The\nFirst World War brought enormous burden upon the people of India. They had been\ndragged into war without their consent. The strength of armed forces was\nincreased considerably. Many young men were compelled to join the army against\nthe wishes of their parents. The Indian soldiers were sent to distant lands to\nfight for the British imperialism. About 60,000 brave sons of India lost their\nlives during the War. The common people faced many shortages of consumer items\nand an abnormally high rate of inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since\nthe Britishers, along with their allies, were fighting the war to defend\ndemocracy and the right of self-determination for all communities, it was not\ntoo big for the Indians to hope that their rulers would grant them self-governing\ninstitutions at the end of the hostilities in consonance with the declaration\nmade by Edwin Montague, Secretary of State for India, in the House of Commons\non August 20, 1917.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nappointment of a Sedition Committee by Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy, on\nDecember 10, 1917 under the chairmanship of Justice Rowlatt to suggest measures\nto deal effectively with the revolutionary movement in India threw cold water\non the hopes of the people and enraged them beyond measure. The Sedition\nCommittee submitted its report in April 1918 on the basis of which the\ngovernment introduced two Bills in the Central Assembly, known as the Rowlatt\nBills (popularly dubbed as the Black Bills). This was bound to add fuel to the\nfire. There were protest meetings and demonstrations throughout the country\u2014in\nDelhi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Patna, Madras (now Chennai) and Bombay (now\nMumbai). Gandhiji, who had been a staunch loyalist so far, also felt\nhumiliated. He wrote to the Viceroy to withdraw these Bills and if this was not\nacceded to, he would organise a satyagraha campaign. Accordingly, he set up a\nSatyagraha Sabha whose members would \u201crefuse civilly to obey these laws.\u201d But\nthe government did not budge an inch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of\nthe two Bills, one was passed on March 18, 1919 and placed on the statute book\non March 21, 1919 despite the stiff opposition from all the non-official Indian\nmembers of the Central Legislative Council, three of whom, namely, Madan Mohan\nMalaviya, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Mazharul Huq, resigned their membership of\nthe Council. It came to be known as the Rowlatt Act after the name of Justice\nRowlatt, although its official caption was the Anarchical and Revolutionary\nCrimes Act, 1919. It gave wide powers to the government to arrest any person\nwithout warrant and detain him in jail. It also provided for trial of offences\nby the special courts against whose decisions there could be no appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\ngrim situation faced the nation. What should be done? It was a dilemma.\nGandhiji also felt sad. He could not sleep throughout the night of March 18,\n1919, the day the Black Bill was passed. He pondered over the problem as to\nwhat to do. At dawn, he got an answer. It was to be a hartal <\/em>\u2014suspension\nof all business by the entire nation. A day of mourning. A day of protest. A day\nof fast and prayers. Let the entire India be silent and her oppressors listen\nto the unspoken voice of the people. It was to be held on March 30, 1919 but\nsubsequently changed to April 6, 1919.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Call\nfor Hartal<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ncountry gave a wonderful response to the call of Gandhiji. Everything came to a\nstandstill on the day of the hartal<\/em>. Many observed the full-day fast\nalso. Public meetings were held. Demonstrations took place. The government\nbecame panicky. It tried to terrorise the people. In Delhi, where the hartal<\/em>\ntook place on March 30, 1919, it was a day of great happenings. There was a\nspirit of complete harmony and comradeship between the Hindus and Muslims.\nSwami Shradhanand, the great Arya Samaj leader, spoke to the vast crowds at\nJama Masjid. He was a tall man, dressed in orange clothes\u2014a sanyasi.<\/em> He\nled the procession at Chandni Chowk. The troops tried to disrupt the\nprocession. Swamiji bared his chest and asked them to shoot at him. Instead,\nthey shot nine others, five Hindus and four Muslims. Many were injured. The\nBritish nurses of the police hospital refused to attend to the injured because\nthey were rebels. Gandhiji was informed of the situation in Delhi and was\nrequested to visit the town. As he was coming by train, the police arrested him\nat Palwal railway station and escorted him back to Bombay on April 8,\n1919.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At\nAmritsar, the hartal<\/em> was observed on both the dates\u2014March 30 and\nApril 6, 1919\u2014and there was no untoward incident. It was a complete\nsuccess and there was a big demonstration held jointly by the Hindus, Muslims\nand Sikhs. At a public meeting of about 50,000 people, the speakers proclaimed\nthe imminent downfall of the British Raj if the Rowlatt Act was not withdrawn.\nThree days later, the people also observed Ram Naumi<\/em> as the National Solidarity\nDay. They brought out a big procession in which the slogans of Mahatma\nGandhi ki jai<\/em> and Hindu Mussalman ki jai <\/em>were raised. This made the\nDistrict Magistrate a bit nervous. In sheer desperation, he summoned to his\nresidence the two prominent leaders of the town, Dr. Satyapal and Dr.\nSaif-ud-din Kitchlew, and got them arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nnews of their arrest caused utmost anger among the people. All shops were\nclosed down immediately. The crowds moved towards the Civil Lines where the\nBritish bureaucrats had their bungalows. They wanted to know where their\nleaders were and why they had been detained. A military picket prevented them\nfrom entering the Civil Lines. When the mob went out of control, they opened\nfire in which not less than twenty persons were killed. This was not a good way\nto control the mob. The mob became violent and embarked upon vengeance. It\nturned back and entered the city. It set fire to government buildings, cut\ntelegraph and telephone lines and killed five Europeans. A missionary woman,\nMiss Sherwood, who was on her way to school on her bicycle, was beaten with\nsticks and fists and left unconscious on the roadside. She was soon removed by\nsome other Indians to their house, given first aid and later restored to her\nkith and kin. The situation had gone out of control. The government, therefore,\ndecided to control it with the help of martial law regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Massacre\nof the Innocent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Brigadier\nGeneral Dyer arrived from Jullundur Cantt. on the evening of April 11, 1919 to\nestablish the martial law rule which was officially proclaimed later on April\n15, 1919. Next day, he ordered indiscriminate arrests of persons to strike\nterror in the minds of the agitators. He ordered a march past of the troops and\narmoured cars to frighten them. He forbade all meetings and processions and\ndeclared by the beat of drums at nineteen places that those defying his orders\nwould be shot dead. But the people were not afraid of the guns and bullets of\ntheir British oppressors. They assembled in large numbers at Jallianwala Bagh\nfor another meeting on April 13, 1919, i.e., the day of Baisakhi, to make their\npleadings with the authorities to withdraw the Rowlatt Act. This was what Dyer\ncould never tolerate. He reached the spot with a force of 90 soldiers and two\narmoured cars equipped with machine guns. He stationed them at the entrance so\nthat nobody could escape. He also knew there were walls and buildings on all\nsides and none would be able to run away safe when he would give orders for\nfiring. He, therefore, gave no signal of his arrival nor any warning to the\ncrowd to disperse. He ordered his troops to fire and they went on till all\ntheir ammunition was exhausted. In all 1,650 rounds were fired. More than a\nthousand people were killed and several thousands lay wounded. There was none\nto give them medical aid when they were struggling between life and death. The\nauthorities took no care about them because their objective was to teach them a\nlesson. Their sympathisers were also unable to do anything because they were\ncompelled to remain indoors through imposition of curfew. The wounded had,\ntherefore, to lie in pain without bandage, medicine or food. That was the price\nthey had to pay for their patriotism. Little did General Dyer grasp that when a\nmighty imperial government fires upon unarmed people, it does not frighten\nthem. It only accepts its own helplessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not\ncontent with what he had already done, Dyer issued a series of humiliating\norders to chastise the people. Curfew was imposed for weeks. More than two persons\nwere forbidden to walk on the pavements at one time. People were ordered to\nsalute every British officer they saw on their way. They had to crawl on their\nbellies when they passed through the street in which Miss Sherwood had been\nassaulted. The non-performance of this humiliating act made them liable to\nwhipping in the open for which a contingent of soldiers was stationed on the\nspot. Thousands of persons were arrested and kept in jail without trial. The\nproperties of those sympathetic to the agitators were confiscated. Students\nwere directed to report daily at the police station for which they had to\ntraverse long distances on foot. Such a reign of terror was not confined to\nAmritsar alone but prevailed all over Punjab. The entire province had become a\nbig prison house under the superintendence of the army and the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nbrutalities inflicted by the government upon the people of Punjab shocked the\nconscience of the entire nation. Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood.\nFor Gandhiji, it was an important factor to convert him from a loyalist to an\nagitator and enter the Congress as its supreme leader at Amritsar. Both the\nCongress and the government appointed their separate committees to make an\nenquiry into the matter. The Congress Committee of Inquiry consisted of\nGandhiji, C. R. Das, Fazl-ul-Huq and Abbas Tyabji. Its report blamed both Sir\nMichael O\u2019Dwyer, the Governor of Punjab, and Brigadier General Dyer and urged\nthe government to relieve them of their responsibilities. The report of the\nHunter Committee appointed by the government took the view that General Dyer\u2019s\nconduct rested upon an \u201chonest but mistaken conception of duty\u201d and his actions\nwere far beyond the reasonable requirements of the situation on whose basis the\nGovernment of India removed him from service.\n\nIt was unfortunate that when General Dyer returned to England in\ndisgrace, his countrymen did not denounce him for his brutal acts. The House of\nLords passed a resolution by 129 votes to 89 deploring his removal. The Morning\nPost <\/em>of London asked its readers to subscribe to a fund to be donated to\nhim and was able to collect an enormous sum of \u00a3 30,000. A ladies\nassociation calling itself \u2018The Women of England\u2019 presented him with a sword of\nhonour. A large number of Europeans in India also regarded him as the saviour\nof the British empire. This was bound to cause a breach of faith between the\nrulers and the ruled and to enrage the enlightened pro-British Indians who were\nnow compelled to throw themselves in line with the mainstream of national\nstruggle.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The First World War brought enormous burden upon the people of India. They had been dragged into war without their consent. The strength of armed forces was increased considerably. Many young men were compelled to join the army against the wishes of their parents. The Indian soldiers were sent to distant lands to fight for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}