Satyagraha Sabha

Gandhi returned to Ahmedabad. He was recouping his health there when he read in the papers the Rowlett Committer’s report which had just been published.

This report recommended the introduction of amendments to the criminal law. These recommendations startled Gandhi. He described them as” Unjust, subversive of the principles of liberty and justice, and destructive of the elementary rights of individuals.”

Friends approached Gandhi for guidance.

“Something must be done,” he said to them,” If the proposed measures are passed into law, we ought to do a Satyagraha.”

Gandhi was sorry he was in poor health, else he would have put up resistance against the amendments alone. From his sickbed he wrote articles for the Indian papers explaining that the proposed bill was an act tyranny. No self-respecting people could submit to it.

Gandhi thought that the only possible step against the government’s proposal would be to start the Satyagraha movement in right earnest. A meeting of some of the leaders was called at the ashram and a Satyagraha pledge was drafted. It was signed by all those present there.

Gandhi did not believe that the existing institutions could handle such a noble weapon. So a separate institution named Satyagraha Sabha was formed, its headquarters were in Bombay.

There were agitations everywhere against the Rowlatt Committee’s report. But the government was determined to give effect to its recommendations, and in 1919 the Rowlatt Bill was introduced. When the bill was debated in India’s Legislative Chamber. Gandhi attended as a visitor.

In spite of the opposition from national-minded people, the bill was passed and it became law.