In 1921 at the peak of the Non- cooperation movement an incident in the Chauri Chaura changed the course of India's freedom movement.
On 4th February, 1921 Chori Chora incident occurred at Chauri Chaura in the Gorakhpur district of the United province known as Uttar Pradesh.
A crowd of protesters set fire to a police station in the protest against which the police fired at the crowd participating in the non-cooperation movement resulting in the death of several policemen and protestors.
This led Mahatma Gandhi to halt the Non-cooperation against British rule. The non cooperation movement was launched on 1st August 1920 aiming for Swaraj. It was supposed to be a peaceful and non violence movement requiring people to give up their government job and title going to government schools and colleges, Not to serve in the army and refused to pay taxes as an extreme measure.
On the 2nd of Feb, 1920 a group of people protesting against high meat prices were beaten up by the police, many leaders detained at the Chori Chora police station.
On 4 Feb 1922 about 2500 people marched towards the chauri chaura market, the leaders got arrested and the group surrounded the police station demanding the release of the arrested leader.
The policeman fired a shot in the air hoping to disperse the crowd but it let the crowd become disturbed and started pelting stones at the policemen, the sub inspector at the station fired at the crowd by which people got killed.
People furious at the policemen who were in large numbers set the police station on fire, resulting in policemen and officials inside toaseted to death.
The British government imposed Martial Law in the area many protestors then on 12th February 1922 Gandhi withdrew the movement many leaders were against the decision after the incident the British brought 228 people to try six of them tied to police custody month-long trial 172 to death the Allahabad High Court after reviewing the sentences confirm 19 death sentence and 110 life imprisonment and the sentence the rest to long jail term.
The martyrs’ memorial, or Shaheed Smarak, was built in 1993 in memory of the martyrs of the Chauri-Chaura rebellion. Its foundation was laid on 6 February 1982 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the 60th anniversary of the incident.
The construction of the memorial took 11 years and it was inaugurated on 19 July 1993 by the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. Five years later, in 1998, a museum was added to the memorial, where the statues of Chauri-Chaura martyrs are installed.
