RAS question
The 'Rowlatt Act' of 1919 was also known as the 'Black Act' because it:
Correct answer: (D) Allowed detention without trial and suppressed civil liberties.
The Rowlatt Act of 1919 was called the Black Act because it allowed detention without trial and suppressed civil liberties.
Explanation
The Rowlatt Act, formally the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919, gave the British government power to arrest and imprison people suspected of terrorism without trial for up to two years. That is why it was remembered as the Black Act: it attacked basic civil liberties and removed the ordinary safeguard of a trial before punishment. The Act was not about language, taxation or territorial reorganisation; its core issue was executive power over personal liberty. Its link to widespread protests and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre shows why it became a major marker of colonial repression in modern Indian history.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The Act is grounded here in detention without trial, not in any restriction on Indian languages in courts.
- (B) The Act involved coercive arrest and imprisonment powers, not a fiscal measure against Indian merchants.
- (C) Dividing Bengal was a territorial-administrative issue, whereas the Rowlatt Act concerned detention without trial and civil liberties.
Concept
This tests colonial repressive legislation and civil liberties in the modern Indian national movement. It recurs in RAS because the Rowlatt Act links law, protest and the escalation of anti-colonial politics.