Rowlatt Act, 1919

·          It was also called Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act.

·  It was a legislative act passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi on March 18, 1919,under the Viceroyalty of Lord Chemsford(1916-21).

·        Power- To imprison any person suspected of terrorism living in the Raj for up to two years without a trial, and gave the imperial authorities power to deal with all revolutionary activities.

·        Purpose- to curb the growing nationalist upsurge in the country. 

·     Swami Shradhananda advice to start a movement of non-payment of land revenue to the British.

·        On 6^th April 1919, Gandhiji called for national-level Strike.

·      On 10^th April two leaders of the congress, Dr. Satya Pal and Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, were arrested.

JALLIANWALA BAGH MASSACRE

o   13^th April, 1919 at Amritsar,Punjab.

o    Rabindranath Tagore  renounce his knighthood as "a symbolic act of protest on 30^th May 1919.  In the repudiation letter, dated 30 May 1919 and addressed to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, he wrote "I ... wish to stand, shorn, of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings."

o    Shankar Ram Nayar resigned from the membership of the Viceroy’s Council.

o  The Hunter Commission(14 October 1919), a committee of inquiry into the events in Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.

o      Michael O'Dwyer, aged 75, was shot dead at a joint meeting of the East India Association and the Central Asian Society in Caxton Hall, London on 13 March 1940, by an Indian revolutionary, Udham Singh, in retaliation for the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar.

o   Edwin Montagu, condemned O'Dwyer's severity, and called it as “Preventive Murder”.

o       C.F.Andrews called Jallianwala Massacre as ruthless Murder.