Sunday 18 April 2010

Rowaltt Act (Continued: Pakistan Movement)

Rowaltt Act, 1919

Towards the close of the first World War the anti - British feeling in India reached its climax and the British government found the normal machinery of law end order to be totally inadequate 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. Rowaltt was appointed the president, two judges of the High Courts in India .. one English man and 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 Rowaltt Committee produced much evidence of detaile
d subversive activity and made proposals for strengthening the law. Acting in the light of these recommendations the Government of India drafted twi bills, what were popularly knows as the Rowaltt Bills and were published on January 18, 1919, and introduced in the Imperial Legislative Council on the Feberuary 6, 1919. Wgeb the Rowaltt Bills were presented before the Imperial Legislative Council, they were condemned as reactionary by all sections of Indian opinion. But despite of unanimous oppositions 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 reffered to Select Committee. The Select Committee gave its report on March 12, and on March 18 , 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 bail or bond of any body.
  2. The act gave to provincial governments the power of internment.
  3. Small matters were also invertened by authorities comprising; publishing, news paper distribution, processions or participations 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 were conferred on the provincial government.
  6. The act allowed judges to try political cases without juries in specified cases. A special court from whose judgement 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 Rowaltt Bills with in the Legislatve Council proved ineffictive, the challange was next taken ip by Mr. Gandhi. Even before the Rowaltt Bills were enacted, Gandhi started his Satyagrah campaign against Government at Ahmedabad on Feberuary 24, 1919 in connection with the Rowaltt Bills. The word 'Satyagarah' is, according to Mr. Gandhi, of modern origin, having been invented by him, and means insistence on truth, and force derivable from such insistence.

On March 23, Gandhi, having marshalled his forces, began the war against the Act by proclaiming a hartal (a suspension of economic activity) on an all - India scale. The date was first fixed as march 30, 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 jee wrote to the Viceroy, The Satyagarah compaign constitutes an attempt to revolutionize politics and restore moral force to its original position".

The response to the call was amazing. Towns and villages in every part of country joined with one another to make the hartal a success, to demonstrate that a common feeling stirred the hearts of all Indians, A new confidence was born, and it was the beginning of a 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 Shraddhananda, an eminent Arya Samaj leader, was invited to address the Muslims gathered in the greate Masjid. Jama Masjid, Delhi. A huge pocession inarched through the streets. The unity of the Hindus and Muslims and the excitement in the masses were signs 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, violance and shooting were the inevitable results.

In Bombay, where Gandhijee himself was present, immence crowds gathered on Chaupati Beach and marched through the city without any incident. Gandhijee and Sarojini Naidu made speaches in the Masjid. Gandhijee's books on which Government had placed ban were openly sold in defiance of orders.

Already many meetings of protest had taken all over the province. On April 6, hartals were staged in Lahore and other towns and on April 10 on the receipt of the news of Gandhijee's arrest a procession was taken out at Lahore. The police fired upon student processionists. A crowd and a meeting were subjected to shooting. Three local leaders were deported. On April 12, a serious rising at Kasur took place. Mobs from the town had invaded the 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 opened fire.

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