Correct Answer - Option 2 : The Rowlatt Act
The correct answer is The Rowlatt Act.
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The Rowlatt Act (Black Act) was passed on March 10, 1919, authorizing the government to imprison or confine, without a trial, any person associated with seditious activities.
- This led to nationwide unrest. Gandhi initiated Satyagraha to protest against the Rowlatt Act.
- Under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer, soldiers opened fire on a large number of people gathered at Jallianwala Bagh on 13 April 1919.
- It was estimated that over 1,000 people lost their lives and another 1,500 people were injured in the firing.
- Apart from the main entrance, there was no way for the crowd to escape the garden as the area was surrounded by buildings. This is a major reason for the high number of casualties.
- Jallianwala Bagh Massacre is also called the Massacre of Amritsar.
- Tagore was awarded the knighthood by King George v in1915, but he repudiated it in 1919 as a protest against the Amritsar (Jallianwala Bagh) Massacre.
- He is sometimes referred to as “the Bard of Bengal”.
- After this massacre, Gandhi began his first large-scale and sustained nonviolent protest (satyagraha) campaign, the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22).
- Lord Lytton passed the Vernacular Press Act in 1878.
- By this act, the magistrates of the districts were empowered, without the prior permission of the Government, to call upon a printer and publisher of any kind to enter into a Bond, undertaking not to publish anything which might “rouse” feelings of disaffection against the government.
- The Arms Act, 1959 that deals with the regulation of arms in India.
- The Act defines arms to include firearms, swords, and anti-aircraft missiles.
