hese occurrences was the so-called
"Amritsar Massacre," where British troops fired into a seditious
mass-meeting, killing 500 and wounding 1500 persons. In the end the
government mastered the situation. Order was restored, the seditious
leaders were swept into custody, and the revolutionary agitation was
once more driven underground. The enactment of the Montagu-Chelmsford
reform bill by the British Parliament toward the close of the year did
much to relax the tension and assuage discontent, though the situation
of India was still far from normal. The deplorable events of the earlier
part of 1919 had roused animosities which were by no means allayed. The
revolutionary elements, though driven underground, were more bitter and
uncompromising than ever, while opponents of home rule were confirmed in
their conviction that India could not be trusted and that any relaxation
of autocracy must spell anarchy.

This was obviously not the best mental atmosphere in which to apply the
compromises of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms. In fact, the extremists
were determined that they should not be given a fair trial, regarding
the reforms as a snare which must be avoided at all costs. Recognizing
that armed rebellion was still impossible, at least for the present, the
extremists evolved the idea known as "non-co-operation." This was, in
fact, a gigantic boycott of everything British. Not merely were the new
voters urged to stay away from the polls and thus elect no members to
the proposed legislative bodies, but lawyers and litigants were to avoid
the courts, taxpayers refuse to pay imposts, workmen to go on strike,
shopkeepers to refuse to buy or sell British-made goods, and even pupils
to leave the schools and colleges. This wholesale "out-casting" of
everything British would make the English in India a new sort of
Pariah--"untouchables"; the British Government and the British community
in India would be left in absolute isolation, and the Raj, rendered
unworkable, would have to capitulate to the extremist demands for
complete self-government.

Such was the non-co-operation idea. And the idea soon found an able
exponent: a certain M. K. Gandhi, who had long possessed a reputation
for personal sanctity and thus inspired the Hindu masses with that
peculiar religious fervour which certain types of Indian ascetics have
always known how to arouse. Gandhi's propaganda can be judged by the
following extract from one of his speeches: "It is