THE ROWLATT BILLS AND SATYAGRAHA
But soon there began a movement which was to tax the utmost energies of Mr. Gandhi, a movement fraught with grave consequences. The Government of India persisted in passing a piece of legislation known as the Rowlatt Laws whivh were designed to curb still further what little liberty is yet possessed by Indians in their own country. The legislation was presumed to be based on the Report of the Rowlatt Committee which announced the discovery of plots for the subversion of Government. Friends of Government, solicitous of the peaceful and well-ordered condition of society, warned it of the danger of passing such acts which betrayed a tactless want of confidence and trust in the people at a time when Responsible Government was contemplated. The bill was stoutly opposed by the public and the press. It was denounced by every political organisation worth the name. It was severely and even vehemently attacked in the Imperial Council. Irrespective of parties, the whole country stood solid against a measure of such iniquity. The Hon. Mr. Sastri and Pundit Medan Mohan Malaviya, and in fact every one of the non-official members condemned the bill as outrageous and forebode grave consequences if it should be passed. But Government was obstinate and the bill was passed in the teeth of all opposition.
Mr. Gandhi who travelled all over the country and wrote and spoke with amazing energy was not to be easily silenced. Every other form of constitutional agitation having failed he resorted as usual to his patent—Satyagraha. On February 28, 1919, he published a momentous pledge which he asked his countrymen to sign and observe as a covenant binding on them. The pledge ran as follows:—
Being conscientiously of opinion that the Bills known as the Indian Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill No. 1 of 1919, and the Criminal Law (Emergency Powers) Bill No. 11 of 1919, are unjust, subversive of the principle of liberty and iustice, and destructive of the elementary rights of individuals on which the safety of the community as a whole and the State itself is based, we solemnly affirm that in the event of these Bills
