Rowlatt Act (1919)
February 13th, 2008 | by Raja Ghias |Towards the close of the First World War the ant-British feeling in India reached its climax and the British government found the normal machinery of law totally in adequate to cope with the situation. Consequently, on December 10, 1917, the Government appointed a Committee “to investigate revolutionary crime in the country, and to suggest legislative measures for its eradication”. Mr. Justice S.A.T Rowlatt was appointed the president, two judges of the High Courts in India-one English man and the other an Indian, and two non-officials-one English man and one Indian, were made members of the committee.
After a review of the situation, the Rowlatt Committee produced much evidence of detailed subversive activity and made proposals for strengthening the law. Acting in the light of these recommendations the Government of India drafted two bills, what are popularly known as Rowlatt Bills were published on 18 January 1919, and were introduced in the Imperial Legislative Council on the February 1919.
When the Rowlatt Bills were presented before the Imperial Legislative Council, they were condemned as reactionary by all sections of Indian opinion. But despite of unanimous opposition of the Indian members of the Council, the new legislation was rushed through the legislature with indecent haste. The bills were presented to the House on 6 and 10 March, respectively, and were immediately referred to a select Committee. The Select Committee gave its reports on 12 March, and on 18 March Council passed one of the bills into law, which came into operation from March 21, 1919. the main features of the act were:
1. The government was authorized to discard any bill or bond of any body.
2. The act gave provincial governments power of internment.
3. Small matters were also intervened by authorities comprising; publishing, newspaper distribution, processions or participation in processions.
4. Any body could be asked to report at police station on their discretion.
5. Extraordinary powers of search, arrest, demand of security, etc. was conferred on the provincial government.
6. The act allowed judges to try political cases without juries in specified cases. A special court from whose judgment there could be no appeal, trial in camera and consideration of evidence not admissible by the law of evidence were provided for this purpose.
7. The government was authorized to ban any Indian’s entry into India from abroad.
8. If any person found in possession of prohibited literature, he will be charged for that even if he has no desire to publicize it.
Since opposition to the Rowlatt Bills within the Legislative Council proved ineffective, the challenge was next taken up by Gandhi. Even before the Rowlatt Bills were enacted, Gandhi started his satyagrah campaign against Government at Ahmadabad on 24 February 1919, in connection with the Rowlatt Bills. The word “Satyagrah” is, according to Mr.Gandhi, of modern origin, having been inverted by him, and means insistence on truth, and force derivable from such insistence.
On 23 March, Gandhi, having marshaled hid forces, began the war against the Act proclaiming a hartal on all India scale. The date was first fixed as 30 March, 1919, but subsequently changed to April 6. it was to be a day of fasting and prayer, the day on which India opened non violent war against British imperialism. Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy, “The Satyagrah campaign constitutes an attempt to revolutionize politics and restore moral force to its original position”.
The response to the call was amazing. Town and villages in every part of the country vied with one another to make the hartal a success, to demonstrate that a common feeling stirred the hearts of all India’s. A new confidence was born, and it was the beginning of new era.
In Delhi the Satyagrah day was observed on March 30. scenes of unprecedented enthusiasm were enacted. Hindus and Muslims joined in the demonstrations. Swami Shraddhanada, an eminent Arya Samaj leader, was invited to address the Muslims gathered in the great mosque, Jama Masjid. A huge procession marches through the streets. The fraternization of the Hindus and Muslims and the excitement in the masses were portents of danger in the eyes of the authorities. The only method known to them for dealing with such a phenomenon was to try and suppress it by force. Police obstruction, rioting, violence and shooting were the inevitable results.
In Bombay, where Gandhi jee himself was present, immense crowds gathered on the Chaupati Bach and marched through the city without any incident. Gandhahi jee and Sarojini Naidu made speeches in a mosque. Gandhi jee’s books on which the government had placed a ban were openly sold in defiance of orders.
Already many meetings of protest had taken all over the provinces. On 6 April hartals were staged in Lahore and other towns and on 10 April on the receipt of the news of Gandhi jee’s arrest a procession was taken out at Lahore. The police fired upon the student processionists. A crowd and a meeting were subjected to shooting. Three local leaders were deported. On 12 April a serious rising at Kasur railway station; held up the trains; brutally murdered two British Warrant officers; attempted to murder others, looted and burnt the station; cut the telegraph wires. They then attacked the Treasury, and were finally driven off after the police guard had opened fire.
