The Indian National Congress was a movement and not just a party. It included within its fold individuals and groups which subscribed to widely divergent political and ideological perspectives. It was the mainstream organization but not the only stream. Obviously, the non-Congress movements were never seen as parallel streams, as some have maintained. Though they were outside the Congress, most of them were not really separate from it, and at no stage did they become alternatives to the Congress. The only ones which may be said to have formed an alternative stream of politics were the communal and casteist movements, which were not national or anti-imperialist. Several Satyagraha campaigns, apart from innumerable mass agitational campaigns, were waged between 1919 and 1942. The social and religious reform movements which developed during the nineteenth century, as part of the defence against the colonialization of Indian culture, merged with the national movement. As a mass movement, the Indian national movement was able to tap the diverse energies, talents and capacities of a large variety of people to fight against British rule, and emphasis was also laid on the constructive programme.