policemen were burnt alive in 1922. Gandhiji wanted to stop violence at any cost.

There was a large scale participation of women in the Civil Disobedience Movement.
(a) During the Salt March, thousands of women came out of their homes to listen to Gandhiji.
(b) They took active part in protest marches, produced salt, picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops/ Many of them even went to jail.
(c) In urban and the rural areas, women from rich and upper castes were more closely associated with the movement.

The Non-Cooperation Movement was significant in the following ways.
(a) It was a large scale mass movement. It attracted common people from all social groups.
(b) Non-Cooperation Movement and Khilafat Movement went together. It promoted Hindu-Muslim unity.
(c) Peasant's and tribals' movements became a significant part of the Indian National Movement.
(d) It was a non-violent movement. So, it popularised the Gandhian idea of non-violent Satyagraha.

The following were the problems faced by the peasants of Awadh.
(a) The peasants were burdened with the high rents and a other cesses by the talukdars and landlords.
(b) They were even forced to do begar in the farms of talukdars and landlords.
(c) At the same time, tenants had no security of tenure and were regularly evicted in order to prevent them from acquiring any right over the leased land.

After returning from South Africa, Gandhiji undertook his experiments with satyagraha in India.
(a) In 1916, he inspired the peasants of Champaran in Bihar against the oppressive plantation system.
(b) In 1917, in support of the peasants of Kheda district in Gujarat, he organised a satyagraha against revenue payment at the time of crop failure and plague epidemic. He demanded relaxation from revenue collection.
(c) In 1918, in Ahmedabad, he organised satyagraha favouring the demands of the cotton mill workers.

(i) The Plantation workers were not permitted to leave tea gardens without permission. Actually they were rarely given such permission.
(ii) When they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of workers defied the authorities, left the plantations and headed home.
(iii) They believed that Gandhi Raj would come and everyone would be given land in their own villages. 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.

(a) The rich peasant communities were very hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices.
(b) Their cash income disappeared and found it difficult to pay the revenue demanded by the British government.
(c) When the government refused to reduce the revenue demand there was wide spread resentment among the rich peasants who supported this movement.

The effect of Non Co-operation on the economic front were more dramatic.
(a) Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires.
(b) The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922. Its value dropped from Rs.102 crore to Rs. 57 crore.
(c) Merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance trade.
(d) people began discarding imported clothes and started wearing only Indian clothes 
(e) khadi was more expensive. The poor Indians could not afford to buy it.
(f) Many elated people had left their jobs to support the Non Co-operation movement. It resulted in unemployment. For the movement to be successful alternative Indian Institution had to be set up in place of the British ones. These were slow to come up. So students and teachers turned towards government schools and lawyers to government courts. Workers, Industrialists, Traders and peasants had Gandhiji's notion of 'Swaraj' differently. They started using violence to achieve their demands. This act disheartened Mahatma Gandhi.

(i) Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930 demanded separate electorates for dalits in the Second Round Table Conference organised in London.
(ii) When British accepted this demand in the name of Communal Award, Gandhiji started s fast into death. He believed that separate electorates for dalits would slow down the process of their integration into the society.
(iii) Ambedkar and Gandhi came to an agreement with Ambedkar accepting Gandhi's position and the result was the Poona Pact of September, 1932.
(a) It gave the depressed classes reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils.
(b) But, they were to be voted in by the general electorate.

Salt March was an effective symbol or tool of resistance against colonialism because
(i) All classes could identify with salt as it was an essential food item.
(ii) Tax on salt and the monopoly over its manufacturing was a sign of the oppression of British rule.
Gandhiji reached Dandi on 6th April, 1930 and violated Salt law by manufacturing salt from sea water. Breaking the Salt law was an apparent defiance of British authority and was a direct challenge to British rule in India.
People were not only asked to refuse cooperation with the British, but to break the unjustified colonial laws.
Thousands of people from different parts of the country broke the Salt law, manufactured it and demonstrated in front of government salt factories.
With the spread of the movement, foreign cloth was boycotted, liquor shops were picketed, peasants refused to pay revenue, chaukidari taxes, village officials resigned, forest people violated forest laws by collecting wood and grazing their cattle in the forest. In this way, Salt March inspired people from different segments of our society and became our effective tool of resistance against the colonial power.

The main point of difference between the Congress and the Muslim League was over the question of representation in the future assemblies that were to be elected.

The active participation of women was first seen during the Civil Disobedience Movement.

On 13th April 1919.