Periyar was initially an enthusiastic supporter of Gandhi from the very inception of the Non-Cooperation Movement as he was aware of the narrow social base of the Congress and the dominance of lawyers within it before Gandhi took charge. The advent of Gandhi was significantly transformative as his political and social activities were such that everyone could participate and his principles could ‘be understood by all‘. The atavistic orientation of Gandhian principles like khadi, prohibition and abolition of untouchability were refreshingly new and novel
noncooperation movement, unsuccessful attempt in 1920–22, organized by Mahatma Gandhi, to induce the British government of India to grant self-government, or swaraj, to India. It was one of Gandhi’s first organized acts of large-scale civil disobedience (satyagraha). The movement arose amid a political earthquake that shook the subcontinent. The heavy-handedness of the British raj, as illustrated in its passage of the Rowlatt Acts (1919) despite fierce Indian opposition, provoked a strong backlash. British-led violence in the Punjab most notably the massacre at Amritsar in April 1919, in which several hundred Indians were killed only increased resolve that Indian self-government was necessary. That