Answer: 

The Non Cooperation Movement, organised between 1920-1922, was a non-violent protest against the British government of India to grant India Swaraj, or self-rule. It was one of Gandhi's first organized acts of large-scale civil disobedience (satyagraha). The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre served as the catalyst for the Non Cooperation Movement’s inception, which was later suspended due to the 1922 Chauri Chaura Incident. 

Non Cooperation Movement gave a new direction to the Indian freedom struggle in the following ways:

• Non-cooperation was negative enough to be peaceful but positive enough to be effective. It entailed denial and renunciation of titles and honours, self-discipline and training for self-rule.
• The new methods of Non-Cooperation like returning the awards and titles given by the British and boycotting government services and non-payment of taxes broadened the earlier contours of the Swadeshi and Boycott movements.
• On the constructive side, people were urged to develop the spirit of discipline and self-sacrifice, national educational institutions were set up, hand-spinning, hand-weaving and use of Swadeshi goods were encouraged.
• It became the mass movement and this politicisation and activation of millions of men and women imparted a revolutionary character to the national movement.
• The nationalist sentiments reached every nook and corner of the country and politicised every strata of population like farmers, workers, students, etc., and it permanently deflected the course of the freedom struggle to a mass based movement.
• It sought to cement Hindu-Muslim unity towards achieving the goal of uprooting the foreign government by linking it to the Khilafat movement.
• It destroyed the myths such as the colonial rule was in the interest of Indians and it was invincible. The masses lost all-pervasive fear of colonial rule and its mighty repressive organs.
• It firmly established Gandhi as a National level leader with huge appeal and respect among the masses.

• Changes it brought in Congress:

• Its aim of Swaraj now included Self-government outside of the British Empire if necessary; it was a clear departure from the earlier theory of British providence.

• It was initially not united on the political action of launching satyagraha and non-cooperation on Khilafat issue, but later it found it a golden opportunity for Hindu-Muslim unity.

Challenges which were faced during the Non Cooperation Movement

• The boycott of law courts by lawyers was not as successful as the educational boycott.
• The movement in Kerala unfortunately  took on a communal colour.
• In Assam, labourers on tea plantations went on strike. When the fleeing workers were fired upon, there were strikes on the steamer service, and on the Assam-Bengal Railway as well.

Non cooperation movement was the first mass movement which revolutionized the masses. This movement acted as a stepping stone for future movements where the forms of struggle slightly varied but the principles and essence remained largely the same as this movement. The NCM brought the urban Muslims into the national movement, but to some extent, it also communalised the national politics.