Rowlatt Act

The Rowlatt Act was passed in 1919 with the intention of indefinitely extending wartime "security measures" to control public disorder and detect conspiracies. The Act was named after Justice Sir Sidney Rowlatt, who chaired a commission that drafted the bill. It allowed the government to imprison without trial any person suspected of terrorism within the colonial Indian Empire.

In the Council of State, V. S. Srinivasa Sastri had made an impassioned speech against the Bill in the presence of the Viceroy. Among other Indian politicians, Mohandas Gandhi was also a staunch opponent of the Act, arguing that not everyone should be punished in response to isolated politically motivated crimes. The Rowlatt Act nevertheless came into force in March 1919.

However, since the Rowlatt Act was an enabling law, Gandhi could not apply his tested campaign of deliberate transgression against the law here. The Act led to outrage among the public as well as Indian politicians, after which the central government introduced repressive measures.

On April 6, a hartal - the term originated with Gandhi - was organized, during which work was suspended and Indian businessmen closed their shops and fasted as a sign of their outrage at this law. Gandhi had two of his banned books, Hind Swaraj and Sarvodaya printed and sold publicly as a sign of Civil Disobedience at the end of the hartal and 24-hour fast. In doing so, the buyers were told that they were likely to be imprisoned. The government undermined Gandhi's strategy by stating that it was not the banned books that were being sold, but a reprint, and therefore the sale was not punishable.

The hartal in Delhi was overshadowed by growing tensions that resulted in unrest in Punjab and other provinces. In Delhi, where the hartal began on March 30, police opened fire on protesters as they moved peacefully towards the railway station. Things took a similar turn in Lahore. After the Governor of Punjab, Sir Michael O'Dwyer ordered that Gandhi should not enter Punjab and the rumour spread like wildfire that Gandhi had been arrested, demonstrations turned violent. In Pydhuni, Gandhi witnessed mounted police using lances to violently disperse a demonstration. In Ahmedabad, spinning mill workers had become so enraged over the rumour that Gandhi was in jail that they had killed a sergeant. In Nadiad, an attempt had been made to tear up railway tracks.

In Punjab, the protest movement was very powerful. Thus, two of the leading figures of the Indian National Congress, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew were arrested and taken to an unknown place. This was followed by a protest in Amritsar, where British soldiers shot dead several hundred peaceful rally participants - men, women and children - on orders in the Amritsar Massacre.

Gandhi then stated that his countrymen were not yet ready for such an argument and suspended the hartal. He declared that he had committed a "mistake the size of the Himalayas".