TheSedition Committee, usually known as theRowlatt Committee, was a committee of inquiry appointed in 1917 by theBritish Indian Government withSidney Rowlatt, an Anglo-Egyptian judge, as its president, charged with evaluating the threat posed toBritish rule by therevolutionary movement and determining the legal changes necessary to deal with it.
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The purpose of the Rowlatt Committee was to evaluatepolitical terrorism in India,[1] especially in theBengal andPunjab Provinces, its impact, and the links with the German government and theBolsheviks in Russia.[2][3] It was instituted towards the end of World War I when the Indian revolutionary movement had been especially active and had achieved considerable success, potency and momentum andmassive assistance had been received fromGermany, which planned to destabilise British India.[4] These included supporting and financing Indian seditionist organisationsin Germany andin United States as well as a destabilisation in the political situation in neighbouringAfghanistan followinga diplomatic mission that had attempted to rally the Amir of Afghanistan against British India. Attempts were also made by theProvisional Government of India established in Afghanistan following the mission to establish contacts with theBolsheviks. A further reason for institution of the committee was emerging civil and labour unrest in India around the post-war recession - such as the Bombay mill worker's strikes and unrest in Punjab[citation needed] - and the1918 flu pandemic that killed nearly 13 million people in the country.[5]
The evidence produced before the committee substantiated the German link, although no conclusive evidence was found for a significant contribution or threat from the Bolsheviks. On the recommendations of the committee, theRowlatt Act, an extension of theDefence of India Act 1915, was enforced in response to the threat in Punjab and Bengal.[2]
The agitation unleashed by the acts culminated on 13 April 1919, in theJallianwala Bagh massacre inAmritsar, Punjab when the Brigadier-GeneralReginald Dyer, blocked the main entrance to theJallianwallah Bagh, a walled-in courtyard in Amritsar, and ordered hisBritish Indian Army soldiers to fire into an unarmed and unsuspecting crowd of some 6,000 people who had assembled there in defiance of a ban. A total of 1,650 rounds were fired, killing 379 people (as according to an official British commission; Indian estimates ranged as high as 1,500.[6][full citation needed])
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| Background |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Ghadar | ||
| Berlin Committee | ||
| Indian figures | ||
| German figures | ||
| Conspiracy | ||
| Counter-intelligence | ||
| Related topics | ||