The reward for loyalty
India had sent over a million men to fight Britain's war. When it ended, Indians expected reform. What arrived instead was a law that suspended the ordinary rules of justice.
The Rowlatt Act was passed in March 1919. Its formal name was the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, and it came from the recommendations of a committee headed by Justice Sidney Rowlatt. Wartime emergency powers were about to lapse; the government wanted to keep them. The Act gave it the power to arrest without warrant, detain without trial, and try political cases without a jury or right of appeal.
The popular Indian description of the Rowlatt Act — no lawyer, no argument, no appeal. It captures exactly what the law removed. Gandhi called it a Black Act, and every elected Indian member of the Imperial Legislative Council voted against it. The government passed it anyway, which was the deeper insult: Indian opinion had been heard and ignored.
The Rowlatt Satyagraha
- Gandhi called for a nationwide hartal — a suspension of all business — on 6 April 1919, with fasting and prayer
- It was the first all-India mass protest Gandhi led, and it worked: cities across the country shut down
- But in several places the protest turned violent, and the government responded with force
- In Punjab the situation was most tense. Michael O'Dwyer was Lieutenant-Governor; Lord Chelmsford was Viceroy
Two popular local leaders, Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal, were arrested and secretly deported from Amritsar. Crowds marched to demand their release, firing occurred, and rioting followed. The city was handed over to Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, who banned all public gatherings.
It was Baisakhi. Thousands gathered in Jallianwala Bagh — an enclosed ground surrounded by buildings with one narrow entrance — some to protest the arrests, many villagers simply for the fair, unaware that meetings had been banned. Dyer arrived with troops, blocked the only exit, and ordered firing without any warning. The shooting continued about ten minutes, until roughly 1,650 rounds were spent.
The official British figure was 379 dead. The Indian National Congress estimated over 1,000 killed and more than 1,500 wounded. Exams may quote either, so recognise both numbers and their sources. What is not disputed: the crowd was unarmed, no warning was given, and the only exit was blocked.
What followed
- Martial law was imposed across Punjab. Among its humiliations was the crawling order — Indians were forced to crawl on their bellies along a lane in Amritsar where a British woman had been assaulted
- The government appointed the Hunter Committee, formally the Disorders Inquiry Committee, chaired by Lord William Hunter, in October 1919
- The committee censured Dyer but recommended no legal action. He was asked to resign and returned to England, where sections of the British public honoured him as the Saviour of the Punjab
- Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest, in a letter of 30 May 1919
- Shankaran Nair resigned from the Viceroy's Executive Council over the massacre
- The Congress set up its own inquiry committee, and the task of drafting its report fell to Gandhi
- Secretary of State Edwin Montagu described what happened as preventive murder; Winston Churchill called it monstrous in the House of Commons
- In 1940, Udham Singh shot Michael O'Dwyer at Caxton Hall in London — O'Dwyer had approved Dyer's action
Two different men, nearly the same name. Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer commanded the troops that fired at Jallianwala Bagh. Sir Michael O'Dwyer was the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab who approved the action afterwards. Udham Singh shot O'Dwyer, the administrator, in 1940 — not Dyer, who had died of illness in 1927.
Why 1919 changed everything
Until 1919 most Indian leaders still believed British rule could be reformed from within. Jallianwala Bagh, and then the Hunter Committee's refusal to punish anyone, destroyed that belief. Gandhi himself suspended the Rowlatt Satyagraha after the violence, calling his miscalculation a Himalayan blunder — but within a year he had concluded that cooperation with such a government was itself immoral. That conclusion became the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920.
What was the difference between the roles of Dyer and O'Dwyer in 1919?
Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer was the army officer who blocked the exit at Jallianwala Bagh and ordered his troops to fire without warning. Sir Michael O'Dwyer was the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, the civil administrator who endorsed Dyer's action and presided over martial law in the province. Udham Singh assassinated O'Dwyer in London in 1940.
March law, April hartal, April massacre. Rowlatt Act March 1919, hartal 6 April, Jallianwala Bagh 13 April. And Dyer fired, O'Dwyer approved.
Everything on one look
The Act, the massacre, the inquiry and the aftermath.
- The Rowlatt Act was passed in March 1919
- Its formal name was the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act
- It came from a committee under Justice Sidney Rowlatt
- It allowed arrest without warrant and detention without trial
- Indians described it as no vakil, no dalil, no appeal
- Gandhi called a nationwide hartal on 6 April 1919
- Kitchlew and Satyapal were arrested on 9 April 1919
- The massacre took place on 13 April 1919, Baisakhi day
- Brigadier-General Dyer ordered the firing without warning
- Michael O'Dwyer was Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab
- The Hunter Committee censured Dyer but imposed no penalty
- Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest
- The Rowlatt Act's formal name is the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act
- It was named after Justice Sidney Rowlatt, who chaired the committee
- Gandhi's hartal was on 6 April 1919, before the massacre
- The massacre was on 13 April 1919, the day of Baisakhi
- Dyer fired; O'Dwyer approved — do not swap the two men
- Udham Singh shot O'Dwyer in 1940, not Dyer
- The Hunter Committee is also called the Disorders Inquiry Committee
- Official deaths were 379; Congress estimated over 1,000
- Tagore renounced his knighthood, he did not receive one for this
- Gandhi called the Rowlatt Satyagraha miscalculation a Himalayan blunder
- The Rowlatt Act was passed in March 1919
- Its official name was the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act
- The Act followed a committee headed by Justice Sidney Rowlatt
- It permitted arrest without warrant and detention without trial
- It allowed trials without jury and without right of appeal
- Indians summed it up as no vakil, no dalil, no appeal
- Every elected Indian member of the council voted against the Act
- Gandhi called the Rowlatt Act a Black Act
- Gandhi called a nationwide hartal on 6 April 1919
- The hartal was the first all-India mass protest led by Gandhi
- Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal were arrested on 9 April 1919
- Amritsar was handed to Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer
- The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on 13 April 1919
- The day of the massacre was the Baisakhi festival
- Jallianwala Bagh had only one narrow entrance, which Dyer blocked
- Dyer ordered firing without any warning to the crowd
- The firing lasted about ten minutes and used around 1,650 rounds
- Official figures recorded 379 deaths
- The Congress estimated over one thousand killed
- Michael O'Dwyer was the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab in 1919
- Lord Chelmsford was the Viceroy of India at the time
- Martial law was imposed across Punjab after the massacre
- The crawling order forced Indians to crawl along an Amritsar lane
- The Hunter Committee is also known as the Disorders Inquiry Committee
- The Hunter Committee was chaired by Lord William Hunter
- The Hunter Committee censured Dyer but recommended no legal action
- Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest
- Shankaran Nair resigned from the Viceroy's Executive Council
- Gandhi drafted the Congress inquiry report on the massacre
- Edwin Montagu called the massacre preventive murder
- Gandhi called his Rowlatt Satyagraha miscalculation a Himalayan blunder
- Udham Singh shot Michael O'Dwyer in London in 1940
- The massacre led directly to the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920