After 1919, it was built around the basic notion that the people had to and could play a decisive role in politics and in their own liberation. It succeeded in politicising and drawing into political action a large part of Indian people. Mahatma Gandhi was of the opinion that it is the people and not leaders who create a mass movement though the quality of leadership is an important criterion for its success.

Satyagraha that is urging for truth which was fashioned by Gandhiji as a means of active participation of the people, achieved precisely the objectives of the mass movement.

In various places historians have shown that local initiatives were taken to mobilise people on demands which were specifically to do with their local exploitation and miserable conditions. These movements, though not under the Congress ideology, did draw inspiration from the life style and messages of a leader like Gandhiji.