The different social groups that joined the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921 were the urban middle class comprising lawyers, teachers and headmasters, students, peasants, tribals and workers. Peasants, tribals and workers joined the movement from the countryside. They did so with hopes of self-emancipation. Peasants rebelled against talukdars and landlords who demanded high rents and also forced them to do begar or free labour. Tribal peasants revolted against the enclosure of large forest tracts by the British government, which left them devoid of a livelihood as well as traditional rights. Plantation workers, on the other hand, desired freedom to move about and retain links with the villages they came from. All three believed that Gandhi Raj would come with the Non-Cooperation Movement, and this would mark an end to their sorrows. Hence, they joined the anti-colonial struggle.
