Rowlatt Act
The Rowlatt Act was passed in 1919 with the intention of indefinitely extending wartime “security measures” to control public unrest and expose conspiracies . The bill was named after Judge Sir Sidney Rowlatt , who presided over a commission that drafted the bill. It allowed the government to detain anyone suspected of terrorism within the colonial Indian Empire without trial.
In the Council of State had VS Srinivasa Sastri an impassioned speech against the bill in the presence of the viceroy held. Mohandas Gandhi , along with other Indian politicians, was a staunch opponent of this law, arguing that not everyone should be punished in response to isolated politically motivated crimes. The Rowlatt Act came into effect in March 1919.
But since the Rowlatt Act was an enabling law , Gandhi could not use his tried and tested campaign of deliberately violating the law here. The law sparked outrage among the public, but also among Indian politicians, whereupon the central government introduced repressive measures.
On April 6, a Hartal - the term comes from Gandhi - was organized, during which work ceased and Indian businessmen closed their shops and fasted as a token of their indignation at the law. Gandhi had two of his forbidden books, Hind Swaraj and Sarvodaya, printed and sold publicly at the end of the Hartal and the 24-hour fast as a sign of civil disobedience . It was explained to the buyers that they would likely be detained. The government undermined Gandhi's strategy by stating that it was not the forbidden books but a reprint that had been sold, so the sale was not a criminal offense.
The Hartal in Delhi was overshadowed by growing tensions, which resulted in unrest in Punjab and other provinces. In Delhi, where the Hartal began on March 30, police opened fire on demonstrators as they marched peacefully towards the train station. Things were similar in Lahore . After the governor of the Punjab, Sir Michael O'Dwyer , ordered that Gandhi was not allowed to enter the Punjab and the rumor spread like lightning that Gandhi had been arrested, demonstrations turned into violent clashes. In Pydhuni , Gandhi witnessed mounted police forcefully breaking up a march with lances. In Ahmedabad , spinning mill workers were so enraged by the rumor that Gandhi was in prison that they killed a sergeant. In Nadiad an attempt had been made to tear open railroad tracks.
In Punjab the protest movement was very powerful. Two of the leaders of the Indian National Congress , Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, were arrested and taken to an undisclosed location. This was followed by a protest in Amritsar , during which British soldiers shot and killed several hundred peaceful participants - men, women and children - in the Amritsar massacre .
Gandhi then determined that his compatriots were not yet ready for such an argument and suspended the Hartal. He said he made a "mistake the size of the Himalayas" .
literature
- Sedition Committee; Rowlatt Sedition Report ; 1918
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dietermar Rothermund: Under Gandhi's gentle leadership - The Indian struggle for freedom , in: Die Zeit-Lexikon Welt- und Kulturgeschichte, Volume 13, First World War and Interwar Period, ISBN 3-411-17603-2 , p. 474
- ↑ Mahatma Gandhi: Mein Leben , Frankfurt / M., 1983, ISBN 3-518-37453-2 (English first edition 1930), p. 229ff
- ↑ Mahatma Gandhi: Mein Leben , Frankfurt / M., 1983, ISBN 3-518-37453-2 (English first edition 1930), p. 236f
