Rowlatt Act 1919
The Indians were not satisfied with the reform of 1919. The govt granted concessions which were much below their expectation. The atmosphere was surcharged with passion and excitement. On the report of a sedition committee headed by Justice Rowlatt, two bills were introduced in the central Legislature in 1919. These bills came to be known as ‘Rowlatt Act’. It authorized the government to imprison anyone without trial. Thus suspended the right of Habeas corpus. These were no need for a warrant to arrest or detain any person under the act. The purpose of this act was to curb the growing nationalist upsurge in the country. Opposition to the 'Black Act' as it came to be known was widespread. Along with other nationalists, Gandhiji was also aroused by the Rowlatt Act. In February 1919, he founded the Satyagraha Sabha, whose members took a pledge to disobey the act and thus to court arrest and imprisonment. March and April 1919 witnessed a remarkable political awakening in India. Almost the entire country came to life. There were strikes, processions and demonstration. The entire country was electrified. The Indians people were no longer willing to submit to the degradation of foreign rule.
Champaran Satyagraha [1917] Gandhiji’s first great experiment in Satyagraha came in 1917 in Champaran, a district in Bihar. The peasantry on the indigo plantation in the district was excessively oppressed by the European planters. They were compelled to grow indigo and to sell it at prices fixed by the planters. Gandhiji reached in Champaran in 1917 and began to conduct a detailed enquiry into the condition of the peasantry. The district officials ordered him to leave Champaran, but he defied the order and was willing to face trial and imprisonment. This forced the government to cancel its earlier order and to appoint a committee of enquiry on which Gandhiji served as a peasantry was suffering were reduced. This was the first triumph of Gandhiji new technique of Satyagraha in India. Ahmadabad mill strike In 1918, Gandhiji’s intervened in a dispute between the workers and mill owners of Ahmadabad. He advised the workers to go on strike and to demand a 35% increase in wages. He under to...
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