---
title: "Nagpur Session of INC (1920): Key Reforms | Model Diplomat"
description: "The Nagpur Session of INC (1920) adopted the Non-Cooperation programme and restructured Congress, impacting India's independence movement."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/nagpur-session-1920"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- The Nagpur Session of the Indian National Congress, held in December 1920, formally adopted the Non-Cooperation programme and restructured the Congress organisation.
- How did the Nagpur Session differ from the Calcutta Special Session of September 1920?
- What organisational reforms did the Nagpur Session introduce?
- Why did Jinnah leave the Congress at Nagpur?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

The Nagpur Session of the Indian National Congress, held in December 1920, formally adopted the Non-Cooperation programme and restructured the Congress organisation.

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## Timeline

1. 31 December 1920

   The Nagpur Session of the Indian National Congress convened from 26 to under the presidency of C.

2. 13 April 1919

   The session sat against the backdrop of two grievances Gandhi had fused into a single mass campaign: the dismemberment of the Ottoman Caliphate animating the…

3. 5 February 1922

   The wager of swaraj within one year was not met, and the Non-Cooperation Movement was abruptly suspended by Gandhi after the Chauri Chaura incident of , when…

## Positions at a glance

### Indian National Congress

The Nagpur Session of the Indian National Congress convened from 26 to 31 December 1920 under the presidency of C. Vijayaraghavachariar, and it marks the constitutional and ideological consolidation of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's leadership over the national movement. The session derived its immediate mandate from the Calcutta Special Session of September 1920, where the Congress had provisionally endorsed Gandhi's Non-Cooperation resolution by a contested vote against the resistance of veterans such as Bipin Chandra Pal, Madan Mohan Malaviya, and Annie Besant. Nagpur was convened to ratify that decision in the ordinary annual gathering, where the full plenary strength of delegates—rather than a hastily assembled special body—could affirm or reverse the new direction. The session sat against the backdrop of two grievances Gandhi had fused into a single mass campaign: the dismemberment of the Ottoman Caliphate animating the Khilafat movement, and the unredressed atrocity of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 13 April 1919 together with the punitive Rowlatt legislation.

### All-India Muslim League

The named protagonists of Nagpur illustrate both the convergence and the fractures of the moment. Gandhi commanded the session; C. R. Das, who had opposed Non-Cooperation at Calcutta, reversed his stance at Nagpur and himself moved the principal resolution, lending it heavyweight legal authority. The Ali brothers, Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, bound the Khilafat constituency to the Congress platform. Lala Lajpat Rai, Motilal Nehru, and Jawaharlal Nehru aligned with the programme. Against it stood Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who objected to the extra-constitutional method and to the religious idiom of the Khilafat alliance; finding himself isolated at Nagpur, Jinnah withdrew from the Congress, a departure of lasting significance for the subsequent trajectory of Indian politics.

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Example

At the Nagpur Session in December 1920, C. R. Das moved the Non-Cooperation resolution he had opposed three months earlier, and Mohammad Ali Jinnah, isolated by his dissent, walked out and left the Indian National Congress.

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