Gandhi had assured the people of India that the dawn of freedom would not be far away. But in 1922, there was a setback to the peaceful struggle of resistance. 

A crowd resorted to violence in Chauri Chaura, a village in the Gorakhpur district of the province Uttar Pradesh. The congressmen were taking out a procession and some of its members clashed with the police. It was a huge crowd and the handful of policemen ran for their lives and they found asylum in a nearby police station. 

The crowd, chasing them set fire to the police station and those policemen who tried to escape from the fire were caught and cut to pieces and thrown back to the fire. More than 20 policemen were killed. 

When Gandhi came to know of this terrible conduct of the people of Chauri Chaura, he was very sad and shocked at the violence the people resorted to in mass hysteria. He was disappointed to find his advice for peaceful resistance had not been heeded. 

He called off his movement against the Government and undertook a fast for five days to atone the crime committed by the people in Chauri Chaura.