Indian Independence Movement

The Indian Independence Movement was a series of revolutions empowered by the people of India put forth to battle the British Empire for complete political independence, beginning with the Rebellion of 1857, reaching its climax with Mahatma Gandhi's Quit India Movement (1942-1945), and Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army invasion of British India during World War II, and freedom came on August 15, 1947.

The Rowlatt Act and its aftermath

The positive impact of reform was seriously undermined in 1919 by the Rowlatt Act, named after the recommendations made the previous year to the Imperial Legislative Council by the Rowlatt Commission, which had been appointed to investigate "seditious conspiracy." The Rowlatt Act, also known as the Black Act, vested the Viceroy's government with extraordinary powers to quell sedition by silencing the press, detaining political activists without trial, and arresting any individuals suspected of sedition or treason without a warrant. In protest, a nationwide cessation of work (hartal) was called, marking the beginning of widespread, although not nationwide, popular discontent.

Related Topics:
1919 - Rowlatt Act - Hartal

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The agitation unleashed by the acts culminated on 13 April, 1919, in the Amritsar Massacre in Amritsar, Punjab. The British military commander, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, ordered his soldiers to fire into an unarmed and unsuspecting crowd of some 10,000 persons. They had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh, a walled garden, to celebrate Baisakhi, a Sikh festival, without prior knowledge of the imposition of martial law. A total of 1,650 rounds were fired, killing 379 persons and wounding 1,137 in the episode, which dispelled wartime hopes of home rule and goodwill in a frenzy of postwar reaction.

Related Topics:
13 April - 1919 - Amritsar Massacre - Amritsar - Reginald Dyer - Baisakhi - Sikh

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