History of 'Rowlatt Act' - 'Jallianwala Bagh' - ‘Na Vakil Na Dalil Na Appeal’ - "Na appeal, na dalil, na vakil"

History of 'Rowlatt Act' - 'Jallianwala Bagh' - ‘Na Vakil Na Dalil Na Appeal’ - "Na appeal, na dalil, na vakil"

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020413/windows/main1.htm

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After the First World War, the Government felt the need for replacing the Defence of India Act, an emergency measure to suppress political movements in India that could have hampered the war effort. In December, 1917, the Government of India named Sir Sidney Rowlatt of the King’s Bench to recommend legislation to curb sedition. He recommended two Bills, commonly known as "Rowlatt Acts". One of these became law. When the Imperial Legislative Council passed this Bill, all Indian members voted against it. Three of them, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Mazarul Haque, and M.A. Jinnah, resigned.

This law empowered the Government to arrest and search people and property without warrant, to detain anyone without trial, and to try people before special courts where there was no right to appeal.

The memorial at Jallianwala Bagh

The Act raised a storm of protest the kind of which India had not seen before. The law was summed up in the cryptic phrase, "Na appeal, na dalil, na vakil". The movement against it was the most acute in Sir Michael O’Dwyer’s Punjab.

In Amritsar, the spirit of the people found expression in a combination of two leaders, Dr Saif-ud-Din Kitchlew, a Cambridge educated Muslim lawyer, and Dr Satyapal, a middle class Hindu who had held the King’s Commission for one year during the war.

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http://tfmpage.com/forum/archives/15590.6859.02.29.28.html

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(Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, is mostly remembered today as the one of the
two persons (the other one being Dr.Satyapal) whose arrest, along with the
notorious Rowlatt Act, was the reason the ill-fated Jallianwala Bagh meeting was
held on Baisakhi Day(April 13th) 1919- the meeting that ended with that gruesome
carnage by General Dyer.
Dr. Kitchlew originally hailed from a Brahmin family of Baramulla in
Kashmir. His ancestor, Prakash Ram Kitchlew embraced Islam. Many Kashmiri
Muslims migrated to Amritsar during the famine that struck Kashmir in 1871.
Saifuddin’s grandfather, Ahmed Jo was amongst them. Saifuddin’s father was a
prosperous merchant, trading in pashmina and saffron. Saifuddin studied medicine
at Cambridge and married the daughter of Mian Hafeezullah Manto, a lawyer.
Saifuddin started the Amritsar branch of the All India Muslim League in 1917- at
that time many Congressmen were also members of the Muslim League.
In 1919, Dr. Saifuddin organized a series of meetings to harness public
opinion against the Rowlatt Bills. His cry ‘Na Vakil Na Dalil Na Appeal’ became
a popular refrain against the bill. Gandhiji made him the president of the
Satyagraha Sabha. When Dr.Saifuddin brought about a remarkably united show of
Hindu-Muslim strength on Rama Navami day, April 9th, 1919, he, along with
Dr.Satyapal, was arrested and deported to Dharmashala. The Jallianwala Bagh
meeting was organised as a protest, and in the aftermath of that ghastly
bloodbath, Dr.Saifuddin was named as the first accused in the Amritsar
Conspiracy Case, and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, the overwhelming
public opinion in his favour secured his release.
Dr. Saifuddin was honoured by the Akal Takth in 1924. He became the
President of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee. He was among the founder
members of the Jamia Milia Islamia. He was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize in
1954.)

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