द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

CHAPTER I
THE CLOUDS GATHER (1920)
THE annual session of the Indian National Congress met at
Amritsar in the Punjab in December 1919, under the shadow
of the atrocities perpetrated there earlier in the year. In spite
of the opposition of Mr. C. R. Das, Mr. B. C. Pál and Mr.
B. Chakravarti, the Bengal leaders, a resolution was passed
in favour of working the New Constitution (called the
Government of India Act, 1919) and thanking the Secretary
of State for India, Mr. Montagu, who had played so im-
portant a part in launching it. Mr. Gandhi, who had been
largely responsible for the decision arrived at by the Amritsar
Congress, welcomed the Royal proclamation announcing the
assent to the Government of India Act, 1919, and in his
weekly paper, Young India, he wrote on December 31st,
1919: 'The reforms Act coupled with the Proclamation is an
earnest of the intention of the British people to do justice
to India and it ought to remove suspicion on that score. . . .
Our duty therefore is not to subject the Reforms to carping
criticism but to settle down quietly to work so as to make
them a success.'
But during the next nine months events moved with
dramatic suddenness. What actually happened can best be
described in the words of Mr. Gandhi himself. When he was
tried by a British Judge, Mr. Broomfield, in March 1922, for
writing seditious articles in his paper, Mr. Gandhi made a
remarkable statement in the course of which he explained
why after having co-operated with the British Government
all his life, he was ultimately forced to turn against it. Therein
he said: 'The first shock came in the shape of the Rowlatt
Act, a law designed to rob the people of all real freedom. I
felt called upon to lead an intensive agitation against it.
Then followed the Punjab horrors beginning with the massacre
at Jallianwalla Bagh (in Amritsar) and culminating in crawling
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