Non-Cooperation movement and Indian Revolutionaries

An important factor contributed to the Non-Cooperation movement was the the support of the members of the old revolutionary party in Bengal . As this fact was not generally known , the account as given by Subhas Chandra Bose, may be quoted at some length;
" While opposition to the Mahatma's policy of Non-Cooperation came from the intellectuals, opposition to his cult of another quarter , namely, the Revolutionary Party. During the Great War, thousands of revolutionaries had been imprisoned and most of them were subsequently released as a result of the amnesty declared in 1919. Many of them did not approve of the doctrine of non-retaliation which they apprehended would demoralise the people and weaken their power of resistance. There was a possibility that the ex-revolutionaries as a class would go against the Congressowing to the ideological differences.As a matter of fact, a section of them had already started propaganda in Bengal against the non-cooperation movement . Strangely enough , funds had been provided by the by the British mercantile community under the name of the Citizens' Protection League. The money was distributed through the medium of an Indian advocate who did not disclose the source of the funds. Deshabandhu C.R. Das was anxious to disarm the hospitality of the ex-revolutionaries and, if possible, to win their active support for the Congress campaign. He therefore arranged a conference in September between them and Mahatma , at which he also was present. The ex-revolutionaries had a heart-to-heart talk with the Mahatma, and he and Deshabandhu tried to convince them that that non-violent non-cooperation , instead of weakening or demoralizing the people, would strengthen their power of resistance. The upshots of the conference was that all those present promised to give a full chance to the Congress to strive for Swaraj and promised to do nothing to hamper its work , , while many of them agreed to join the Congress organisation.as loyal and active members."
Bose adds that this conference took place behind closed doors in September, 1921, when the Mahatma and the other members of the Congress Working Committee was stating in Calcutta as guests of C.R. Das. As Bose speaks of the Conference from his own personal knowledge , there is no reason to disbelieve his account which is corroborated by the statements of several ex-revolutionaries.