The plantation workers in Assam had their own understanding of Mahatma Gandhi and notion of Swaraj.
- For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to more freely in and out of the confined space in which they were enclosed.
- Swaraj meant relating a link with the village from which they had come.
- Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859 plantation workers were not permitted to leave the Tea Gardens without permission.
- When they heard of the Non-Cooperation movement thousands of workers defined the authorities, left planations and needed home.
- They believed that Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land in their own village.