A brief history of India’s struggle for freedom from British colonial rule -II

The "Jallianwala Bagh" massacre, called the "Amritsar massacre" occurred on 13 April 1919. A peaceful group of Baisakhi pilgrims had gathered together and were protesting, unaware that Martial law had been imposed.

A unit of the British army under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer mercilessly opened fire on the crossed for over ten minutes, largely aimed at the few open gates through which the people were trying to escape. The incident left dead and (inwards) wounded, as conceded by the British government themselves.

The next milestone in the independence movement was the enactment of the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919, popularly known as the Rowlatt act passed by the Imperial Legislative Council on March 18, 1919.

The law extended without limit the emergency measures of preventive indefinite detention, incarceration without trial and judicial review earlier enacted by the Defence of India Act 1915, anticipating a threat from revolutionary nationalist organizations.

Passed on the recommendations of the Rowlatt Committee and named after its president, British judge Sir Sidney Rowlatt, that act empowered the government to imprison any person suspected of terrorism without a trial.

In the act were provisions that stifled the voice of press, for arrest without warrants, indefinite detention without trial, and in camera trials for proscribe in India, political acts without juries. The accused were denied the right to know the accusers and the evidence used in the trial. The reprehensive law was famously known one of the “black bills” – and described as one with as “no dalil, no vakil, no appeal”.

Gandhi, and other Indian leaders, criticized the law. On April 6, a "hartal" was organised with Indians suspending all business and fasting to opposition demonstrate. The event was called. The “Rowlatt Satyagraha”.

The most important among the other events that immediately preceded independence were the Round Table Conference. The first Round Table Conference officially was inaugurated by King George on November 12, 1930 London. The INC, and Indian business leaders, abstained, as many of them were in jail for taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement.

In 1932 the Congress which had boycotted the first conference was subsequently invited to a settlement between Gandhi and Viceroy Lord, Irwin, known – as the “Gandhi Irwin pact. The third and last session assembled on November 17, 1932.

In concluded March 1933, under the supervision of the Secretary of State for India, Sir Samuel Hoare, and formed the basis for the structure of the proposed reforms in the Government of India Act 1935.