ROWLATT ACTS

(February 1919), legislation passed by the government of India over the unanimous opposition of all nonofficial Indians of the Imperial Legislative Council. They allowed certain political cases to be tried without juries and internment of suspects without trial. Their object was to replace the repressive provisions of the wartime Defence of India Act (1915) by a permanent law. They were based on the report of Justice S.A.T. Rowlatt's committee of 1918. The Rowlatt Acts were much resented by an aroused Indian public. Mahatma Gandhi organized a protest movement that led directly to the Amritsar massacre (April 1919) and to his Noncooperation movement (192022). The acts were never actually used.