ROWLATT ACT SATYAGRAHA

ROWLATT ACT SATYAGRAHA 

• Rowlatt Commission, headed by the British judge, Sir Sidney Rowlatt, was appointed 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. 

• Gandhi 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 India level. But soon, having seen the constitutional protest meet with ruthless repression, Gandhi organized 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.