Question

Write whether the following statement is True/False.
The Rowlatt Act of 1919 was welcomed by the people of India
A.TRUE
B.FALSE

Answer 1

Hint:This Act allowed the government to imprison any person without trial and assurance in a court of law. The Act thus also enabled the government to postpone the right of Habeas Corpus which had been the groundwork of civil liberties in Britain. Struggle spread in the country and a powerful agitation against the Act arose under the able leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, and he called this Act a Black Act.

Complete answer:
The Rowlatt Act was not welcomed and not accepted by the people of India. Indian nationalists had, however, were no longer willing to be satisfied with the outline of political power. In this situation, the Indian National Congress conducted a special session at Bombay in August 1918. The session was conducted by the president-ship of Hasan Imam to think about the reform proposals. It is sure they were “disappointing and unsatisfactory” and demanded effective self-government instead.
As an alternative to addressing the demands of the nationalists, the British government armed itself with more far-reaching powers, which went against the accepted principles of rule of law, to be able to repress those nationalists who would refuse to be satisfied with the authorized reforms.

In March 1919 the Rowlatt Act was passed and even though it recommended every single Indian member or people of the Central Legislative Council opposed this act. It was enacted during the First World War. The main reason for it to control public unrest and root out conspiracy. The enactment takes place based on the recommendations of the Sedition Committee chaired by Sir Sidney Rowlatt.
The Rowlatt Act came like a sudden attack on the people of India. To the people of India, the promised addition of democracy during the War, the government step appeared to be a brutal comic story. It was like a hungry man, the man expecting bread, but the man being offered stones. Instead of democratic progress and also came further restriction of civil liberties. The Rowlatt Act implied:
a) Arrest of a person without any warrant.
b) In-camera trial. (Trial in privacy)
c) Limitations on movements of individuals.
d) Delay of the right of Habeas Corpus.

Hence, the correct answer is option (B).

Note:The Act came as a sudden blister to the Indians who were expecting the idea of self-governance. Gandhiji started the mantra of ‘Satyagraha’ as a challenge to the government. Rowlatt Act and the consequent violence, especially the Jallianwala Bagh mass murder is one of the darkest moments in modern Indian history and is a sample of the barbarism of the colonial rule that exists in India.