With reference to Rowlatt Satyagraha, which of the following statements is/are correct?

1. The Rowlatt Act was based on the recommendations of the 'Sedition Committee'.

2. In Rowlatt Satyagraha Gandhiji tried to utilize the Home Rule League.

3. Demonstrations against the arrival of Simon Commission coincided with Rowlatt Satyagraha.

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

The correct answer is 1 and 2 only.

Key Points

• Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms and Government of India Act, 1919
  • In line with the government policy contained in Montagu’s statement of August 1917, the government announced further constitutional reforms in July 1918, known as Montagu-Chelmsford or Montford Reforms based on which the Government of India Act, 1919 was enacted.
  • The British government was not prepared to part with or even share its power with the Indians and once again resorted to the policy of ‘carrot and stick’. 
  • The carrot was represented by the insubstantial Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms, while measures such as the Rowlatt Act represented the stick through which it decided to arm itself with extraordinary powers to suppress any discordant voice against the reforms. 
• The Rowlatt Act
  • Just six months before the Montford Reforms were to be put into effect, two bills were introduced in the Imperial Legislative Council. One of them was dropped, but the other, an extension to the Defence of India Regulations Act 1915 was passed in March 1919.
  • It was what was officially called the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, but popularly known as the Rowlatt Act.
  • It was based on the recommendations made in the previous year to the Imperial Legislative Council by the 'Sedition Committee' or the Rowlatt Commission, headed by the British judge, Sir Sidney Rowlatt, to investigate the ‘seditious conspiracy’ of the Indian people.
  • (The committee had recommended that activists should be deported or imprisoned without trial for two years and that even possession of seditious newspapers would be adequate evidence of guilt.)
  • All the elected Indian members of the Imperial Legislative Council voted against the bill but they were in a minority and easily overruled by the official nominees.
  • All the elected Indian members who included Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Madan Mohan Malaviya, and Mazhar Ul Haq resigned in protest.
  • The act allowed political activists to be tried without juries or even imprisoned without trial and allowed the arrest of Indians without a warrant on the mere suspicion of ‘treason’ where suspects could be tried in secrecy without recourse to legal help.
  • A special cell consisting of three high court judges was to try such suspects and there was no court of appeal above that panel. This panel could even accept evidence not acceptable under the Indian Evidences Act.
  • The law of habeas corpus, the basis of civil liberty, was sought to be suspended.
  • The object of the government was to replace the repressive provisions of the wartime Defence of India Act (1915) with a permanent law. So the wartime restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly were re-imposed in India.
  • There was strict control over the press and the government was armed with a variety of powers to deal with anything the authorities chose to consider as terrorism or revolutionary tactics.
• Satyagraha Against the Rowlatt Act or Rowlatt Satyagraha
  • Just when the Indians expected a huge advance towards self-rule as a reward for their contribution to the war, they were given the Montford Reforms with its very limited scope and the shockingly repressive Rowlatt Act, they felt betrayed
  • More so Gandhi, who had been at the forefront in offering cooperation in the British war effort, and who had even offered to encourage recruitment of Indians into the British Indian forces called the Rowlatt Act the “Black Act” and argued that not everyone should get punishment in response to isolated political crimes.
  • Gandhi called for a mass protest at all Indian level but soon, having seen the constitutional protest meet with ruthless repression, Gandhi organised a Satyagraha Sabha and roped in younger members of Home Rule Leagues and the Pan Islamists.
  • The forms of protest finally chosen included observance of a nationwide hartal (strike) accompanied by fasting and prayer, and civil disobedience against specific laws, and courting arrest and imprisonment. 
  • Gandhi said that salvation would come when masses were awakened and became active in politics.
  • Satyagraha was to be launched on April 6, 1919, but before it could be launched, there were large-scale violent, anti-British demonstrations in Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi, Ahmedabad, etc. Especially in Punjab, the situation became so very explosive due to wartime repression, forcible recruitments, and ravages of disease, that the Army had to be called in.
  • April 1919 saw the biggest and the most violent anti-British upsurge since 1857. The Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, Sir Michael O’Dwyer, is said to have used aircraft strafing against the violent protestors.
• Simon Commission
  • The Government of India Act, 1919 had a provision that a commission would be appointed ten years from the date to study the progress of the government scheme and suggest new steps.
  • An all-white, seven-member Indian Statutory Commission, popularly known as the Simon Commission (after the name of its chairman, Sir John Simon), was set up by the British government under Stanley Baldwin’s prime ministership on November 8, 1927.
  • The commission was to recommend to the British government whether India was ready for further constitutional reforms and along what lines.