The Non-Cooperation Movement started with middle-class participation in the cities. Government schools and colleges and foreign clothes were boycotted, and liquor shops were picketed.

1. The movement in the cities gradually slowed down for a variety of reasons.

2. The boycott of British institutions posed a problem, Indian institutions were slow to come up.

3. The mass-produced mill cloth was cheap when compared to the expensive khadi cloth. People started buying foreign clothes as they could not afford higher prices.

Hence, the Non-Cooperation movement was gradually withdrawn in cities.