1. Gandhiji proposed that the movement should unfold in stages. Beginning with the surrender of titles that the government awarded, it should strive towards the boycott of civil services, army, police, courts and legislative councils, schools and foreign goods. 2. A full civil disobedience would be further launched if the government responded with repression. Mahatma Gandhi along with Shaukat Ali extensively made efforts to gather popular support in favour of the non-cooperation movement. 3. The movement initially began with the participation of the middle classes in cities wherein thousands of students left government controlled schools and colleges, headmasters and teachers resigned and lawyers gave up their legal practices. 4. The council elections were boycotted in most of the provinces. Further, foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires. 5. In many places, traders and merchants refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade. People also began wearing Indian clothes and boycotting imported ones, thus leading to a rise in the production of Indian textile mills and handlooms. The overall economic impact of the movement was tremendous, leading to a drastic fall in imports as well as the value of foreign goods.