The social groups that joined the Non-Cooperation Movement included the urban middle class (students, lawyers, teachers), peasantry in the countryside, tribal communities, and plantation workers.

1. Urban Middle Class: This group responded enthusiastically to the call for boycott. Students left government-controlled schools, and professionals like lawyers and teachers resigned from their jobs. Their hope was to paralyze the British administrative apparatus and express their solidarity for Swaraj. Their struggle was that alternative Indian institutions were slow to come up, so many eventually had to rejoin their jobs, and the boycott of foreign cloth was difficult as khadi was more expensive.

2. Peasantry in Awadh: Led by Baba Ramchandra, the peasants joined the movement against the talukdars and landlords who demanded high rents and forced them into 'begar' (forced labor). Their hope for Swaraj was an end to this exploitation, reduction of revenue, and social boycott of oppressive landlords. Their struggle was that their movement often turned violent, which contradicted Gandhian principles.

3. Plantation Workers in Assam: For these workers, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the confined spaces of the tea gardens, which was denied to them by the Inland Emigration Act of 1859. Hearing of the "Gandhi Raj," they defied the authorities and left the plantations, hoping to go back to their native villages. Their struggle was that they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up, never reaching their destination.